Page 65 of Kiss Across the Universe
Her irritation grew. “I would have found them, if they were.”
He nodded, as if this was as he expected. So why had he asked? Her temper stirred, but she held it down. It was too hot to argue. Unlike people born and raised in torrid Western Australia, it took her a few weeks of hot days to acclimate to the summer. She didn’t remember it being like this in Los Angeles, when she had been younger—but everyone in L.A. got through the summers with the help of air conditioning. Australians scoffed at air conditioning. And they didn’t think eighty degrees was hot, either.
And she’d just got rid of the last headache. She didn’t care to bring on another. “Nothing has changed,” she repeated, as calmly as she could. “I don’t know why they’re disappearing, only that they are.” She considered him. “Are your other selves all accounted for?”
“As far as I have reached out to check, yes.” That seemed to annoyhim. “Whyyou?” he muttered.
“Because whatever it is that is happening should only happen to you?” Marit asked, indignation touching her.
“We’re polytemporals, both of us,” he said patiently. “We’re theonlypolytemporals. If something is happening to the timescape, then it is logical to assume that we should both be affected.”
“Unless it has nothing to do with the timescape. Not everything that happens has to do with time.”
David looked at her with a pained expression. “Everythingthat happens affects time,” he said flatly.
True.
Marit squeezed her hands together, then realized she was copying what David was doing with his and put them quickly back on her knees. She weighed up telling him what she had been mentally tussling with all day, as she grocery shopped and cleaned her little house.
He was annoyingly correct on one point. Theywerethe only polytemporals. She was still trying to fully understand all that it meant to be a polytemporal, while David had lived for centuries during which he could explore his abilities and limitations. As there was no one else around to ask or from whom to get advice, she was stuck with him.
Marit sighed. “You should probably know that Alannah—this timeline’s Alannah—has disappeared from the timescape, too.”
David pressed his fingertips to his temples. “What is goingon?” he muttered, sounding aggrieved and deeply puzzled, as if whatever was happening to the timescape, it was a personal insult to him.
Marit had been feeling the same deep confusion since reaching out to check on her siblings when she first awoke, as she did every morning. It pleased her to see David was just as flummoxed as her.
Only, Alannah was her sister and a fellow time jumper. Marit would have jumped to Canada straight away to check on her, as soon as she’d failed to find Alannah on the timescape, but caution had held her here, and made her go about her day as usual. Time jumps were precarious things. If Marit begun jumping all over the place looking for Alannah, she might upset a delicate situation. Or perhaps it was something even more basic; maybe Alannah had found a lodestone-protected location and had jumped there to get away from everyone. Having Marit chasing after her might ruin Alannah’s reach for time out.
Marit knew more than most how strong that need to simply drop off the face of the world for a while could get. Being trackable and locatable every second of the day was an uncomfortable feeling that sometimes turned into mental hives. Even here on the other side of the globe from everyone in the family wasn’t far enough away, at times. When anyone could jump here instantly, Perth might as well be next door to Canmore, instead of Western Australia.
So she had held still and not panicked. She had worried, instead. At least a dozen times, she had reached for her cellphone to call Aran and ask him if he knew where Alannah was. Even though he was in Britain, he and Alannah could usually guess exactly what each other was doing at any one time. Alannah would have told Aran, at least, where she was going. She was rash, sometimes, but she wasn’t stupid, not when it came to moving around time.
Yet the possibility that Alannah was simply grasping for some real privacy held Marit’s hand, and she’d put the phone down once more.
David dropped his hands, and looked at her. “Aran is in Canada,” he said shortly.
Marit felt her jaw drop. “No, he’s in…” Automatically, she reached for the timescape, to locate him.
He was in Canmore.
“He was in Britain this morning,” Marit said, sitting up.
“He’s not there now.”
Marit took a fast inventory of the rest of the family. Her parents were far away, back in time, as she expected. But what she found drew her to her feet. “Remi and Rafe are in Canmore, too.”
“The two soldiers,” David concluded, standing up, too.
Everyone in the family was a soldier of sorts, but Marit didn’t dispute him. “Let me get my bag.”
The bag that had her long hunting knife in the side pocket.
Chapter Twenty-Six
By the time they stoppedfor the night, Alannah was cold despite constantly moving. Her body was working hard because of the elevation, but the exertion didn’t seem to make any difference. The sun had disappeared behind the mountains a long time ago, and the warmth in the air had departed. The coldness clung to her face and neck and hands and she could feel it clinging to her leggings, clawing to get through to her flesh.
Kit seemed to have a destination in mind, so she didn’t badger him with suggestions that they stop and get a fire going, so she could huddle over it.
