The Time Keeper (The Guardians of Time Book 1) (20 page)

Chapter 26

Present Day, Ithaca

‘I have a whole load of new memories,’ Stacey said in awe.  ‘All this stuff over the last couple of years involving Dex.  He went to college – no surprises there – but he’s back home at the moment for the summer break.  He’s not with Trish anymore but he’s got a thing for a girl in his literature class.  Her name is Andrea; they study together but he’s not sure if she likes him too.  This is amazing!’

‘Yeah, I’ve got a few new ones too.’  The only way Emilia could describe it was that it was like all these missing cards were dropping into the stack at the appropriate intervals.  For her, it was just a few missing cards, times when she’d been around at Stacey’s and Dex hadn’t been there, but now he had.  For Stacey, there must be many cards that were now finally making up a full deck of fresh memories.

‘He likes Kevin.  That’s good,’ Stacey murmured, still lost in the new memories pouring in.

Emilia sat for a while, watching the expressions on Stacey’s face as she absorbed and processed the memories.  Eventually though, her stomach reminded her it was in dire need of sustenance, so she reluctantly slid off Stacey’s bed.  She needed to go and see Justin next, but first she’d go home and get something to eat.

‘I’m heading off, Stace.  I’ll call you tomorrow and we can go for coffee or something.’

‘Okay,’ Stacey responded vaguely.  As Emilia opened the door, she seemed to shake herself back to the present.  ‘Oh wait… good luck with Justin,’ she called out.

‘Thanks,’ Emilia replied and headed down the hall, past Dex’s room.  She smiled as she caught a brief glimpse of him sprawled on his bed with a book.  That was exactly how it was supposed to be.

*

Seb was pacing the kitchen when Emilia arrived home.  His hair was all awry, as if he’d run his hands through it countless times.

‘What have you done?’ he demanded in a low voice.

‘I…’ Emilia stammered.  How did he know?

‘Don’t bother lying to me.’  He grabbed her arm and pulled her after him into the sunroom, which was still warm from the day’s heat.  ‘You promised you would never lie to me again.’

‘I haven’t and I wasn’t going to.’  She looked down at her arm where he was holding her.  ‘I’m not going to run away, so you can let go of me now before I get bruises.’

He jerked his hand away like it was on fire, his face shaken.  ‘I’m sorry, Em.  I didn’t mean to hurt you.’

‘I know you didn’t.  I’m fine.’  Tipping her head to the side, she listened to the sounds in the house.  ‘Where’s Dad?’

‘He’s gone to get take out.  He thought you might not feel like cooking tonight.’  His eyes narrowed.  ‘Don’t change the subject.  I need to know what you’ve done.’

Emilia rolled her eyes and sat on one of the chairs, curling her legs underneath her.  ‘I wasn’t changing the subject.  I just wanted to check if Dad was around, because I’m not sure I want
him
to know what I’ve done.’

Seb grimaced and dropped down on the ottoman near her chair.  ‘It’s bad, isn’t it?  You went back in time by yourself and did something, didn’t you?’

Emilia bit her lip.  ‘How do you know I went back in time?’

‘We’re partners, Angel, which means there’s a sort of connection between us.’  He frowned.  ‘It’s hard to explain, but it’s like I felt a subtle tug late this morning and again about half an hour ago.  So please tell me before I go out of my mind… what did you do?’

‘I told Stace the truth, Seb, about everything.  I hated lying to her and I’m not very good at it anyway.  Besides, she deserved to know after I completely missed her birthday.’

‘Emilia –‘

‘She’s my best friend, Seb.  You don’t keep secrets from your best friend.  Secrets are destructive.’

‘And she believed you?’

‘Yes.  She was surprisingly good about it actually.’  She looked down and then told him the rest in a rushed whisper.  ‘And then I took her back to two years ago when her brother died and we made sure he didn’t die.’

Silence greeted her announcement.  Emilia looked up apprehensively.  Seb’s head was dropped in his hands, his shoulders hunched forward.  She wondered if he was angry, but figured he’d be yelling if he was.

‘What else was I supposed to do?’ she whispered.

‘Not that, Emilia.  Not that.’  His voice was muffled by his hands, but Emilia still heard the strain in it.  He lifted his head and gazed at her wearily.  ‘Some people are supposed to die.  That’s just the way the world is.’

‘Yeah, well sometimes the world sucks!’  She unwound her legs and leaned forward.  ‘This was the
right
thing to do.’

‘That’s not our decision, Em!’  Seb launched to his feet and shoved both hands through his hair, adding further to the mussed up effect.  ‘Do you think there aren’t people
I’d
like to go back and save? I haven’t, because we’re not meant to mess around with what we’ve been given.’

‘Who would you like to save, Seb?’  Emilia grabbed his hand and tugged him back down to the ottoman.  Their knees were almost touching and she stared into his eyes, searching the turmoil in their beautiful turquoise depths.

He looked away, gazing out through the window into the darkness.  ‘It doesn’t matter.’

‘Is it your family?’ Emilia pressed.

‘I really don’t want to talk about it, Emilia.  So just drop it.’  He turned back towards her and his face was devoid of all emotion.  ‘What you did was foolish, but it’s done now so…’ He shrugged.

‘Seb –‘  He was shutting her out and it hurt… really hurt.  She hadn’t realised how close she’d thought they’d become until he closed himself off again.’

He shook his head.  ‘The thing is, Em, I understand why you did it.  I get it.  You were lucky this time, you didn’t alter history irreparably and you didn’t get hurt.’  He rose to his feet again, pulling away from the grip she still had on his hand.  ‘But what we do is dangerous; you know that.  We’re partnered up for a reason and I need you to promise me you won’t ever travel through time again without me.’

‘Okay.  I promise,’ she said in a small voice, her eyes downcast.

‘Em… one day I might…’ he began haltingly.

Her head shot up.  ‘What?’

‘Are you kids ready for dinner?’ David called from the hall.  Emilia looked around to see him holding several bags aloft.  ‘I have Chinese.’

‘Great.  I’m starving!’ Seb responded with forced cheer.  He turned back to Emilia and held out his hand, pulling her to her feet.  ‘Come on, Angel.  Let’s go eat.’

‘But –‘

He pressed a finger to her lips.  ‘Later.’

She sighed and nodded.  ‘Are we okay?’ she murmured as she followed him down the hall to the kitchen.

‘As long as you stop scaring me out of my prime years, we’re good,’ he responded dryly.

Emilia giggled.  ‘I’ll do my best.’  Rounding the corner, she stared in amazement at the mountain of food on the table.  ‘Geez Dad, how many people are eating tonight?’

He look up sheepishly from the plates he was setting out.  ‘I couldn’t decide, so I went for a banquet.  We can always eat the leftovers for lunch.’

‘For the next three days,’ Seb quipped.

Emilia slid onto her seat and studied her father.  He looked drawn and his eyes had more lines around them than she remembered.  ‘Dad, have you been sleeping okay?  You look a little tired.’

‘Is that your way of saying I’m looking old?’ he teased.

‘No!  I’m concerned, that’s all.’

David helped himself to a Wan Ton and dipped it in sauce.  ‘I’ve got a new project on, so I’ve been working longer hours… burning the candle at both ends.  Nothing to worry about, honey.’

Emilia bit her lip, instantly feeling guilty.  ‘Sorry we woke you up so early this morning.’

‘Since I was expecting you home yesterday, I wasn’t exactly sleeping heavily anyway.  I was half listening for your arrival home, so it was a welcome wake up.’  David winked.  ‘Don’t go feeling bad about it.  Trust me, I know unexpected things happen on these missions but since it was your first real one, the father in me couldn’t help but be a little anxious.’

‘We would have text, but there was no signal in 1944,’ Seb joked.

‘Even if there had been, chances are Dad wouldn’t have checked his phone anyway… he’s much more comfortable in the dark ages!’ Emilia teased.

‘Laugh it up, you two,’ David growled good-naturedly.  ‘One day you’ll have children and you’ll understand.’

‘Not a chance!’ Seb muttered.

The banter continued throughout their meal and it was good to finally relax for a while.  But all too soon dinner was over and Emilia knew she couldn’t put off seeing Justin any longer.

*

‘Hi.’  Justin answered the door when she rang the bell, so once again Emilia was spared having to deal with his mother. 

‘How was Paris?’ he asked as he led her to his bedroom.

‘We found what we were looking for, but it took longer than expected,’ she prevaricated. 

‘Was it as romantic as they say?’  His voice was funny, a bit off.  He gestured for her to sit on his bed, but she was too nervous to sit still.  Instead she wandered around the room, examining his sports trophies, the few books he had on the bookshelf above his desk… anything to avoid looking at him.

‘Not when you’re stuck in dusty old libraries and government archives,’ she lied.  ‘We didn’t even have a chance to sightsee, although I did catch a glimpse of the top of the Eiffel Tower.’

‘Good for you,’ he said from the other side of the room.  ‘Are you going to look at me?’

‘Of course,’ she said brightly and winced at how fake she sounded.  She turned and leaned against the window frame.  Justin was standing with his hands shoved in his pockets, his shoulders hunched forward.  He looked resigned… sad.

‘You’ve come to break up with me, haven’t you?’ he said quietly.  ‘When you didn’t show at Stacey’s party, I figured you’d made your decision.’

‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered.

‘It’s okay.’  He shrugged awkwardly, not with his usual confidence.  ‘I’d kind of like to have a girlfriend who actually answers my calls once in a while.  Can I just ask why?  I thought we were pretty good together.’

Emilia wondered what to say.  He was making this so easy for her and she didn’t want to hurt him any more than she already had.  She pushed away from the wall and moved to sit on the side of his bed.  She patted the bedspread beside her and waited until he joined her.

‘Since school finished a lot of things have changed in my life,’ she began.  She turned, hooking one leg up on the bed so she could look at him straight on.  ‘You and I, it all seemed so right when we were at school but…  I’m not going to Stanford, Justin.  You’re probably going to think it’s crazy throwing away a Stanford future, but I’ve finally figured out what I want to do and I want to stay in Ithaca and go to university here.’

Justin looked at the floor.  ‘Kevin got in my face last night when you didn’t show.  He said I’d treated you like rubbish and he wasn’t surprised you were avoiding me.  He told me I need to stop thinking about myself all the time and take some time to get to know you properly.  He was right, Em.’  He lifted his head and gazed at her, his eyes shining with sincerity.  ‘You’ve changed lately, but that’s my fault – it’s like you’ve broken free of the shackles I had around you and you’re finally showing me who you really are.  I should have dug a little deeper and found the real you from the beginning, instead of turning you into arm candy.  I’m sorry, Em.’

‘It wasn’t so bad,’ she said gently.  ‘And it wasn’t all your fault either.  I let it happen; I let myself become what you wanted me to be.  But now I have to find out who I really am… and maybe you do too.’

He reached for her hand and curled his fingers around hers.  ‘I’m glad you’ve finally decided what you want to do.  Could we try the long distance thing, do you think?’ he asked hopefully.  ‘I’d like to show you I can be a better boyfriend.’

‘College should be about fun… and education, of course.  You’ll have more fun if you’re not tied down to a girl on the other side of the country.’  Justin’s face fell and she squeezed his fingers.  ‘How about we work on being friends first?  Let’s get to know each other for real and if we’re really meant to be together, it will happen when it’s supposed to and if we’re not, there are no messy ties to be cut, no hurt feelings.’

He smiled crookedly and it was sad enough that Emilia felt tears gathering in her eyes.  ‘That’s better than I was expecting.’

‘Really?’  She choked on a surprised laugh.

‘Yeah.  I thought you’d really let rip about how rotten I’ve been and banish me from your life forever.’

‘You’ll always have a unique place in my life – you were my first real boyfriend, Justin, which means I’ll never forget you.’

‘I know this is only going to confirm to you how arrogant I am, but I really like that I got to be the first.’  He grinned.

Emilia punched his arm.  ‘You would!’