The Assassin: (Mortal Beloved Time Travel Romance, #2) (20 page)

“Scout!” I pushed myself to standing and my eyes swept the area around me. I see trees, dense foliage. I saw birds, a few squirrels, but I didn’t see my dog.
 

He yelped again and terror shot down my spine. His cries emanated from the river’s direction and grew increasingly desperate. I raced to the waterway and spotted him stuck between fallen logs jammed together in the middle of the river while white waters surged over his bedraggled head. He gazed at me with fear in his eyes and barked repeatedly.

I kicked off my shoes and tossed my wrap onto the ground. “I’m coming for you!” I waded into the icy waters as fast as my long, drenched skirt would allow. I smelled the air’s crispness, my heart raced, and fear clutched my throat but I told Fear to shut up and take a hike because I was not going to acknowledge it. My dog was trapped in that logjam and I saw the terror in his eyes.
 

When I reached waist level in the waters I threw myself face forward all the way in and swam toward him, fighting the currents. And then, just like that, Scout wasn’t trapped; he managed to wriggle free and dog paddled toward me.
 

“Scout!” I yelled completely relieved, because I didn’t know how much longer I could have faced this challenge. I hadn’t swum since Tobias the Hunter almost drowned me in an icy pond in Rhode Island the first time I time traveled. Now I treaded water, which still wasn’t all that easy. My teeth chattered as I pictured pulling my dog out of this frigging river, drying him off with my wrap, and making our way back to camp. For a few seconds I fantasized about finding Ryan’s hot chocolate.

 
But just as quickly as the water gods released him, they took my dog back, the currents yanking him under the river’s surface.
 

“No!” I screamed, sunk under the water, and opened my eyes. My heart pounded in my ears and I watched through the liquid haze as he was dragged away from me, still paddling for dear life. I struggled to swim toward him when he disappeared from sight. I realized I couldn’t save him, and it felt like a knife twisted into my heart, when the same undertow that claimed him devoured me.

I had no control. The river yanked me like a broken doll through its currents as I bumped over rocks and boulders. I was tossed so many times that I felt like a pancake flipping on a griddle. BAM! My shin smashed into a submerged rock. RIP! My arm scraped across a downed tree tearing my sleeve and scraping my arm. I ricocheted to the surface, gasped for air, when the sweetest sounds I’ve ever heard met my ears: my dog barking.
 

I swiveled my head, gulped some water, and saw Scout on the riverbank next to Miri and Tomasis. My dog was alive and shaking the water off as Miri shielded her face with one protective hand.

“Nadja!” Tomasis pointed. “Swim to that boulder!”

I saw the rock to which he was referring. It looked large, solid, and steady like a shelter in a storm. I prayed to my non-denominational gods and goddesses and pleaded for help. Please, please Mother Mary, Krishna, forest goddesses, Artemis, Jesus, Yahweh, ancient ones, please help out a teenage time-traveling Messenger girl. I’d be eternally grateful.

A burst of strength surged through me and I swam to the large boulder in the deepest part of the river and clung to it as frigid water blasted over me.

“Nadja!” Samuel hollered. “ I am coming for you!”

The currents tore me from the rock and I screamed, “Samuel!” before they tossed me under in their whitecaps, sucked me beneath the river’s surface, and carried me downstream.

I bounced off a few rocks and cringed, but every now and again, I’d find my way to the surface. My head popped above the waters, I gasped for air, pin-wheeled my arms, and desperately searched for something, anything to grab onto as I prayed.
 

Please don’t let me die right now in a cold river, in a place so very far from home and my family. Because I tried so very hard, I really did.
 

“Nadja!” Samuel hollered as he waded into the deeper, more dangerous waters, then dove in and swam toward me.
 

“I’m trying!” I slammed my hand onto a slick moss covered rock and cried out in frustration as I promptly slid off it back into the rushing waters.
 

“Try harder!” Samuel said.

I clamped onto the remains of a soggy fallen tree but the rotting wood disintegrated between my fingers as the river claimed me again. I tumbled above and below its surface, my arms and legs flailing, gasping for air, when I spotted what looked like a drop-off, a large waterfall in the near distance.
 

The falls gushed and rippled, white waters spiking at its borders. I turned my head, spit out cold acrid water, and looked for Samuel. He swam and bobbed through the river, but barring a miracle, he was still too far away to rescue me before I plummeted over the edge and fell onto the rocks’ jagged edges far below.

And then I spotted what might be my last hope.

A clump of fallen trees lodged together right before the waterfall’s precipice. A shimmer of wood and dark mottled colors, a little bit of white and green beckoned me.
 

I swam in its direction, spitting out water every time I surfaced.

If I got there, I’d lodge myself between those branches, and hold on very tight. Perhaps that would give Samuel more time to save me. If I got there and Samuel didn’t save me, perhaps I could Sa-Ta-Na-Ma chant myself into an altered state and time-travel back into present day. If I got there and I still slipped over the cliffs and fell—maybe that would be a relief.

Time sped up and slowed down all at once. How was that even possible? I saw Mama’s face as she turned to me when I was in the back of the car right before we were pushed off the car park ten years ago. “Mama, slow down!” I said.

She put one hand to her mouth and blew me a kiss. “Life goes fast, Madeline,” she said. “Right now we need to be just like life.
We need to go very, very fast.”
 

I popped above the river’s surface for a few seconds and spotted Miri racing along the riverbank accompanied by Tomasis and one very wet, but very healthy dog, Scout.
 

“Nadja!” Miri screamed. “Grab onto something, anything! Samuel comes for you.”

I heard Malachi in my head.
“I think I’d recognize you anywhere, Madeline.”

The currents sucked me under yet again and I spotted Sister Ana, simply yards away, beckoning to me from under the water.

Under the water?

How did she end up in the river? And I realized that when you’re a Messenger, just about anything was possible. Perhaps we could help each other.

She pointed to the logjam and mouthed, “Go.”

I nodded, breast-stroked, and then wondered if she was all right.
 

Sister Ana wasn’t my favorite person in the world but I certainly wished her no harm.
 

I turned back to her under the water and mouthed, “You okay?”
 

But only bubbles existed where she’d been seconds earlier. Sister Ana was
gone.

I shook my head. I didn’t understand, but maybe I wasn’t
supposed
to understand everything. The more I learned about being a Messenger, the more I realized it was
in the doing—
not in a classroom or a textbook
.
Learning was the school of life; the good grades, the bad grades, and all those C minuses squeezed in between.
 

So I swam as hard as I could toward that log jam, my heart thumping so loud, it sounded like drums in my ears. I reached for that thick fallen tree, clamped onto it, and hugged it.
 

“Yes!” Miri punched one hand in the air as she raced along the riverbank.

“Yes! Tomasis said as ran next to Miri, reached for her hand, but she batted him away.

Safe. Thank you gods for sparing my life. I was safe.
 

I lurched halfway out of the waters, rested my elbows on the log and watched Samuel as he swam closer to me.
 

I distinctly heard Mama’s voice in my head. “Take your deepest breath, Madeline,” she said, “Take it right now. Don’t ask why. Just do it.”

Right. Everything was going to be okay, Mom. Stop worrying.

When the wood gave way underneath my forearms, the tree I clutched fractured into pieces, and my face hit the water hard. “No!” I grabbed another log but its rotting wood disintegrated between my fingers. “No!” I screamed as the river claimed me again.
 

I tumbled above and below its surface, my arms and legs flailing, gasping for air, when the large waterfall loomed in the near distance. I swiveled my head and tried to paddle away. I saw the large underground boulder only seconds before my head rammed into it.

~ twenty-four ~

“Breathe. Do this for me, Nadja! Breathe!” Samuel said.

I rasped for air and coughed as my eyes fluttered open. I saw him through a haze, his face just inches from mine. His eyes were darker, his wet black hair dripped water onto my face.

“You are back!” He said. “I will not let you die! Breathe!”

I nodded weakly, then turned my head, and then spat out half a river’s worth of water. I focused and saw way too many concerned faces peering at me.

“Good!” Miri said. “I think you should vomit again.” She pinched my arm.

“Healthy!” Tomasis said.

“Give her some spirits,” Jorge said.

“She does not need spirits, Captain,” Samuel said. “Nadja, inhale and exhale again. For me.”

So I did. I stared up into his eyes, his gaze so intense when I realized his hand was fisted hard onto my chest, rising and falling with every breath I took. As if we were being born, taking our first breath together while at the same time we were dying, and sharing our last.

I reached my hand up and clung to his wrist. “You found your purpose, Samuel. You’re a Healer.”

“I found my purpose,” he said, “because I found you.”

~ ~ ~

Samuel, Jorge, and the rest of our caravan’s noblemen took advantage of the generosity of Samuel’s parents, Lady and Lord De Rocha. They retired to their estate for rich food, expensive drink, and proper entertainment suited for titled persons.

I didn’t envy them. The local gypsies and peasant help were determined to feed and entertain our small support crew with their own party held in the meadow behind the villa’s large barn.

A large bonfire lit the night sky and warmed us. The food never tasted so good: freshly-roasted herbed pork and vegetables, chicken soup, hearty breads, and a few sweets. The mead flowed.
 

For once, Miri and I weren’t doing the serving. The locals waited on us like we were visiting nobility. A few men played their ancient drums and stringed instruments, practically serenading us. After a long day of chasing assassins, almost drowning, and being brought back to life by the boy I loved, I finally relaxed.
 

I scooted back against a tree, relaxed and sank into the slight chill of the night air, and gazed up at the stars that popped bright in the cloudless skies overhead. The camaraderie, the hearty food, and the music combined to make this the friendliest night since we’d hit the road.

“I am Jofranka. You work at the palace, yes?” a female chef who was about one hundred and fifty pounds heavier and twenty years older than Miri asked as she refilled our mugs.
 

Miri nodded. “Yes. Call me Miri. This meal is wonderful. Thank you.”

“What do you serve the nobles? Do you think they’d like my secret recipe for chicken soup?”

“Most definitely, yes.” Miri sopped the bread into the bowl and munched on it. “This is the best soup I have tasted in years. What is your secret?”

“Well if I told you, it would not be a secret, would it?” Jofranka said.

Tomasis laughed. “You do not know my Miri. She will figure it out. She is a magician when it comes to food.”

Miri frowned. “I am not ‘your’ Miri.”

“Of course you are my Miri,” Tomasis said. “Whose else would you be?”

She grumbled.

“This is the best chicken soup I’ve ever tasted.” I tugged the blanket draped over my shoulders a bit tighter across my chest. “Thank you, Jofranka, for feeding us delicious food and treating us with your kind hospitality.”

“It is our pleasure,” she said. We watched the few couples that now danced next to the bonfire. They smiled, laughed, flirted, and were obviously enjoying themselves.
 

“I think you should dance,” Jofranka said. “Kennick over there has had his eye on you the entire evening.”

I glanced over at Kennick. He was handsome and he smiled at me. Too bad I wasn’t interested. “Thanks,” I said. “Not me. I have two left feet.”

Jofranka, Miri, and Tomasis stared intently at my feet.

“No,” I said. “That’s merely a figure of speech. I mean—I can’t dance.”

“Well of course you can dance,” Miri said. “Unless your legs were cut off, or you have some horrible disease, or you are on your deathbed. Everyone can dance.”

Tomasis burst out laughing.

“Thank you, Miri,” I said. “What
I meant to say
was; I have
no talent
for dancing and that I suck at it. Did I make that a bit clearer?”

Tomasis sprang to his feet and held out his hand to Miri. “Dance with me, Miri.”

“Go dance with the man,” I said.
 

“Maybe I have two left feet.” She dragged her fingers through her hair.

“Let us find out.” He bowed, took her hand, and led her closer to the bonfire and the musicians.

I leaned back against the tree and smiled. Tomasis was wearing down Miri’s defenses and she was letting her guard down around him. I chose to take it as a sign that all could be right with this world.
 

I would never forgive myself for failing to save Inêz de Castro. But maybe my message was never meant for her. Maybe my message in this lifetime had always been meant for Samuel. He had been so lost, never knowing his calling. I hoped that after today he’d remember he was meant to be a Healer.