“Wait. Fix what? You still haven’t explained,” Devon says, not-so-patiently now.
“Aren’t any of you getting off?” Captain Jim asks us, followed closely by Cade.
“Not yet,” we all say in unison.
He raises his brow. “Fine, I will take us into the hangar.”
Hangar?
“What is going on?” Cade asks me as he comes over and gives me a kiss. On the mouth!
I push him away. “What the fuck, Cade?”
“Livvie?” he peers at me. “What’s wrong, baby?”
Livvie? Baby? Oh, shit. What the hell does this timeline Liv think she is playing at? I want to throw up and I am pretty sure that CK does too as he pales and sits. Jess rushes to his aid with a glass of Scotch and I am sure I throw up just a little in my mouth.
I take a giant step back from everybody and say, “This is all wrong. Let us explain, without interruption, and you will see. You will see this is, just, wrong.”
“Wrong!” CK yells again, pulling away from Jess who has wrapped her arms around him, resting her head on his shoulder.
“Okay, Liv. Explain, sweetie, but we do need to hurry this up. The kids are waiting for us,” Lincoln says, coming to stand next to me with a curious look.
Kids? I think in horror as I hit the deck of the G6 as I pass out.
“Liz, baby. Are you okay?” Devon asks, cradling my head in his lap.
I put my hand to my forehead and see eve
ryone peering at me. I glance at CK and his face tells me everything I need to know. Yes, we are still in the alternate universe where everything is fucked up.
“No. I am not okay. None of this is okay. How can you be okay?” I sit up suddenly and gesture around. “I know I am not being true to one where I come from but Christ, Dev. You stand there and put up with me turning Cole because we are ‘in love’ and an affair with Cade and… and kids with Lincoln and…”
“And kids with me,” Cade says, holding up his hand
“What?” I yell. “Are you insane?” I look back at Devon.
He looks shocked and upset by my words. “Well, when you put it like that it sounds bad, but I love you, Lizzie. I know you love me. You are Queen, it doesn’t matter to me who you want or what you do as long as you always stay married to me. That’s what we agreed on,” he says.
More agreements, oh geez. “What is my relationship with CK?” I ask, not even wanting to know.
“Well, if you don’t know, how am I supposed to?” Devon asks.
“I don’t know. We aren’t from here. We landed here from a different time. No, not a different time, we changed things when we went back. We fucked up, badly,” I say, standing. I check my hands and I have the exact same rings on and a look at CK’s hands tells me the same, but then that doesn’t mean much as we landed here as we were.
Devon sees me look at my hands. “Those aren’t the rings I gave you,” he says. “And where did you get that from?” he asks as he points to the blue diamond.
“I told you, we are not the people you know.”
CK stands then. “Aefre and I had an argument, then she time-travelled us back to London in the year 1012. We saw ourselves meet for the first time in the marketplace. I wanted to set things right, set the course that should have been. She was my destiny and I wanted to ensure that we got what we had been denied,” he states as everyone stares at him, speechless. “I told my past self to take her and run. Clearly, though, something went awry,” he says dryly. He takes my hand. “Come, Aefre, you need to try and get us back where we belong. This place is…” he shudders, “unpleasant.”
“No, you can’t go,” Devon says. “You are my wife. You belong here with me. You are so different, whatever happened on your travels…” He stops, looking me up and down with a renewed sense of love.
I shake my head. “No, Dev. I am Cole’s wife.”
“What?” Cole says to me. “No. That’s not right.”
“Yes, it is, baby. You gave me these rings. I turned you in Monte Carlo last May. We got married and I became Queen. Lincoln, I only met you in June last year and Xane, only a couple of weeks ago. I don’t have kids…” Btw I don’t even want to know. I add, “Dev, I did turn you in 1506, but in a barn after your mother nearly killed you. No Holy union and we didn’t get married. And you turned Jess,” thankfully, I think to myself, “four days ago, in Vegas. Seb, I don’t know how we are involved here but I only met you a few weeks ago, as well,” I say.