Perilous Waters (39 page)

“I’ve never had these ideas before,” she said, yanking her arm free of him as she realized he probably meant Future-Jules. What right did he have, diving into her thoughts without being invited, anyway?

“Sorry,” he said, easily keeping up with her as she tried to storm ahead. “Being together like this… it’s too easy to go into your mind. I shouldn’t do that.”

“It’s okay,” she muttered, glancing up at him begrudgingly. “I guess, with the other me, you guys were in each other’s minds all the time.”

He gave her a curious glance. “It helps to be in sync,” he said, holding out his hand.

She took it, unable to stop her smile. “Where did Angie and Kaitlyn go?”

“You couldn’t hear Angie telling us to follow them into the woods,” he said. “See that little blue light? It’s Angie’s spell. She’s catching up with us.”

Julia heart sank. They really weren’t going to help these people.

“It’s wrong, Jules,” Ethan said, his eyes sympathetic. “I’m sorry.”

Angie’s face appeared through the hazy, gunpowder-filled air, with Kaitlyn right beside her.

“We’ve sealed the portal,” Kaitlyn said, creating another force field as several cannons blasted nearby buildings. “Voyage us home.”

“We don’t have enough magic,” Julia said.

“We don’t have a choice,” Kaitlyn said.

Angie exhaled, tension lining her face. “We didn’t rest much, but I can take us as far toward the present as I can. Maybe all the way, if you send me enough magic.”

“That’s good enough,” Kaitlyn said.

They were right, of course. Julia remembered the cryptic things the Fates had said about interfering with the world timeline. Whatever influence they had already made on Anne Bonny and her baby were bad enough. Their task was completed. She needed to focus on going home.

She squeezed her eyes shut and forced herself to tune out the terrified yells. After a moment she searched the shore. A fire raged within sight, casting an angry red glow against the night sky.

Ethan leaned down. Half of his face was cast in firelight, the other in darkness. “Leave here as fast as you can.”

Julia squeezed his fingers. “You have to go somewhere safe, until I can summon you.”

“I’ll go back to the lagoon. There were too many rocks offshore for the pirates to bring their ship in, and once they pillage the village, they will likely return to their hideout.” He released her fingers to cup her face in his palms. Julia’s breath caught at the touch. Before she could release her breath, his lips brushed against hers. A whirl of heated emotion spiraled through her heart, but he abruptly pulled back.

“Wait,” she called as he dashed into the darkness. She wanted to hold him tight, and tell him… tell him…

“You’ll have time for all the making out you want once we’re out of here,” Kaitlyn said. “Let’s go.”

Julia nodded, but images flashed through her mind of villagers being killed. And she with her power—power that she had used to go shopping with and finish homework with—shouldn’t she use it to help?

The magic formed between them. She ignored the nagging voice inside of her urging her to cast a spell of protection over the nearest homes.

Her eyes slid shut as the threads of time spread before them. Angie would find the one in their own timeline, the only one without them in it.

A shrill, helpless cry pierced the night.

It was a baby.

“Hurry up,” Kaitlyn said. “The longer I hold on to the threads, the less magic I’ll have to help you Voyage.”

The baby’s tiny cries grew louder as a woman begged in Spanish. Julia’s heart thundered in her chest. She felt her brows come together. She tried to force herself not to hear the baby’s screams. She tried to force the magic to come. Power sparked within her and fizzled out. All she could picture was that little baby. Even if the pirates didn’t find it, what if its mom died? How could they leave it like this?

With a frustrated cry she tore herself from the other girls and ran to the sound.

“What are you doing?” Kaitlyn yelled.

She ignored them, rushing toward a burning building. The cries grew louder. Heat surrounded her on all sides. The fire’s intensity staggered her, but she didn’t slow. “Illuminate,” she cried. She dropped to the ground at the sight of a huddled body. She coughed violently, her gaze streaming with tears as she turned the body over.

Blood covered the woman, most darkly at her neck. Her bloodied hands held tight to a baby. Even though her lips moved, her glazed eyes didn’t seem to be looking at anything.

“Get up,” Julia cried, trying to prop the woman up. “The house is on fire. Your baby!”

“
Mi bebe,
” the lady croaked, her lifeless gaze shifting to the side as her hands grew slack. “
Se llama… Carmen.
”

Julia tugged on the woman as forcefully as she could. She wriggled her hands beneath the woman’s arms and pulled, straining inch by inch across the floor. Everything was fire and unbelievable heat. Her lungs screamed with the need for fresh, unheated oxygen. Each painful breath caused her to wince against a burn in her chest and throat that gagged her. The baby cried louder, the shrill sound filling Julia with desperation. She couldn’t pull this lady out of a burning building fast enough, and the three of them were going to die if she didn’t do something.

“Restore,” she said, her hands releasing a gentle flow of white light, but the wounds on the woman’s neck weren’t affected… not at all…
oh no
… Julia shook her head at the sight of the woman’s slack face and half-opened, unblinking eyes. She couldn’t return people from the dead; she had learned that the hard way, and the thought slowed down the magic that poured from her hands.

The flow of magic stopped altogether as a fiery beam crashed down from the ceiling. She screamed as another beam fell. The whole building was going to collapse on top of them, and if not, the searing heat would burn them alive. The baby rolled in the woman’s slack hands, falling legs-first, one tiny foot coming loose from its blanket.

The lady was dead. But in her arms, the screaming baby declared its will to live with every fierce scream. Julia scooped the baby in her arms as a horrendous cracking sound drowned out even the baby’s terrible crying. She crouched, stopping to cast a force field around them. Her heart raced, fear and hopeless terror lacing each frantic beat in her chest.

She coughed through her next few breaths, crouching around the small bundle and rushing past flames to the doorway as the cracking, splintering sound became so loud she felt sure the whole world was tearing out from under her. Heat scorched her arms as her force field flickered in and out of view. She forced herself to run faster, and once she had cleared the threshold she kept running until the intense heat of the fire didn’t make her feel as though she were being barbecued alive.

Something clutched at her and she tried to wrench her arm free, coughing and choking on the black, sooty air filling her lungs.

“You idiot,” Kaitlyn yelled, gripping her more tightly, her nails digging into Julia’s flesh. “Do you know what would have happened to us if you’d have died in there?
We would be trapped in the past forever.
” She shoved her back with a sound of blatant disgust. “Do you ever think of anyone but yourself?”

Julia stumbled back. She couldn’t stop coughing. The baby wouldn’t stop screaming. The world wouldn’t slow down.

“Is that a baby?” Angie whispered.

Kaitlyn tugged both hands through her hair and spun around. “Moron. What did you plan on doing? Leaving it in the woods to be raised by wolves? Pirates are already storming the coast and we have to get out of here.”

A new wave of fear washed over her as she looked at the shoreline. Pirates scrambled toward them like crabs.

Julia held out her free hand. They needed to Voyage out of there.

“No, Julia,” Angie said gently, her hand pressing against Julia’s shoulder. “I’m sorry. We can’t save the baby. We aren’t supposed to tamper with the world’s timeline.”

“I can’t leave it,” she croaked, each word like blade in her windpipe.

“You have to,” Angie said, her large, sorrowful eyes shining in the dim night.

Julia swayed, feeling faint, but she held tight to the baby as pirates raced toward the town. Toward them.

“Freeze time,” Kaitlyn said. “Or get ready to blast some pirates.”

The girls took hold of her, but Julia couldn’t summon enough magic. She sank to the ground with the baby tight against her, breathing through charred lungs. Her stomach ached from coughing, her chest and throat felt torn apart.

“She can’t do it,” Kaitlyn said, turning to Angie. “Voyage us back to our own time, Angie.”

“She has to let go of the baby, otherwise we’ll bring it with us!”

Kaitlyn spun around, shoving her hands forward and blasting an oncoming pirate. “These pirates are going to kill us, do you understand?”

Angie’s lips parted. Julia could do little more than stare at the onslaught of men rushing toward them. They would never be able to blast that many people. If Angie didn’t Voyage them back, their magic would give out and they would die here.

Kaitlyn blasted another, and another. The two men nearest her stepped back in horror. “The witches! The ones from the cave.”

“They cursed our treasure,” another said.

Kaitlyn blasted a second pirate, then a third. She grabbed their arms and tried to make them invisible, but cursed. “I’m out of magic.” Her furious gaze lit on Julia. “Unless Angie has enough to get us out of here, we’re all screwed.” She grasped their hands. “Voyage us, I don’t give a rat’s ass whether we have the baby, but get us the hell out of here.”

“Let go of the baby,” Angie pleaded. “It’s wrong. It belongs in this timeline.”

“Here on the ground?” Julia said, forcing the words past her burnt throat. “Do you have a heart at all? It can’t only be about the magic. We’re still people. This is still a person!”

“You heard the Fates,” Angie said. “We’ve made enough mistakes already.”

“I’m not leaving this baby to die,” Julia rasped. “No way.”

Pirates shot at them and Angie threw up her hands, a force field appearing around them.

“Don’t waste your magic on that,” Kaitlyn demanded. “Get us out of here!”

“Julia, please,” Angie said through clenched teeth.

“I won’t put it down,” she said, holding the baby tighter. “It will
die
.”

Kaitlyn grasped her by the shoulders. “That’s not our problem.”

“What if I can’t Voyage us with you holding the baby?” Angie’s tone was less harsh, but no less forceful. “What if my power gives out?”

“Try,” Julia said, her voice little more than a dry, crackled breath. “Ethan said we could bring things we could carry.”

Angie’s lips parted but Kaitlyn said, “Give it up, Angie. You have to do it. I don’t really care what effect that kid has on the timeline, but Julia is not giving in and we’re out of time.”

Angie hesitated, but with another glance at the oncoming pirates she took their arms and drew in her power. Julia felt her friends’ emotions rush over her. Anger. Seething, raging anger. She didn’t think she had ever felt anger so powerful coming from Angie before.

“You’re too weak, Julia,” Kaitlyn said.

Julia gasped as Kaitlyn forced herself into her mind and wrenched a stream of magic from her. Her eyes flashed white as the threads of time appeared before them.

“I need your magic, Julia,” Angie said. “Kaitlyn has to keep the threads going.”

Julia clenched her teeth together and forced her magic to build, but she didn’t have the strength to command it to do anything.

“Rip the magic from her,” Kaitlyn said. “It’s more powerful if you use force, anyway.”

From beyond her, Julia felt an invading presence. What little magic she had surrendered against Angie’s will. She felt a click in time, the moment when Angie found the correct thread and latched on. The onslaught of pirates became a black and white image of the past, swirling from sight as other images took its place. Slaves and farmworkers, Spanish soldiers and horse-drawn carriages.

But the magic grew weaker and weaker. She felt the weight of the baby, and knew that Angie struggled to Voyage another entire human. Without being at full power, she might not be able to do it.

Angie’s ghostlike voice flowed through Julia’s mind.
I need… I need more…

The baby squirmed in Julia’s arms at first, but soon became more and more tranquil… as if the magic had a calming effect on it. Meanwhile, each little wriggling movement caused a bubble of panic inside Julia to grow. All she could think about was holding the baby securely. If she loosened her grip while they were Voyaging… if somehow the baby slipped from her grasp, it would be left in some unknown time period, alone and at the mercy of being found by someone—
if
it was found by someone.

“I-I can’t,” Angie cried amidst the swirling images of history whipping around them. Her fingers dug into Julia’s arm.

Julia forced out every drop of magic she could summon, sending it all to Angie. All the while she clutched the increasingly tranquil baby.

The meager trickle she offered wasn’t enough. With a sinking feeling she realized the whirling winds of time had slowed. Images of history that had before been spinning wildly now came to a stop. Color bled into the black and white world… and that meant Angie had stopped them sooner than she should have in their timeline.

Angie let out a strangled whimper, releasing their arms as she slumped to the ground.

Julia exhaled a shaky breath, gazing around at the darkened world. They stood in the same spot they had before. Except now, they were in some future part of history.

But not future enough.

She glanced down at the baby, who stared at the world with wide, blinking eyes.

Kaitlyn looked down at it. “Oh. It’s a girl,” she said, readjusting a blanket that had slipped loose. Her gaze lifted to meet Julia’s for a brief moment. She had never seen those flashing green eyes become so soft before. “You saved her life.”

“I thought you were angry with me,” Julia said.

“I was pissed.” She reached tentatively out to the tiny fist. Her voice gentled as the barest trace of a smile touched her lips. “It was a stupid thing to do.”