Chapter 39
Chapter Thirty-Nine
EMORY
L ater that evening, I trekked to the lake with a bucket to collect water. Aron and El had warned us not to look into the lake, but we could collect the water to bathe and drink. They hadn’t explained any further, both on the verge of sleep when I’d decided to get clean. El had mentioned many times a lake that could tell you your future, and I wondered if this was that same one.
I was willing to take the risk. I wanted the blood, the grime, the reminder of my near-death experience, gone. Then tomorrow, we’d find Maverick’s sister. We’d work with El and Aron to find a way out of this place.
And, maybe, just maybe Maverick and I could start planning a future together. I had no idea what that might look like. A life with Maverick. I imagined it would be filled with a lot of this: adventure, danger, passion. The thought of spending my days with him, of having an actual partner, terrified me, but it also exhilarated me.
I walked along the lake’s edge, keeping my gaze ahead to the flat clearing that surrounded us to the hills in the distance. I knelt by the lake’s edge, dipping the bucket in the water, careful to keep my eyes averted. I just needed a few bucketfuls to wash all the mess from my skin and clean my cuts.
Something flashed on the edge of my vision. I shook my head, ignoring it and continuing to fill the bucket. A streak of silver shot through the water. White-blond hair floating on the peripherals of my gaze. My brain screamed at me to not look.
Do not turn your head. Do not turn your head.
It was like an otherworldly force was controlling my body, and no matter how hard I tried to keep my eyes on the ground, they slowly shifted over until I could see through the crystal-clear water.
I gasped when my gaze landed on what I’d been trying so hard to avoid.
It was me. Or someone who looked like me. She floated under the surface, staring at me with light-blue eyes.
I didn’t even register what I was doing. My legs straightened and began moving toward the lake, bucket forgotten. One slow step at a time. I told myself to stop. To turn around. To not look. But my body had other ideas. I took off my boots and dipped a toe in the cool water. All the while my gaze stayed trained on the woman. She swam backward under the surface. Her white-blond hair fanned out behind her, eyes sparkling with mischief. She beckoned for me to follow. Every instinct screamed at me to stop, to turn around, but the water felt so good.
I needed to go deeper, to immerse myself in it. To discover its secrets. Water Emory twisted her body like a sleek mermaid, her pale skin bright and glimmering, a thin white dress draping around her body. I lowered myself into the lake, my hair splaying out and floating on the surface, the water now up to my shoulders.
Water Emory wiggled her fingers at me from below, then curled one, once again beckoning me. She hadn’t just wanted me to come into the water. She wanted me to follow her. Yes, that’s what I would do. I would follow and discover everything this lake had to offer.
I took a deep breath, then plunged under the surface. Water Emory took off, legs kicking and arms wheeling as she glided along. I followed, the water so clear I could see her easily, even with how far ahead she swam.
Stones covered the bottom of the lake, all brightly colored, like a rainbow had fallen from the sky and splashed down among them. Other than Water Emory, the lake was empty, no fish, no plants, no life at all.
Water Emory stopped abruptly, then turned, her smile growing wider as she waited for me. I pumped my arms and legs, swimming to her, burning to know what this lake wanted with me. What knowledge it would give.
The water swirled, a cyclone rising up and spinning faster and faster and faster, blurring my view. The cyclone pushed me this way and that, turning me so many directions, I was no longer sure which way to go. Then it all stopped, once again clearing. Water Emory had disappeared, and I found myself staring at the bottom of the lake. Stones covered the lakebed. Slowly, the colors of the rainbow stones began seeping out, bleeding into each other, mixing, creating new colors. Creating a picture. No, not a picture, exactly.
A vision.
One of me. I was standing inside the Academy of Scholars & Historians at the back of one of the classrooms. Students filled rows and rows of desks, all arranged in a stadium style.
My heart hammered, blood pumping in my veins.
I’d dreamt of standing in one of these rooms so many times over the years. Maybe I was a professor in this vision. Maybe I’d finally accomplished everything I wanted in life. The students’ backs were to me, parchments, pens, and ink pots sitting on their wooden desks. At the front of the room stood a podium and a large smooth stone wall where professors used chalk to write as they lectured. The room was magnificent, domed ceiling with beautiful stained-glass windows that depicted famous historical events.
My lungs squeezed, but I ignored the burning pain, the way spots dotted my vision as I tried to concentrate. I stood at the top of the stairs, wearing a long wool blue dress, much like what I wore in my everyday life before falling into the Wilds. This had to be a vision of me as a professor. I’d made it. I was seeing it all play out before me. Everything was going to work out exactly like I wanted.
In the vision, I walked down the steps, students turning toward me and nodding. Future Me nodded back, smiling at them. I couldn’t help but notice the sadness reflecting in her gaze. An emptiness. My stomach clenched. If I was living out my dream, then what was the matter?
The spots around the edges of my vision grew bigger, but I blinked them away, determined to see this through. When Future Me got to the bottom of the stairs, a voice boomed out.
“Ah, there she is. The lady of the hour. My wife.”
The word shot sparks through me. My blood heated at hearing it because I knew exactly who had spoken it.
“My wife.”
Maverick Von Lucas appeared in the doorway and strode down the stairs behind me, smiling at students. He looked so handsome in his fitted grey trousers, black shirt tucked in, a few buttons popped open at the top, grey suspenders stretched over his broad shoulders. When he turned his gaze onto me, his smile widened, those copper eyes filling with warmth.
Maybe we were teaching a class together. How amazing would that be? The spots returned, and that burning in my lungs worsened, spreading across my chest and up to my throat, but I ignored it, needing to know what happened. To unlock whatever message was being sent to me.
Maverick met Future Me at the bottom of the stairs, kissing her on the cheek and turning to his class. “My wife. I don’t know what I’d do without her,” he said. “Can’t teach without my lucky watch.”
She reached into the pocket of her dress and pulled out a watch, a silver chain connected to it. The same watch I’d found here, in the Wilds. Future Me handed it to Maverick, and he attached the chain to his belt.
“Thank you, my love,” he said. “I’ll be home a little late for dinner tonight.” He turned his attention to the students. “Alright, everyone turn to page thirty in your books.”
Future Me gave him a strained smile, one that didn’t quite reach her eyes. She turned without a word, marching up the stairs, back ramrod straight.
This couldn’t be right. The black spots grew, the vision growing hazy, but not before I caught the tear rolling down Future Me’s cheek as she dashed from Maverick’s classroom .
No. That wasn’t supposed to be my future. My lungs screamed at me now, darkness cascading over me as all the colors separated, seeping back into the stones, no longer blending. I needed to swim, to get air, but I was too weak, too tired. My body was already failing me, and I hadn’t even realized it, so sucked in by the vision.
My head grew heavy, my eyelids like weights. I lifted an arm, but it felt like trying to move through heavy mud. My consciousness began to fade right when a hand grabbed my arm, yanking me from the water and onto solid ground.
A distant voice called my name while a hand thumped my back. I coughed, water burning its way up my throat and out of my mouth. My stomach heaved, and I retched up more water, that darkness slowly ebbing and clearing.
“Emory,” Maverick said, voice urgent.
He rolled me onto my back after I’d gotten all the water from my stomach and lungs.
“What in the bloody fire happened?” His concerned face stared down at me.
My entire vision came back to me. Maverick. The Academy. His wife.
His. Wife.
That was my future. El had told me about this lake, about how she saw her own future in it, that she wouldn’t wish it on anyone. I’d just seen my future, and it was my worst nightmare. I slowly sat up as Maverick cupped my face, staring at me with such intensity.
“Emory, what happened? What?—”
“The lake,” I said, voice raspy, throat still on fire. “It—don’t look at it.”
“I’m not looking at anything but you,” he said so gently it made me want to cry. “I’m not taking my eyes off of you ever again.” He leaned forward and pressed his lips to my cheek.
Exactly the same way he had in that vision. His wife. I was Maverick Von Lucas’s wife. But he hadn’t set me free like I’d hoped. No. In my future with Maverick, I was just as trapped as I had been in my past.