Blue Abyss: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 3 (The Timewalker Chronicles) (35 page)

There was only one option. If she’d truly chosen another male, a worthy male, he would let her go. He looked up to find a curious expression on Teagh’s face. “Can you heal her? Protect her?”

“Yes.”

He nodded before leaning over and kissed her, softly. So very softly. “I’m so sorry.”

She shook her head and closed her eyes as silent tears streamed from their corners and slid down, past her temples, to disappear into her silky black hair. “Kiss me for real.”

Raiden did, with every ounce of love he could pull from his battered, broken heart. He lost himself in the kiss for a moment in time, and then he felt it. A tug. A bit more. Warmth spread through him followed quickly by a flood of hot relief and guilt.

She was pulling the foul stench of the Triscani from his body, from his spirit. And she was connecting them once more. Heaven for him. Hell for her. “Stop.”

“Shhh.” She held his head, fingers like steel beams locked in his hair, her lips pressed to his as she pulled the ugly remnants of the evil power from his body. Her skin, pale from blood loss, turned greenish, then gray, and still she did not release her hold. She kissed him. Held him like he was the only thing in the world that mattered to her.

He waited, poised to strike, to send his energy coiling through the new link she had created between them, thin as a thread and just as fragile. Linked, he could heal her.

He didn’t get the chance. Physically, he was healed. Perfect. Ready to do battle.

She lay in his arms, feeble, lethargic. “Give me the soul stone. It’s in my pocket.” The order was directed at Teagh, who knelt beside them and pulled the inert stone from her pocket. He placed the black stone in her blood-covered hand.

“You don’t need to do this now, my lady.” Teagh’s tone was deep, and filled with respect. He curled her fingers around the soul stone and held her small fist safely within his own.

“Now or never.” Mari closed her eyes. Lights welled up from within her, circled under her skin. They traveled in a swirling train of energy, flowed from her body to her hand. Lights danced from her skin to Teagh’s. Her fist glowed, the light a bright reddish orange that shone through the flesh of Teagh’s gentle hold.

It was over in seconds. Mari’s skin once more cold and gray. Mari opened her eyes and presented Teagh with her blood-covered gift. The stone with a piece of a powerful Immortal’s soul safely tucked inside.

She’d been the one to activate the stone on his ship because she’d created it in the first place, over a hundred years in Raiden’s past. “Raiden believed the stone hidden on his ship contained a piece of your Lost King’s soul. Droghan believed the same. The Seer, Celestina, told Gerrick this stone belonged to the Lost King, and it may, but it does not hold a piece of his soul.”

Teagh looked to Raiden for an explanation, but Raiden shook his head. Teagh looked back at Mari. “Then whose soul does it contain?”

“I don’t know. But that is the soul of a woman, and even that small piece of her is very powerful.”

“His Queen.” Teagh stared at the stone, clearly shocked. “It must belong to his Queen. He can use it to find her before Droghan.”

Raiden listened with half an ear. Mari was bleeding to death in his arms and they were talking in circles. There was no way to know who the mystery woman in the stone was. Mari had carried the Remnant soul. If she didn’t know who it belonged to, no one did. “Mari. Focus. Heal yourself now. We can figure out the stone later.”

“I can’t. The energy isn’t answering me.”

“Try.” Raiden was in a near panic. “You Marked Teagh. Pull power from him. Or take what you need from me.”

Mari actually smiled, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. “‘
Do or do not, there is no try.’
Don’t you know the rules?”

Teagh smiled back at her, a very male spark of interest in the other man’s gaze. “Yoda is not, and never will be, my master.”

Mari laughed, then choked, the sound a horrible gurgle. Teagh rose, cradling the stone and Raiden saw, to his amazement and relief that the faint Mark that had been on Teagh’s shoulder was fading.

Perhaps the soul she carried had made the Mark. Not fate or the gods, or any other entity he had no chance of fighting against. Teagh had been Marked by her because somehow, she’d touched his soul. Now the bastard could damn well give it back.

But why was his own Mark gone?

Hellsfire. Fuck that. He’d go get inked and keep her anyway.
She. Was. His.
His to protect. His to heal. His to love. And he did love her. Too damn much.

Shaking, he lifted a hand to her cheek and held her face to his chest. Her chest was a gaping hole. Blood everywhere. Her heartbeat so faint, so slow he could no longer hear it despite his Immortal mother’s enhanced senses. And she was cold. Too cold. “Heal yourself, Marina. Take anything you want from me. Take my life, if that’s what is required. I don’t care. Just heal yourself. Now.”

Pain crept into her gaze and she finally, finally looked at him. Looked
through
him. Saw his soul as only a healer could, a woman with the power to hold souls in her hands and roll them around and inspect them, mold them like clay. “I love you. No regrets.”

“Stay with me.” Raiden imagined the Shen reappearing on his body, willed it to return, and envisioned it burning into his flesh.

Nothing.

“Teagh, you must tell Celestina and Bran there is a traitor on her ship. She gave me a disk to summon her.” Mari closed her eyes with a sigh, a sad smile on her face as she looked up at Raiden. “Tell him about Katherine.”

“You tell him.”

“No. Too tired. Chasing dreams. And the Triscani in me? That bitch you call a Queen? Part of her should die here.” The bond, the thin thread she’d used to heal him didn’t snap or rip from his soul, it faded away like smoke drifting on a breeze, insubstantial and weak, it slipped through his grasp, took her heat and her heart with it.

Reaching for her in his mind, he tried to talk to her. To feed her the will to fight. To live. He couldn’t connect. And why would she fight to stay with him now? He’d never once fought for her. He’d been selfish and blind, too absorbed in his own pain to see hers. And now she wasn’t there. There. Was. Nothing. “Mari!”If she would just let him in, connect them once more, he could heal her. He
would
heal her. By the gods, if Tim could borrow lightning from Sarah, he could find a way to use Mari’s power to heal her.

No pulse.

She was gone.

Teagh stood over him now. “You’ve got less than three minutes to get your shit together or she’s gone forever.”

“Can you heal her? Yes or no?” Raiden thought of Tim, of the lightning in his eyes. Tick-tock. Tick-tock.

“If she carried a piece of my soul, I could have found her anywhere. I could have bound her soul in the Dark. I might have been able to keep her, make the soul Mark permanent. But I am not a healer.”

“She’s the healer.”

“Yes. A very powerful one. Borrow that power. You are hers. You carry her Mark.”

“I did. Not anymore.”

“Idiot. Give her to me. I have been tracking her soul in the Dark since her heart stopped beating. I will try to carry her Mark once more, call her back from the Gates.”

Raiden saw red. He looked up from Mari’s delicate features to watch Teagh remove his shirt and turn away. There, on Teagh’s left shoulder, was the faint outline, the bare traces, of a Mark. Mari’s Mark? A soul Mark? Carry her Mark? Belong to Mari forever?

“No.”

“Give her to me. Once I fully bond to her, I will borrow her power and heal her completely.” Teagh squatted down beside them and held out his arms. “Give her to me. Skin-to-skin contact aids in the energy transfer. I’ll need you to help me remove her clothing.”

No. He couldn’t allow it. Raiden shoved Teagh’s hands away. “Touch her again and I’ll end you.”

“You do not carry her Mark. You cannot bond to her. You cannot save her. You would choose death for her?”

By the gods, Teagh was right. Tim was right. Mari was right. He was a selfish bastard, because watching Teagh touch her would hurt almost as much as watching her die. Almost.

Teagh shook his head. “No. Don’t answer that. Right now, I only care about Marina. Don’t make me kill you, half-blood. I’ve shared a soul bond with her for the last few hours. I felt her pain. I assume, from the look on your face when you saw her Mark on my shoulder, that you’re the source of her anguish.”

“I was a fool.” How could he argue with the man when Mari’s Mark was on Teagh’s flesh now, and not his own? But Teagh’s Shen wasn’t dark, couldn’t be permanent. Mari hadn’t chosen Teagh, the soul stone had forged a temporary connection. It wasn’t destiny. And the Immortal bastard didn’t know Mari at all, had never even met her. Teagh didn’t love her. Didn’t know how brave and stubborn she was. Had never tasted her kiss.

And yet, they wasted precious time arguing while Mari’s heart and soul drifted farther and farther out of reach.

“Obviously. Young, stupid mortals. Never appreciate the true value of what they’re given. I’ve been alone for ten centuries. Now I carry her Mark. I would not be so foolish as you.” Teagh rose and walked to a sliding glass door. “Fine. I’ll return her Mark. Bring her outside, half-blood. Let’s ask her mother to heal her, as she ought. And then the healer can decide.”

Raiden wasn’t sure what Teagh meant by that, but he rose and carried Mari out of the house to a rocky beach. It wasn’t that he didn’t want Mari, he’d always wanted her. “I love her, but I was carrying the souls of several Triscani and the Queen’s Remnant. That’s why I couldn’t accept her Mark.”

Teagh looked back over his shoulder, one eyebrow raised. “You were Marked by the most powerful healer I’ve ever encountered, a master of the stones, and you didn’t think to simply ask her to remove the Remnant’s soul from you? She could move them all to another stone, lock them away.” Teagh’s expression let Raiden know he was not just a fool, he was a monumental idiot. “She could rip that Remnant from your soul like a child tearing the wings off a butterfly.”

Tim had asked what he would do to keep Mari safe. Anything. He’d do anything to heal her, but was he strong enough to give her up, to watch her find pleasure and peace in another man’s arms? Did the Mark on Teagh’s arm mean that Mari would be better off with the Immortal, with a male who knew how her power worked? A mate who could teach her more about her place in the world?

“Carry her to the water.” Teagh issued the order like a king to a cockroach, but Raiden didn’t care. The moment his bare skin hit the water he knew this was the right decision, the right place for Mari to be. In the water. In the arms of Mother Earth, with the energy of her home world filling her up, flowing through her. Singing to her soul.

He could hear the pulse of the planet. “Mother Earth” the humans called their home world.

And She sang to him, too.

Calf deep in the lapping waves he knelt in the sand and placed Mari on her back so the water could flow up and around her. He knew what needed to be done now. He looked up to find Teach watching him, arms crossed. Curiosity, not alarm on his face. Nor lust. Nor desire to take what was his.

What did the bastard know that Raiden did not? Why wasn’t he screaming with urgency? Why wasn’t Teagh raging against the fates that would threaten to take Mari from them?

Because Mari wasn’t Teagh’s to protect, or worry about, or make love to. She wasn’t Teagh’s to live or die for.
She was his.

“I’m keeping her.”

“I can see that. Good luck.”

Raiden pulled Mari deeper into the water so she floated in his arms. The waves hummed with energy up to his chest and he cradled her head on his shoulder, fanning her black hair out into the water like a fairy-tale mermaid’s. Gods, she was so fucking beautiful. So perfect. So dead.

He glared at Teagh, who hadn’t moved from the beach. “There’s an envelope in my bag. Inside is a photograph of a woman named Katherine. If she dies, the Black Gate falls. A human Seer, a Timewalker, had the vision. You must find her soon. Use my telephone to call Tim. He’s a Timewalker’s Marked and trusted friend. He’ll help you to locate her. That’s all I know.”

Teagh opened his mouth, his lips moved, formed words, but Raiden wasn’t listening. More. There was more he needed to say. “Nanos burrowed into my skull behind my right ear. It has my recorded history of the first battle, and the Crux that cost the Timewalkers their victory over the Triscani. The Gates will open for the first time in a few weeks. I came from over a hundred years in your future. A future of war and death and Triscani victory on Earth. You can prevent that. You’ll find details about the war, and the battle that brought me here. If the Timewalkers are going to win this time, they’re going to need access to that data. If I don’t come back, cut it out. Give it to Tim. Help him find some tech to read it.”

Teagh nodded as Raiden gave him the access code, in sequence. Raiden made the male repeat it back to him. Done. Teagh kept talking, his hands moving to emphasize his words, but Raiden could no longer hear him.After a few seconds Teagh scowled in silence, but it wouldn’t have mattered if he’d shouted. Raiden heard nothing but the waves, and the wind, and the pulse of Earth’s core.