33. EPILOGUE
EPILOGUE
Six Months Later
T he delicious smell of coffee woke her from a long, satisfying sleep. She took in the burgundy canopy overhead, the warm, rich colors of the room and the sun filtering through the huge windows, and giggled with joy. Just as she had every morning for the past six months. She was there. No, she was here . In his world, now her world.
Alone in the bed, she took a long luxurious stretch, still appreciating the lack of a timer on her wrist, and amazed at how quickly she’d recovered from the transition process. In fact, she felt fantastic, and knew that her body had already become stronger and more vitalized. That she’d already begun to age more slowly.
Gideon walked back into the room, nude and carrying a tray with coffee and biscuits. When he saw she was awake, he smiled at her. A radiant, relaxed smile he now wore most of the time. He set the tray down on the bedside table and climbed back under the sheets, gathering her in his arms.
“Waking up each morning to find you in the bed with me has got to be the most delicious thing ever.” He ran a hand down her length, caressing her hip and thigh .
She lay there reveling in his touch. “I don’t know. Right now, I’m thinking the smell of the coffee is the most delicious thing ever,” she said with a giggle.
He gave her a quick, gentle swat on her rump. “All right then, sweet Heroine, never mind the foreplay. Up out of bed with you. Time to eat and get dressed anyway.” He hopped back out of bed with a gusto Lexi barely recognized in him.
She thrust out her bottom lip, giving him her best pout. “What’s the rush?”
The twinkle in his eye told her something was up. “You’ve got five more minutes to lay there, sweetheart. Then get up, eat your breakfast, and pack what you need for a trip. I’m taking you on a little vacation.”
An hour later, travel bags over their shoulders, Gideon led her into an unassuming shop with a sign out front that simply said, “Travel Agency.”
“What is going on?” she asked. “Where are we going? How are we getting there?”
He shushed her. “It’s a surprise. You’ll find out when we arrive. Which will be in just a couple of minutes, so keep your pants on.” Then he gave her a mischievous smile. “For now.”
She gave him a harrumph in response, but watched with wide eyes as he spoke to the dapper, gray-haired proprietor of the travel agency.
“You already know my plans, correct?” he said to the man.
“Yes, sir. It’s all been arranged, on both ends. When you’re ready, step into the booth, shut the door, and I’ll send you on your way.”
Gideon nodded his thanks, took her hand, and they entered the closet-sized portal booth. Moments later, she heard tones being played and felt the familiar sensation of one space shimmering out and another coming up, though it was a somewhat different experience than she was used to with the portal between the two worlds. This time there was more of a sensation of movement, almost a feeling of flying.
“What just happened?” she asked when their new location took shape. “Where are we?”
“Come see.” He led her out of the new portal booth and into another shop where a stunning, dark-haired woman nodded to them in welcome, motioning for them to exit and enjoy themselves.
They stepped out the door of the shop into the golden summer sunlight falling on the beautiful stone walls of…
“The Piazza della Signoria !” she shouted. “We’re in Florence!”
His smile was so huge he couldn’t contain it, and he burst out laughing as she jumped into his arms. “Tuscany. The first item on your bucket list. We’ll tick all the items off, one by one, together.”
Lexi turned back to view the plaza before her, the Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi Gallery—everything exactly the same as in her world. “Oh my God,” she breathed. “Where do we even begin?”
He laughed again and pulled her to him. “We begin by settling in. We’re here for three weeks and we’ll have plenty of time to see everything.”
“Settling in where?”
“Julian’s loaning us his country villa,” he said. “I’ve got a coach waiting to take us out there.”
She sighed and leaned her head against his arm, tears threatening at the corners of her eyes as he led her across the square.
“I don’t understand how the portal worked,” she asked him, her mind curious even in her excitement. “I mean, it’s not like we simply faded back to a different world. We actually moved locations within your world.”
“Right,” he said. “We still make use of matching vibrational energies. Even though it’s a subtler difference than the one between worlds, every point on the planet has its own energy signature. We utilize those signatures to move from one spot to another. ”
She stopped walking and looked at him. “You’re talking about folding space, Gideon,” she said, her brows furrowed. “Are you actually telling me your world knows how to fold space?”
He cocked a half smile at her. “The Prometheus Group was after a whole lot more than telekinesis, Lex.”
“Which means they’ll definitely be back.” The clairvoyants still hadn’t seen any sign of future trouble, but they remained vigilant, waiting for the other shoe to inevitably drop.
“Indeed. But now we know they exist. And we’re not nearly as defenseless as they think,” he said, his lips pulling up at one corner.
She was floored. “God, I have so much to learn about your world.”
“Our world,” he corrected. “And there’s plenty of time for all of that. When we get back you can take your time and continue to learn all there is to learn of your new home. You can figure out what you want to do, what you want to be. But for now, while we’re here…”
“There’s just us,” she said, smiling up at him.
As they made their way across the plaza in the late morning Tuscan sun, they passed families, children running and laughing, and she noted how he watched them, smiling and chuckling at their antics. She knew from his mind what he was thinking. Knew that he was finally, for the first time in almost eighty years, allowing himself the luxury of the idea that he might one day have a family of his own again.
Lexi wasn’t yet ready to share with him what she already knew though. She was going to delight for a little while longer in holding that secret close to her heart. Maybe she’d tell him when the time was right, or maybe she’d let the secret unveil itself to him over the course of the years. But weeks ago, she’d asked for a vision and received an answer, and she knew now that the Ashe family name would not die out with Gideon. There would be children, and grandchildren, and their family home would ring for centuries with laughter .
As the carriage made its way out of the city and into the vibrant countryside, they passed a small wedding taking place in a vineyard. The bride and groom both barefoot in simple dress, all the guests with glasses of wine in their hands, laughing and dancing.
“I know what you’re thinking about, Hero,” she said. “And I’m ready whenever you are.”
“That’s good to know.” He pulled her to him and kissed her softly. “After all, I’m not getting any younger.”
A slow smile spread on her lips as she gazed back at him. “Indeed.”