Carnelian (17 page)

“You know, the program where they put people
into new identities because they saw something that they shouldn’t
have, and the only way to keep them safe is to give them a new life
where the bad people can’t find them,” I replied. It was odd that
he knew some things quite well, but others, like the witness
protection program, which everyone my age had heard about at some
time, he had no clue.

“I’ve seen a lot of things I shouldn’t have,
but nothing I need protection from,” Seth replied. “Any other
guesses?” he said with a slight smile at his lips.

“Well, I figured
no
on witness
protection, as those people are hiding and being a star quarterback
isn’t exactly hiding. That got crossed off my list also, but I
thought I’d throw it out there anyway. Now I’ve been trying to
think of other options.”

“You don’t believe then that I was adopted
from India by the Sangre family?” Seth wondered, still slightly
smiling.

“Um, no,” I replied like it was obvious.
“First off, my roommate’s family is from India. She said no way you
were Indian. Second off, I’m beginning to think you aren’t even
human with your super-healing abilities,” I added, causing his
smile to widen. My heart beat a little faster. I just called him
not human, and he was smiling.

“Not human? Then what would I be?” Seth
asked casually.

“I don’t know, an alien, an angel or demon,
a paranormal creature like a werewolf or vampire, a mutant?” I
answered, watching him each time I listed something waiting for him
to give me a clue. He didn’t take the bait, and I was still
clueless as to why he healed fast.

“The list is alien, angel, demon, werewolf,
vampire, or mutant?” Seth asked. “Where do you get this from? I’m
not green, nor have wings. Last time I checked I didn’t grow fur at
the full moon or have fangs. I have no clue what mutant means, but
I’m pretty sure I’m not that either.” My heart rate slowed. He was
right. I had never seen him do any of that.

“Mutant is someone that has had their DNA
changed to make them have super powers. You know… comic book
superheroes? People with super human abilities,” I added, but he
didn’t seem to know what they were either. I looked over to his
books and scanned through them again. Nothing there was even close
to a comic book. Again, how did he know about werewolves and
vampires, but not mutants? Seth was such a puzzle.

“You mean my healing?” Seth asked.

“Yes, that would be a classic superhero
ability,” I said. At least he was admitting it today.

“Not mutated,” Seth said. “As far as I know
my DNA is completely the same and nothing changed. At least I
wasn’t told if it did. I’m human. Just an ordinary human, nothing
fantasy or otherwise.”

“Then how, Seth, how?” I asked, getting a
bit frustrated. He was admitting to being different, yet not. It
was getting just confusing enough to make me a little short with
him.

“Well, since you were about to believe I was
some sort of monster creature, this might not be as hard to explain
as I thought. Just let me explain everything before you ask
questions,” Seth said as he ran his hands through his hair with a
sigh. He stood and moved over to sit next to me. He nodded at the
spot next to me as if asking permission. I nodded back, and he sat
back down. He was very close now I could feel little goose bumps on
my arms anticipating his touch. Seth turned and faced me to pick up
my hand in his. He drew circles on my hand as he gathered his
thoughts.

“I come from a place filled with war and
turmoil.” Seth paused a bit. I waited patiently for him to
continue. “There’s fighting at my country’s borders and fighting
within. Our current king was not born king. He got the job after
the last king died at nineteen without an heir. Some don’t feel
he’s the legitimate king. Others feel he doesn’t deserve the throne
until he produces an heir to keep the conflict of the next king at
bay. Either way, his rule is challenged.” Seth paused again. “I
really don’t know where to begin telling you. There was trouble in
my country before I was even born, and the past king had tried to
right some of it. It cost him his life, and his family’s rule. Our
current king took over, and although he’s a just man and rules
greatly, there are just too many problems to solve. He had the
nobles all upset and warring within the borders; and several
countries saw this as a time to strike our county borders. There
are four nations we’ve fought with for as long as our history goes
back, and we had been at peace with them. We are no longer at peace
with them. We are at war.”

“How do you fit into this?” I asked, and
then covered my mouth with my free hand. I wasn’t to talk. I
couldn’t help it. Seth just smiled.

“I was surprised you let me get out as much
as I did before you needed to ask.” Seth smiled. “I was a warrior
for my country. I was born the oldest son of my nation’s highest
military leader. My father heads the military and is the right hand
man to the king. I first went off to war as an assistant to my
father when I was fourteen. By the time I was seventeen I was given
control of a branch of our military.” By the time he was seventeen
made no sense. He was supposed to be adopted and living with the
Sangre family at that age.

“Okay, then how did you end up with Sangre?”
I asked, and again covered my mouth.

“I think you want me to get to the point,”
he teased me. He didn’t mind at all that I had interrupted him
twice now. “I had to do something or my country would fail. My
father had assigned me to scouting missions, and I took that upon
me to find an answer to our problem.”

“And one teenage boy could stop the wars?” I
asked in disbelief. Seth smiled and nodded his head.

“Maybe I’m a bit of a dreamer, but yes, I
thought so,” Seth replied. “Any more questions before I continue?”
he teased.

“Nope, I’ll try to wait,” I promised.
Waiting was a bit hard now that I was getting answers, even if they
seemed to mean very little right now. He came from a war-filled
country. That was going on around the world right now. I wasn’t too
up to date on what was happening around the world, but I had heard
of conflicts. There were always conflicts and always war.

Seth grinned at me and shook his head. Guess
he doubted I’d stay quiet as much as I doubted I would. “Along the
way, I heard tales of a goddess that would help those that prayed
to her. I had searched each community we passed through and found
the type of stone the goddess liked to take to her. No one could
tell me who the goddess was, only that she could help me. I went to
a cave that the locals told me about and prayed to her. She heard
my prayer, and she took me here. She said I’d find the answer in a
girl.”

“Any girl?” I asked.

“No, one in particular,” Seth replied. This
time he didn’t continue, but waited for me to reply.

“And that girl is me?” I whispered as I got
the hint.

“Yes. It’s you. I could tell the first time
you touched that stone. You reacted to it. The goddess’ stone
picked you.” Now it was getting harder to believe him. How could a
stone pick someone?

“And you were sure because I got poked by
that necklace.” I shook my head in disbelief. Another thought came
to me. “Is that why you’ve dated so many girls?” I asked.

“Yes, I was looking for the girl the goddess
said would help my country, but I didn’t show the stone to any of
them. The goddess stone just confirmed what I already knew. The
goddess said I’d know who the girl was when I fell in love with
her.” I took a deep breath. I wasn’t completely sure how to
interpret what he had said. Was Seth in love with me?

In order to change subjects, I asked, “And
I’m to help your war torn country how?” Seth seemed to notice the
subject change, but he didn’t stop me.

“I don’t know. She didn’t tell me that. She
just told me to find you,” Seth replied. He honestly looked
confused as to how I was meant to help him.

“I don’t even know where you’re from,” I
replied. How could I help him when I hadn’t clue what country the
Sangre family took him from?

“I don’t know where or when either,” Seth
replied, shrugging his response. “I wasn’t allowed to know.”

“When?” I asked. Did that mean he had some
sort of memory loss too?

“Sangre told us once we got here not to look
into what time we came from. The goddess transports people into the
future or past to accomplish what they are looking for,” Seth
replied. Things just got a bit more surreal and very
complicated.

I glanced at him. He was telling me he
wasn’t from my time. “Then you are, like, hundreds of years old or
something?” I was not up for falling for someone my grandfather’s
age.

“No, I’m just a twenty-year-old guy. I am
completely a normal human. Just not from this time. That’s why I
heal fast. When you’re living in a time that isn’t your own, you
can’t be killed as that would upset the time balance or something.”
Seth laughed. “I figure I’m at least from thousands of years ago.
Chariot fighting went out of style quite a bit ago from everything
I read; and, no, I am not thousands of years old. I really am
twenty. I was seventeen when I left my country, and I have been
here three years. I wasn’t left in a cocoon somewhere for a
thousand years waiting to come out.”

“How do you know that?” I asked.

“Because the goddess said we would return to
our time within moments of when we left. She brought us here to
find you, and she will put me back when I find out how you’ll save
my people. It’s more of an instantaneous process, blink your eyes
and you are there.”

My head swirled with thoughts. “Then you’ll
be leaving soon?” I asked, hopeful it would be a no. Even with all
the strangeness, I couldn’t deny I liked Seth.

Seth sighed. “I have to go
back. This isn’t my time. I’m needed back home.” I pulled my hand
back from his. Turned out that Seth Sangre
was
just like all the players. Once
he got what he wanted from me, he would be gone. “It isn’t that I
want to go back,” he quickly corrected, but I had already pulled
away. He stared at me, but I let my gaze fall to the floor. I hated
that I liked him. He was just going to break my heart. Maybe he
already did. Seth stood and started to pace the room.

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” he
complained as he walked. He mumbled a few words I didn’t understand
and kept pacing. “Why’d I have to fall for her to find her? You
could have just told me her name.” Seth talked to the space above
his head. I wondered if he was actually crazy. He talked to the air
like the goddess would just appear.

“And if I had done that, you would have
never accomplished your goal,” a deep female voice came into the
room. The voice surrounded us as she continued to talk. Seth made
his way back over to the window seat and sat down, like he needed
to respect the goddess. “You had to fall for her for her to save
your people. I didn’t just send you into a new world to chase any
girl. Marcella Navina is a very special girl.”

I shivered at the voice. She wasn’t that
scary with the rich female tones surrounding me, but it was more
just that it was real. Seth hadn’t been telling me a story. It was
easy to just distance myself and treat it as a tale. Even easier to
believe he was going crazy. But now it was real. I felt the
heaviness in the air. I felt her voice reverberate around us. I
felt the goddess.

My heart rate picked up as I went into a
fight or flight response. I was weighing my options. I was closer
to the door than Seth. Would he chase me?

“Child, I am not here to scare you,” the
voice said kindly. Between Seth and me, a haze began to form. I
couldn’t move. We were sitting inside, but it was more like being
outside on a foggy day. The fog swirled and the particles making up
the fog sparkled. The sparkles slowed down until the form of a
woman in a long flowing dress stood before me.

The goddess smiled as she floated near me. I
stared in awe. I had just been paralyzed by fear, but that melted
away at the sight of her. I still couldn’t move, but now I didn’t
want to. She was beautiful and magical. “It has been a long time
waiting for you to come. That is the problem when you can see the
past and the future. Sometimes the future can take longer than you
ever imagined,” she joked. The goddess actually joked with a
jingling laugh to go with it.

“You’ve been waiting to meet me?” I squeaked
out. My voice seemed loud in the silent room, yet very quiet next
to her.

“I have to wait to meet all my children,”
she replied. Seth sucked in his breath at her reply. “Yes, Seti. I
did not just send you off to find a girl. I sent you off to find
one of my children, a child of time.”

I stared up at the flowing, white, shimmery
figure. She was watching me, and now Seth was as well. I had no
clue what she was talking about, but they seemed to.

“I’m pretty sure I have a mom,” I answered
once I realized they were waiting for me to respond.

The goddess laughed again. It was almost
musical in the silent room.

“Yes, you have a mother, but all those
blessed by two times are my children. If you choose, you can have
the same abilities as all my children; the ability to walk through
time.” She reached out and caressed my face. Her touch was light as
a feather, and while I thought it would tickle, it did not. “You
are younger than I remember.”

The gentle touch felt like the breeze. I
felt like my internal alarm should be going off with the weird
ghost in front of me, but something about her was peaceful. I
wasn’t scared of her.

“Then you already know my future? Why not
speed things up and tell me how to help Seth?” I asked, still
barely only a whisper. I felt like a child questioning authority. I
looked up to her beautiful eyes and waited for an answer. If my
fate was already determined, then why would she send him on a quest
to find me? How could I help him on his way when I knew that he
would leave me and break my heart? I didn’t want to fall more in
love with Seth. He needed to go home.