The Library of Time, page 23
Annie frowned. “I hope so, because if Jack starts hanging around I’m out of here.”
Cecily laughed. “Ask Sam later what he’s up to. I’m sure it isn’t how it appears.”
Annie thought about what Sam had told her. His father was obviously someone with great power that he’d used for evil. Possibly still alive. Yes, she could see how Jack had become who he was, but it didn’t explain this sudden truce between them. Jack was as slippery as an eel, full of tricks and good at pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes. And what about Sam’s mother? Sam needed to know more, but how would he find out?
A shiver passed down her spine as she gazed out the window at the two of them still talking. When Jack leaned forward his shirt fell open exposing the pendant hanging around his neck. It was Sam’s jade scarab.
CHAPTER 33
Sam watched Annie stalk toward the library. Before she reached the door it swung open. “She doesn’t believe it, but I’m not wrong,” he muttered, glancing at Jack.
“About Annie and the library? I saw it too. How does that work, exactly?”
“I don’t know. This is the first time I haven’t been in charge.”
“So, if I were to take over…”
“You can’t just take over, Jack. It doesn’t work that way. Annie is in tune with it now. Not sure how that happened, but I think it was when I went down the wrong track.”
“You’re saying it’s sentient and likes her better than you?”
Sam laughed. “I think it’s more that I haven’t chosen correctly. The library has decided that Annie is more trustworthy.”
Jack scoffed. “Sounds far-fetched. I can’t see a building choosing anything.”
“It’s not just a building, Jack. You, of all people should know that. Your mother was hell-bent on getting her hands on it and you’ve been after it for months.”
“Yeah, yeah. I admitted I’d like to have it. It would make my life a lot easier.”
“Not necessarily. It has a mind of its own—you don’t ever truly control it.”
“And yet you just said you aren’t in charge anymore. Bothers you, doesn’t it?”
Sam shrugged, glancing at the sky. “If we don’t have any more business to discuss I should get back to it. It could be cold tonight.”
Jack raised his eyebrows. “I didn’t plan to kill you, Sam. You hit those cobbles too hard. I was about to help you when that door appeared and Annie stepped through.”
“I know that. That’s why I wanted to talk to you about what I discovered while I was unconscious.”
“I remember everything, so if you have any more questions just ask.”
“For now I’m content with what we just discussed, but I do have one more. Is Serena alive?”
Jack frowned and looked at the ground. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen her.”
“Her house here is boarded up.”
Jack nodded as he rose. “I’ll be around if you need me.”
Sam got to his feet and held out his hand. When Jack grasped it, he pulled the other man close. “Think about what we talked about.”
Jack let go and laughed. “You know I will.”
Sam watched him vanish, wondering again how the man did it. Maybe he could learn from him. But did he care enough to bother? He let out a huff and picked up his hatchet.
Sam looked up when he saw Annie running toward him. “Jack has your scarab!” she yelled.
Sam frowned as an image of his dream flashed by. The jade pendant his mother wore. It was meant for him. She put it around his neck and told him she would always be there. But she was long dead.
“What does it do, Sam? It could explain why he has magic and you don’t.”
Sam tried to remember the last time he’d seen it. “My mother…she was wearing it in one of my dreams. She put it around my neck.”
“You were wearing it the day…you know…our first time? After Jack got away from you.”
Sam frowned, his mind going blank as he pictured the scarab and where he could have taken it off. “I’ll ask him about it next time we…”
Annie was frantic, her face turning red. “You need it, Sam! I tried to tell you but you wouldn’t listen. That scarab is the source of your magic.”
“How could you possibly know that, Annie?”
“It’s linked to your family—to your mother.”
Sam scanned backward through the years. Some memories had surfaced but others had not. He had vague bits and pieces of his life, a jigsaw puzzle that needed to be put together. The pendant had belonged to his mother—he knew that much. And there was some part of him that had the impression that his mother was immortal. But if she was, why hadn’t he seen her since he was a young boy?
His magic was gone—there was no denying it. It had happened after the accident and he assumed it was due to the head injury. He expected it to come back once he was fully healed. “It was hers…” he began haltingly. “And she gave it to me. I remember it glowing.”
“And I remember the same thing the first time we made love,” Annie said. “It was lit up just like your sigil.”
Ten days had gone by since Jack’s visit. Annie had spoken to Sam more than once about the scarab, pressing upon him the deviousness of the man.
“I won’t let him bewitch me if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“You let him in, Sam. You told me yourself that you invited him into your space. He tried to kill you and now he has your scarab. No wonder he’s getting away with stuff and disappearing into thin air!”
“Jack has his own magic. Just because I’ve lost mine doesn’t mean the scarab is the source.”
“What about your dream? You told me that your mother wore it, that you reached for it and she said, ‘not yet’. Doesn’t that mean anything?”
“I didn’t tell you about the one I had while I was unconscious. She gave it to me when I was a young boy—she said she would always be around. But I’ve never seen her.”
“Maybe she meant you could reach out to her through the scarab. When did you lose it?”
“Jail—it disappeared after I was in that jail.”
“And it was Jack who orchestrated all of that. He took it and he’s been using it ever since.”
Sam grabbed her hand. “I’ll get it back from him. Trust me, Annie. I know what I’m doing.”
Another week passed before Sam finally felt ready to connect with Annie. His need for her had grown to a fever pitch and he could tell from looking at her flushed face that Annie felt the same. They’d come into the bedroom and hadn’t yet undressed when his gaze met hers. “I’m ready,” he whispered. “Are you?”
Annie smiled and moved close to unbutton his shirt. Her fingers were warm on his skin, her mouth too when she bent to kiss his chest.
“Guess that’s a yes,” he said, lifting her hair to kiss her neck. There was no time for niceties as they stripped their clothes off, fell onto the bed and brought their naked bodies together.
When Annie pressed her body against his, the beast came alive. Sam disappeared as the feral part of him took over. He fought to take back control, afraid he would hurt her. But when she whispered his name and indicated her need, he let go. When he entered her she was caught under him, her mouth open as she panted out breath after breath, lifting to meet him. They were captured in a rhythmic dance that wound tighter and tighter. “Are you okay?” he managed to whisper.
“More than okay,” she gasped.
The dance grew wild. They rose together, his mouth on hers as the intensity increased. She cried out just before the beast let out a howl. Millions of stars—a blanket of brightness covered them. And in the stillness of that moment he felt the pulse of the part of him that she had taken inside her, felt her softness that received him and held him. “Annie,” he murmured, tears welling.
She gazed into his eyes. “I want to stay like this forever,” she whispered.
When Sam woke an hour later the bedclothes were tangled around their legs, the sheets pulled out and the blankets on the floor. His room had clothing strewn across it as though a storm had blown through. He gazed down at Annie sleeping inside the curve of his arm. He wanted her again. “Annie?”
She opened her eyes and smiled up at him. “Yes, Sam?”
“I didn’t hurt you?”
“I…I’ve never experienced anything like that, Sam. Did we have stars all over us or did I imagine it?”
“I felt you...It’s hard to put into words. As though we…”
She nodded. “It felt like we formed one being.”
“I’ve never experienced that before—and you know how long I’ve been around.”
Annie gazed at him. “Never?”
“Never. Do you want more?”
Her eyes went soft. “Always.”
When Sam kissed her and teased her, readying her for what was to come, she shook her head.
“I want you inside me now.”
Sam gazed at her in wonder. Her cheeks were rosy, her lips were swollen and the color of faded roses. When he touched her breasts, her nipples hardened, dark against the translucent paleness of her skin. “You are so beautiful,” he whispered as he reached for her and pulled her on top of him.
“Oh gods,” she gasped.
But Sam didn’t hear her, all his attention on the sensations coursing through his body and the visions that came with them. It was dusk and he was lying on soft grass on a hillside that overlooked a deep valley. He and a woman were held tight within each other’s arms. He was lost in her, any sense of who he was as distant as the stars that were appearing, one by one, in the dome of the sky.
They moved together and apart in the oldest rhythm of the earth, the pulsing motions taking them upward and upward until there was nothing but the darkness of space and the blink of stars. There was no parting them now—they were connected, joined, two beings turned into one.
Morning came too soon, the night before making both of them languid and slow to come back to earth.
“I had a vision,” Sam began, glancing at her lying next to him.
“I did too,” Annie said.
They gazed at one another. “Were there stars in yours?” Sam asked.
Annie nodded. “We were in the stars, Sam. We were no longer corporeal.”
“A vision,” Sam muttered. “Just a vision.”
“We both had the same vision?”
Sam rose from bed to collect his clothes. Whatever was happening between them was beyond his understanding, especially without his magic.
It was much later after they’d had something to eat and spent some time outside that Sam asked, “Do you agree with me that the library is yours?”
She made a disparaging sound. “No, Sam. I will never accept that. You told me how the library found you when you were lost, that it saved your life. I may be a passing fancy, but I am not linked like that.”
Sam chuckled. “Let’s test it, shall we? I will try to…”
Annie frowned. “You will do no such thing. The library doesn’t like to be teased or played with like that.”
“See? You just proved my point.”
Annie laughed, turning to the herbs she was picking for their next meal.
Sam thought about what he and Jack had discussed. They were brothers after all, linked in ways that he couldn’t question. And Serena was gone—or at least it seemed she was. Jack had yet to divulge who their father was—that was worrying, but he figured it would come in time. As far as Sam’s mother, did Jack know more about her than he intimated? As far as the beast part of himself, he still didn’t know if it was a result of what had been done to him at the Institute or if he was born with it. His strange dreams while he was comatose had not revealed the answer to that question.
The scarab was another unanswered question. He couldn’t perform the simple magic anymore, like lighting up the house and working the make-shift device to keep in touch with people. He’d figured it was because of the injury. As the weeks went by he began to suspect that Annie might be right.
Annie thought he was crazy for trusting Jack. But now he’d made an agreement with the man. Jack seemed sincere enough when they shook hands and decided to abide by the rules they’d come up with. But that was before he learned that Jack had his scarab hanging around his neck.
Jack still wanted the library—he’d admitted as much. But Annie was the one in charge. Yes, the library still acknowledged Sam, but when it came to doors, it was Annie who was given that privilege. And if things went south he would have to rely on Annie to find Jack. That thought raised the beast, a roar working up his throat as he realized he was no longer in command. Could he stand it? And for how long? The scarab loomed up in his mind. He had to get it back.
Annie was feeding Wolf and the cat when he arrived in the kitchen. Her murmuring voice entered his consciousness. His feelings arrived full force, his love for her making him feel weak for a second. This woman. She was his now. Or was she? Maybe she belonged to the library. Her uncanny resemblance to Elizabeth had not been explained, nor had the encounter with Jack in the other world or the door she’d walked through to get there. And now there was the scarab to consider.
“What is it, Sam?” she asked, turning.
“Just wondering about the future,” he murmured.
“I can do a Tarot card reading. I’ve been practicing.”
He gazed into her wide gray-green eyes. “Okay,” he said reluctantly. A second later he wished he hadn’t agreed, but she was already heading to her desk to fetch the cards.
CHAPTER 34
They were outside by the tree stump when Annie handed him the old Rider-Waite Tarot deck. It was a beautiful spring day, a warm breeze lifting her hair. “Shuffle three times and then cut the deck into three piles from left to right.”
She watched Sam’s expression as he did as she asked, not surprised when a frown appeared. He didn’t like this. “Are you worried about what we might find or don’t you trust the Tarot? Or maybe it’s me you don’t trust.”
Sam looked up. “I…I admit I’m a little worried about what might show up.”
Annie stacked the piles together and began to lay out the five card spread they’d agreed on, using the stump for a table. “We don’t have to do this.”
Sam let out a sigh. “No—keep going. Maybe it will clarify some things.”
The cards were in place—three at the top and two at the bottom on either side. Annie turned over the card on the top left. It was The Tower. “This represents the past. You know what it means from looking at it, right?”
Sam nodded. “Everything crashing down. Sounds about right.”
Annie turned over the one in the middle: The Hanged Man. “This relates to the present. It represents a time of uncertainty. Vulnerability. It isn’t a bad card, Sam,” she added, noticing Sam’s expression. “The man is upside down which could mean you’re trying to see things from another perspective. I’d say this is about Jack and your scarab.”
Sam let out a huff. “Haven’t seen him in over a month,” he muttered.
She frowned, gazing into the distance and thinking about Sam’s nemesis. No matter what Sam thought, the man was definitely not his friend. “What was your agreement?”
“He would come by from time to time. I figured a week or two, not four.”
“He knows we know about the scarab.” Annie turned over the card on the upper right. It was The Fool. “This represents the future.”
Sam let out a chuckle. “Great. I’m a fucking fool.”
Annie shook her head. “That isn’t what it means. It’s more about letting go of expectations—of following what feels right and being in the now.” She pointed to the figure about to step into the abyss. “If you aren’t paying attention you could fall off the cliff. It’s reminding you to develop yourself before heading off on an ill-fated quest.”
“Are you sure you didn’t pick this card?” Sam asked.
Annie laughed. “It’s your card, not mine. Were you planning a trip?”
Sam turned red. “I’ve been thinking about my mother.”
“Maybe wait a while and work on yourself before you leave me alone again,” Annie muttered.
Sam sighed. “No worries there—the library is my way into the past and I’m not in charge of it. What’s with the other two cards?”
Annie reached for the card on the lower left. “This represents what’s holding you back.” She turned over the Ten of Cups. “The meaning of this card is true emotional fulfillment—love and contentment.” Annie glanced at him. “It’s one of the most positive cards in the deck.”
He laughed. “That one I get. The idea of being away from you makes me feel hollow and sick.”
Annie smiled. “Let’s see how to push forward,” she murmured, turning over the last card on the lower right.
Sam learned forward. “The Magician seems fitting,” he muttered. “Does this mean I have to get my powers back first?”
Annie shrugged. “One interpretation is that you will get everything you need to move forward. But what that means for you, I don’t know.”
“It means my magic. I can’t travel into the past the way I am now.”
Annie liked the life they had, the quiet contentment of living together and being lovers. “I would hate it if you left, but I promise I won’t hold you back.”
Sam smiled. “You’ll tell the library to provide a door for me?” He leaned forward and touched his lips to hers. “I have never been this happy. I love living without magic, puzzling over how to put things together and the physical labor involved.”
“And what about that part of you that seems to appear every time we make love? I’d say that’s also a part of your magic.”
“I was unusually strong as a kid—I remember that now. But whether I was born with it or it came about because of the Institute, I’m not sure.”
