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Chapter 1
"Welcome back, Milady,” the doppelgänger said with a suave accent.
I didn’t have time to recover from the shock when he took my hand and pulled me up too fast for my weakened state. My knees buckled, and I crashed into his chest. He smelled of cedar wood, expensive soaps, and a light whiff of frankincense. It took me a second to recover from my olfactory overload. The outline of his chest felt familiar, but, at the same time, it didn’t feel exactly like Gabriel’s body, just as I remembered not several hours ago.
“Are you okay, Milady?” he asked, displaying the same playful smile I remembered. “Did you miss me already? You have been in my embrace not too long ago. If you already feel such anguish, how should I react when I waited to see your sweet face and supple mouth for five hundred years.” He cupped my chin and caressed my lips with his thumb. The impostor still wore the wedding ring on his finger.
Startled, I pushed him away. “That is not possible. You cannot be Gabriel,” I said fretfully.
“And what made you reach such a conclusion, Milady?” asked the doppelgänger with open arms as he walked closer. “Was it my improved style compared to my medieval counterpart or that I am half a millennium old?”
I tried to utter something, anything, but my vocal cords decided to bail on me. I could hardly blame them.
He stepped closer, took my hand in his, and kissed it. All the while, he maintained eye contact.“If only you knew how many times I dreamed of this very moment. Alas, I expected such a reaction, so I came prepared.” The Gabriel impersonator shoved his arm into his perfectly steamed trousers and pulled out a handkerchief. The handkerchief with our initials I made for him in Wallachia. “I also have your phone, pocketknife, and white bag, but unfortunately, the latter has seen better days, and I had it framed in glass.”
I completely forgot I had left my bag back in the past. There was no way this man could be anyone else except Gabriel. “But how did this happen?”
“Ah, now that is a question that must be answered at dinner,” he said, grabbing my hand. “You must be famished. Let’s go. I made a reservation for a nice restaurant close by.”
“You made a reservation? Restaurant?” I asked, dumbfounded. Was I finally going to eat something else besides cheese and bread? This was not the time to think about food, Petra. I made a few steps and accidentally knocked something. When I looked, I saw the water bottle I had left before traveling. What was it doing here? I rushed to grab it. It didn’t look tarnished, broken, or anything.
“How much time did it pass since I left and returned?” I asked.
“Well,” Gabriel said, looking at his very expensive watch, “from the moment you traveled and returned, it’s been about twenty-four hours.”
“What?” I interjected. I worried so much about my parents thinking I had been gone missing for two years, and they just had their morning coffee. Time really did a number on me. “But how is that possible? Wouldn’t time work the same no matter what year?”
“The present takes longer to permeate the cloth of time. But once it’s embedded in history, it resembles more like a slope. In other words, it takes a long time for history to happen and much less to relive it.”
“I remember the seer saying something similar. So, you’re saying one cannot travel into the future?” I asked.
“What is a future but a perpetual present?” he said as he glanced and smiled radiantly at me.
Several tourists turned to us after hearing our talk. “It is best to continue our discussion in a more private place. Come. My car is parked next to the palace.”
I ran to take my warmed-up water bottle and returned to grab his hand. We walked through the gates and out into the sidewalk. Suddenly, I was hit by the culture shock of modern times. The smell of hot tar from the nearby repairers fixing the road, the honks of passing cars, and the rapid pace of life overwhelmed my senses. Without even noticing, I halted.
“Is everything all right?” The doppelgänger’s voice awoke me from my dazed state.
“Everything that previously seemed normal is too much to take now,” I said.
“We only have a short walk till we reach the alley where the car is parked. Can you walk? For there is always the option for me to carry you,” he said and smiled.
“No, I can walk.” I wasn’t sure I could trust him yet, though my gut feeling told me it was indeed him, if only in a different stance. If medieval Gabriel leaned forward, always ready for attack, the modern one had a relaxed and assured poise to his walk.
While he still held my hand, probably to make sure I wouldn’t disappear again, we crossed the road and entered a dark, secluded alley. For a moment, I began fearing for my life. How could I believe he could be Gabriel? No one lived for hundreds of years. And the stone turned to dust when I time-traveled. I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. This had to be an impostor, and I was knee-deep in trouble. Then he stopped next to a luxurious, black Mercedes and opened the door to the back seats.
“Is this your car?” I asked.
“It is our car, Milady,” he said.
“Are you sure you’re not a kidnapper?” Nervousness always made me ask stupid questions.
He laughed with his signature radiancy and said, “I’m surprised it took you this long to question me. But I’m glad the doubting historian researcher in you has once again resurfaced. I realize that your handkerchief could’ve been stolen, but the knowledge of you I hold dearly in my mind could dispel any form of reluctance. Come, ask me any question,” he said.
And just like my stare, my brain went blank.
“If you wish, I could help you,” he said. “The first time we met was when His Majesty held his first speech in the Great Hall.” He made a step closer. “Our first date was at the river where animals sent by Muma Padurii accosted you. I’ll always keep the memory of you in your most vulnerable state, clutching onto me as we returned to the castle.” He made another step. “Our first kiss was the same night, under an oak tree in the courtyard. Remember? You ran away afterward.” On his last step, we were mere inches from one another. “Are you going to run away now as well?” He whispered into my lips and then gave me a short peck.
