Chapter 16
Rafe
The heart beats on average one hundred thousand beats per day.
With my arms around Lina, I reached that number in under a minute.
With the way she melts into me, my heart’s about to stutter, stop, then melt into a pile of useless sludge.
She’s softening my hard edges already, and it’s only been several days of finally meeting this extraordinary woman.
Thoughts plague me; does she feel this too, does she feel safe with me, her mind and her delicate soul?
Will she see me as someone to solidify her future with? Regardless of Rafe coming back to me, she still has choices in this one.
Choices I’d never take from her. Lesson fucking learned.
The bastard couldn’t help himself coming back and giving me a thumbs up over Lina’s shoulder. She was mere seconds away from seeing him.
Next time he comes interfering, it’ll be my fists pummelling his face.
Though thinking about it, of all the times he’d visited, that was one I needed. Not only did the scar look fucking nasty, but Lina would be dead.
Another death to stain my hands.
‘It was my husband and his mother.’
Her voice in my head is almost a whisper, but it was chosen by her, so I still heard, loud and fucking clear.
“Why?”
‘I was given a gift by the Chief Defender in all his madness. My husband grew paranoid. And he had his wretched mother in his ear. She said…’
She takes a deep breath, nuzzling into me further.
‘…said now I can no longer get on my knees for Mr Vale.’
Bile burns my throat. Bastards. Oh, how I’ll enjoy stripping them both apart.
“I’m going to kill them.”
She pulls away from me, swiping the wetness off her flushed face.
‘You love being dramatic.’
“I mean it, Lina. They hurt you, I hurt them.”
‘Rafe, I’m not your problem. Ok.’
Boy, how wrong is she, and she has no fucking idea. The notion makes me grin, hard, so hard I turn my head, scratch my lip to cover how amusing I find her statement.
‘Rafe!’
“Yeah… sure. I heard you.”
‘You just need to tell me how all the intricacies work. All I want is to get my tongue back and leave. Very quietly. Very peacefully. Understood?’
“Understood, yeah.” I nod and even give a thumbs up. “But not agreed.”
‘Don’t get smart.’
She follows me to the table in the kitchen, watching with a careful eye as I haul apples from the fruit bowl to pour the hessian bag full of Taka into a shallow dish, taking one at a time in my non-marked hand, feeling the weight and listening to its distinctive voice that sings to my power, before launching the fakes over my shoulder.
‘Woah! What do you think you’re doing?’
“Here,” I grab both her hands, placing a pearl purposely in the one palm that bears her mark and Taka in the other. “What do you feel?”
She shrugs.
“No come on. Close your eyes.” I close her fingers over the stones and remove my hands. “Think about it, dig deep. Which ones the Taka?”
‘Hmmm… I don’t…’
“Feel it, Lina,” I whisper, leaning in close. “Hear what it says to your soul.”
‘It says… you should give me the dessert you promised me,’ her laugh in mind sets a part of my chained soul free, and all I want in life is to hear it again. I laugh with her, her one eye cocked open as she waits for me to either scold her inability to detect Taka or serve her dessert.
I go for the latter, rifling through the kitchen. Lina stands there, inspecting the stones.
‘Maybe I’m a dud?’
“You’re not a dud.”
‘But how do you know?’
“A few reasons,” I say, putting down the brown paper bag and small plate on the table. “For one, you bear the mark.” Her hand is light in my palm, her skin soft beneath my fingertips as I pluck out the pearl and graze her constellation mark. “And two, you can see my mark.”
‘So?’ She shrugs, narrowing her brows, not knowing the significance of it. ‘Only time travellers can see other travellers’ marks, doesn’t mean…’
“You’re not wrong. Just slightly incorrect.”
‘How so?’ She cocks her head to the side, examining me.
“We cannot see everyone’s mark. We only see marks of those we’re compatible with.”
Lina rolls her free hand in the air for me to elaborate.
“In ancient times, there was a rule you could only travel in pairs. It’s said they enforced this to protect us from getting hurt or disrupting the balance of fate and destiny. To keep each other in check so to speak. So…”
I bring my palm up next to hers. “As time travellers were born, they were born with a mark, and only when they found their compatible companion, or companions, were they granted the full power of their gift.
‘You can have more than one companion?’
“Aye, but it’s rare. Or was.”
‘But what if back then you never found your companion?’
“Ah, see that is where fate steps in and draws you both close.”
She drags her eyes from our binding palms to my face.
The heat of her stare is felt deep, low in my gut.
I can’t quite keep her gaze. Scared of what she may see beneath.
The yearning for more. Yearning of hope and purpose.
Forgiveness. Yearning for something as light and bright as her entering my orbit to brighten the dark and lift my heavy soul.
I clear my throat. “Course, with the slaughter of ninety percent of travellers, our abilities evolved to travel alone. But look,” I point to her constellation. “This is the constellation of Libra, yes?”
She nods her head, recognising her own star sign.
“And Libra is Air. You are Air. But what’s this?” I point to the small cluster of stars in the corner of her palm right below her little finger. She leans closer, pouting her lips.
‘Not a clue.’
“That, dear Lina, is the seven sisters. Pleiades,” I smile, though Lina looks perplexed.
‘But the seven sisters are within Taurus, not Libra?’
“Yes. And what is Taurus?”
‘Taurus is Earth.’
“And where are we right now?”
‘Judging by your obvious tone, we’re in the Earth lands?’
“And why do you think that is?”
‘Your element is Earth. You are Taurus.’
My smile is full-toothed as she pieces it all together. Here in Eklin is where I’m most at home.
‘So we’re compatible travel companions?’
“We’re compatible travel companions,” I confirm, my smile still doesn’t falter.
‘Is it like destined mates, with mate marks?’
I wish.
A chuckle vibrates in my chest. “No. Though we’re bonded in a way, it isn’t a romantic bond. I’ll never be able to read your thoughts or feel your feelings.” My sigh is heavy, and I try to hide it, but I do wonder what it would’ve been like to be fated to her.
“Here’s another sure way to convince you you’re not a dud.
” Raising her palm between us, I bring mine forward, twisting my arm around her left one like we’re about to hold hands.
Tiny pearlescent balls and strings of light unravel.
My power awakens hers. Our constellations feel the pull, tugging towards each other, wrapping its light, trying to become one.
She gasps.
‘It’s beautiful.’
You’re beautiful.
“Aye.”