The Messenger: Mortal Beloved Time Travel Romance, #1 (14 page)

I
touched
down on the ground, soft as a feather.

My eyes fluttered open. “Sa. Ta. Na. Ma.” Angeni twirled next to me in her tiny, dark hut. I lay on the floor. I felt something light and ticklish on my chest, reached for it, and felt feathers, bones. I lifted Angeni’s gorgeous necklace up in the air. It reminded me of the bird, but that wasn’t possible.

Angeni stopped twirling, sighed, and took her necklace from me. “You are back.” She stroked my cheek. “Why did you take the dark medicine?”

“What’s the dark medicine?” I rubbed my head. “Is this what a hangover feels like?”

“No. It is what nearly dying from poison feels like,” Angeni said. “You traveled. But you did it with poison, and it almost killed you. If you travel with the dark medicine, and do not return, you vanish. Forever. No infinity. No re-birth. Bringing you back this time was much more difficult than the other times. Do not do this again.” She frowned and tucked her necklace away under the bench with the furs on top.

“But I was worried about Samuel and—”

“And what? Decided to heap more anguish upon his soul, than he already experiences? He loves you. He knows this is a nearly impossible love. But Samuel loves purely.”

I flashed to that awful sight of him being whipped. “Is he okay?”

“He will heal.” She reached for her medicine bag. “Who gave you the dark medicine?”

“Oh. Um.” If I told her that it was Tobias, he would not only get in trouble, but he would cause even more for me. I would deal with Tobias on my own. But not until my head stopped spinning, and my stomach felt less queasy.

“I think I already know who. The same person who told the Reverend about the necklace Samuel made for you.” Angeni handed me some leaves. “Chew on these. They will help your stomach sickness.”

“Tobias told the Reverend?” I asked.

She nodded. “Who else? Samuel only shared his feelings about you and making your totem necklace with Tobias and myself. The only people he trusts.”

My totem necklace? Tobias had ratted us out to the Reverend knowing full well Samuel would be whipped?

Angeni kissed me on my cheek. “You are a good girl. Daniel will escort you to Elizabeth’s home.” She opened the skins to her hut, and there was Daniel, plain as day.

“You missed the courier!” Daniel exclaimed. “General Jebediah and our troops return tomorrow. There was a bloody battle. Not everyone survived. There are wounded.”

“Then, there is much to prepare.” Angeni pulled a fur pelt from under the bench and wrapped it around her shoulders. I spotted her necklace and some deerskin clothes.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“A stubborn young man refuses to leave that horse. But he needs food and medicine. As well as news about you.”

D
aniel
and I walked through the garrison. It wasn’t nighttime yet, but I guess Angeni wanted him to accompany me in case I pitched over dead. I asked him to tell me what it was like to guard the gates. That made him happy. He went into detailed explanation while I thought about my next step.

Telling the Reverend and destroying my necklace was awful. Maybe Tobias didn’t think Samuel would be physically punished. After all, I wasn’t. Maybe in all fairness, Tobias hadn’t meant to poison me.

Maybe he just wanted me to travel. Leave this place, this time. Leave him, Samuel, and everyone else alone. But I didn’t really believe that. I think Tobias was planning more evil. And I needed to know what that was.

Tomorrow the garrison would be filled with more people. There’d be increased commotion, but there would also be more eyes. There was no time. I realized what I had to do. And I had to do it tonight.

“That’s fascinating, Daniel,” I interrupted. Frankly, he could have been pontificating about hunchback whales, ’cause I’m not sure I heard a word he said. “We must go back to Angeni’s. I forgot the, uh, blanket that she wanted me to give Elizabeth.” The blanket that would hide everything I was going to borrow from Angeni.

Then, I had one more detour to check on Nathan. I knew he wouldn’t be in the barn. But I needed to stash what I had borrowed in the pile of blankets that lay on the floor in the corner.

O
nce Elizabeth heard
the news that her beloved Jebediah was alive and coming home, she finally relaxed. I waited until she slept soundly to sneak out of the house. I carried a small candle resting in a metal cup, and a tiny wooden bowl I’d filled with dirt.

I made my way quietly to the barn. Placed the candle on the ground far from anything that looked overtly flammable. I stripped off my dress, and dropped it onto the cold floor next to my feet. I wiggled out of the ridiculous undergarments, yanked the white cap from my hair, and tossed it on the heap of clothes.

I shivered and wondered; could I do this? I knew I was meant to be with one soul: Samuel. I was in love with him, and amazed he loved me in return—flaws and all.

I pulled on the buckskin breeches and tunic that I had borrowed from Angeni’s hut. I tied a black rag around my head, and shoved my hair up underneath it. I saw Angeni’s necklace lying on the floor, and I picked it up.

It was wild, and beautiful, and fierce. Exactly, how I needed to feel tonight. I knew it was Angeni’s totem. Mine had been destroyed. Maybe, she wouldn’t mind if I borrowed it—for just one night.

I draped it over my head and shoved Abigail’s clothes behind a bale of hay. When I returned in a couple of hours, I’d change into that costume, and go back to being a proper colonial girl. Right now—I wasn’t going to be all that proper.

I reached for the wooden bowl filled with the dark earth. Spat on my fingers and poked them into the clay. Pulled out dark chunks and rubbed them on my face, hands, and feet. I held up the candle in the metallic cup, and tried to view my reflection.

I didn’t look anything like Abigail in 1675, or Madeline in my real life. I wasn’t sure if I looked like a Messenger, a warrior, or a fool. Maybe all of them rolled into one person. Yeah. That sounded like me.

I still had anxiety, but I had to find out what Tobias was doing in the woods at night. What was he planning next? I could not let him hurt Samuel, ever again.

I took a deep breath, and squeezed out of the barn’s door.

I
crouched
barefoot against the side of the barn. A break in the thick cloud cover overhead revealed a new moon. I watched and waited for Tobias. It didn’t take that long.

He walked silently along the fence’s perimeter. How was he going to get past the guard? Daniel wasn’t on duty tonight. Was the guard in on his plot as well?

Tobias dropped to his knees next to a squat, sawed-off tree trunk. He eyeballed the area, searching for anyone who might be watching. I doubted he even considered looking for me, the colonial girl with delusions. The girl his best friend had fallen for. The girl he had poisoned.

Tobias pushed the tree trunk aside and dropped into a hole in the earth underneath it. His hand reached up as he pulled the trunk back over the hole. I waited a few moments, and followed him. He was obviously on a mission.

So was I.

I crouched and ran, pulled the trunk aside, and dropped into the hole. I found myself in an earthen tunnel propped up with tree branches. I couldn’t see its other end. I gritted my teeth, pulled the trunk back across its opening, and was in complete darkness.

I crawled on my stomach, pulling myself forward with my hands. I really hoped there weren’t bugs down here. What if this thing gave way, and I was buried alive in dirt?

I crawled for possibly the longest minutes of my life ’till I saw whispers of moonlight peeking through what looked like a thicket of weeds and skinny branches.

I wriggled forward, peered out, and spotted Tobias far away in the distance. I waited a long moment then pushed on the branches. They gave way easily, and I pulled myself out onto solid ground.

I
pursued
Tobias from as far away as I possibly could, without losing sight of him. I had an idea where he was going.

He walked quickly on a narrow dirt path that rimmed brown, battered, dying corn fields, that were probably once filled with tall, fresh crops planted and tended to by the Indian women, and eventually farmed by colonial men.

Recently, these fields had been beaten down in a battle during King Philip’s War. The bodies of the injured and dying men that fell here were both Native and colonists.

Despite the chilly weather, there was a reason I went barefoot. I didn’t want the sound of clunky shoes to give me away. When I tripped over something abandoned in the field, flew forward, but managed to stay upright.

The thing I tripped over wasn’t very big. It felt dense under my foot, a little gooey and crusty. The stench of rotting meat, with a pinch of sweetness hit my nostrils. I crouched to avoid keeling over. I peered at the thing I tripped on that lay right in front of me: it was dull and shiny all at the same time. I reached down, touched it, and rolled it over: it was the remains of a human arm.

I gagged and recoiled. I couldn’t see if the color of the skin was dark or light. It didn’t matter, because the sunlight would confirm this arm was gray, black, chewed on by animals, and devoured by insects. So much for societal differences and whose politics history had proven right.

Tobias headed toward the forest in the near distance. I knew it was crazy, and dangerous to be out here at night on my own, following a guy who hated me. Any moment, I could run into some of King Philip’s warriors and be taken hostage—like that preacher’s wife.

Most of the time, I was so far behind him, that I barely spotted his movements. Tracking and following him was far from easy. There were several times I thought I’d lost him for good, and wondered if I should give up my insane mission, and return to the safety of the garrison.

But then, the low clouds opened for spare moments, the moon shone, and I’d catch a glimpse of him far ahead of me. The chase was still on.

I followed Tobias for what seemed like an eternity, but was probably a little over a half hour. The wind picked up, the temperature plummeted, and I knew from living in Chicago that there was an early freeze on the way.

I wished I’d borrowed a fur wrap. By the time Tobias disappeared into the forest, I had to concentrate to keep my teeth from chattering, which would definitely blow my cover. I took a deep breath, and squeezed into its blackness.

Tracking Tobias in the woods was different from following him through the fields. The forest was darker, with towering fir and pine trees, leaves on the ground covering tree roots, and fallen branches which I could easily trip over.

Before taking each footstep, I thought what Samuel taught me:
walk with silence.
Let your feet sink into the earth with consciousness, and rise with lightness.
Be untraceable;
don’t bend branches, or flatten the leaves on the ground in a pattern from your weight. But, I was no expert at this yet. I tread quietly over thick tree roots covered with leaves. When, I spotted him.

Tobias squatted next to an enormous boulder resting half in a pond’s waters, and half on its shore.

I ducked behind a large tree trunk, and pushed one hand onto my chest, trying to force my anxious heart to still. I swear it pounded like ceremonial drums. I silently prayed ‘Please God, make my heart stop beating so flippin’ loudly before it gives me away.’

Tobias’s head swiveled in my direction. Did he see me? If so my spy days were over. He’d race to my side and confront me. I didn’t think we’d politely discuss why I was following him. Especially not with me wearing a Native American, Rambo-esque disguise.

The moon flitted out from under the clouds, and the sounds of the rushing river, and thundering cadence of the waterfall in the distance filled the forest. Tobias’s eyes narrowed as he looked away from where I hid, surveyed the land around him, then tilted his head back, closed his eyes and I swear; he sniffed the air.

I heard an animal cry in the near distance, but suspected that the call was made by a human to signal Tobias. He jogged, skirting the edges of the pond and headed toward the cliffs that lay between the pond and the river leading to the waterfall. I struggled to breathe quietly.

Tobias ran into an opening in the rocks, that led to the caves; a perfect place to meet someone in secret.

I kept low to the ground, raced to the boulder, and crouched behind it. I would wait here. I leaned back against it, and my feet sunk into the wet, pebble-filled sand. A paper-thin layer of ice grew on the pond’s surface.

The wind whipped up and howled as it ricocheted across the boulders. I don’t know how many minutes passed. My cheeks and earlobes stung. I shivered, hugged myself, and realized my breath was now visible in short, smoky puffs in front of my face.

When someone grabbed me around the throat from behind, ripped the rag off my head, and latched onto my hair.

My neck whiplashed, and my head bounced back. I screamed, but a large, rough hand clamped over my mouth.

“Hello, Madeline,” Tobias said.

I
tried
to bite his hand, but he just pressed it harder against my face and yanked me backward across the pebble-studded beach. I tried to kick him. But my legs flailed, my feet bouncing off stones. Change of plans—I dug my heels into the sand, and shoved my elbow into his ribs.

“Oof!” He kept dragging me.

I slipped my foot around his, tripped him, and we crashed onto the wet sand. He landed on his back—hard. My fall was softer, as I landed almost completely on top of him. His grip on my hair, throat, and mouth relaxed for moments, and we lay face to face.

“Why do you hate me?” I asked.

“Because you, and your mama, ruin everything.”

What did Mama have to do with any of this?
I pushed myself off him, and spun around to make a run for it.

He grabbed Angeni’s necklace, pulled it tight around my neck, and stopped me cold. “I’m going to kill you.” He wrapped the necklace taut into a stranglehold. “And I will welcome the pleasure it brings me.”

The shells bit into my skin, and I felt pinpricks of pain from each tiny puncture wound. A very old and deep emotion shifted inside me. After all I’d been through, I was not ready to be a willing victim, a lamb to the slaughter
.

In my head I heard Sophie say, “I want you to fight. I want you to stay alive. Do you hear me? Fight, Madeline.”

“Not without a fight,” I said, head butted him, and bit his ear, hard.

Tobias grunted in pain, but didn’t release his hold on the necklace. Our faces locked together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that were carved perfectly, made to fit into each other.

We tumbled across the rough, rocky sand onto the pond’s sheer layer of ice. It sounded like thin glass shattering, as we broke through it and sank, face to face, kicking and pummeling each other.

Underwater, everything appeared blue and icy. Tobias pulled me deeper into its depths. I yanked one of my arms free and clawed his face. He recoiled, and I broke out of his headlock.

My lungs felt like they were going to explode. Air bubbles escaped my mouth, as I kicked my way to the pond’s surface, splintered up through the ice, and rasped for breath. I pin-wheeled my arms and legs in reverse and half swam, half crashed, away from him.

Tobias’s head popped out of the pond’s surface, ice slivers clinging to his thick neck. We treaded water, and glared at each other, just yards apart.

He panted and touched his bleeding ear. He looked like a dangerous wounded animal.

“I know you love Samuel,” I said. “I do, too. In a different way.” My feet made contact with the pond’s bottom. Shivering, I dragged myself out of the water.

“You do not
know
Samuel. You could not
even dream
what this is about,” he said.

I made it onto the pond’s shoreline, pitched forward, and collapsed in the sand. “And, you don’t know anything about my mama. Don’t include her in any grudge you have against me.” Drenched, beat up, I watched him, wary, as he staggered out of the pond toward me.

“I know more about your mama than you ever will.” His eyes were dilated.

I pushed myself to standing and stumbled away from him.

He pulled his rabbit-skinning knife from a sheath on his belt.

I backpedaled.

“We were there when you and your mama had the car accident,” Tobias said.

“What?” I stopped and faced him. How could he know about that?

“We track you Messengers. We find where, and what year, you exist. Let’s see. Madeline Abigail Blackford. Sixteen-years-old. Student, junior year at Preston Academy in Chicago. Your mama disappeared after a car accident ten years earlier. Who do you think caused that accident?”

“I don’t know. They never found the person. Who are you?”

He laughed. “I am a Hunter. We make note of your pathetic Messenger lives. Keep track of how many times you’ve traveled and whom you deliver messages to. If you have changed anyone’s life, well, then you get a little more attention from my people. If you upset the balance, disturb the world’s equilibrium, or outlive your usefulness?
We destroy you.”

“You’re a freak,” I hissed.

“No. I am practical. Unlike you, Madeline. You are a weak, un-schooled Messenger, who does not deserve to live one minute longer, in any life that you unwittingly traveled to.”

Tobias raised his knife, and flung it with perfect aim toward my heart.

I gasped, heard my heart thump in my ears, the wind whistle, and I cringed as that knife flew through the air straight toward my chest.

There was a loud, angry roar.

Samuel leapt across the sand, wrapped his body around mine, and tackled me. We tumbled, rolling onto the sand. Tobias’s knife skimmed over us, clunked against a large rock, and landed next to Samuel, who picked up the knife and glared at Tobias.

“You know, she does not belong here,” Tobias said. “Does not need to exist in the future. The world will not miss her in any time period. She does not belong at all.”

“You are wrong. She belongs with me,” Samuel said. “No matter the year, no matter what spirit desires for us,
she will always belong with me
.”

“No! You and I will change the future,” Tobias said. “Hunter and Healer. Two halves of a whole. Hunters take out those who are wounded. Not necessary. Beyond redemption. Healers create better lives for those who deserve to remain.”

“That might have been your plan. But it was never mine. Your hatred, your fear, whatever this is. I loved you like a brother, Tobias. But this is over.” Samuel hurled the knife toward Tobias.

I hid my face against Samuel’s shoulder. Tobias cried out, grunted, and I heard him hit the ground hard. Samuel winced. His entire body tightened around me and seemed to contract for a moment.

“I am so sorry. So sorry,” I cried.

“I am, too,” Samuel said. “For everything.”

I sobbed uncontrollably. For Tobias, as well as the life I left behind. And for Mama—because for the first time, I realized—she had never planned to leave me.