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“As long as I reach my destination.”
“You will, Miss. There’s no doubt about it.”
This man talked as if he knew more about my situation than he feigned. I had to find out if he was somehow connected to Gabriel and his kingdom. “Do you by any chance know who Gabriel––”
“We’re here, Miss.” The taxi driver turned toward me. “Did you have a question for me?”
“No, let’s leave it at that. Here.” I handed him the money plus a large tip and exited the car.
“I wish you luck on your next adventure, Miss,” the professor/taxi driver said and drove off.
I turned toward the castle’s gates, and a heavy dose of nostalgia hit me. Every inch of my surrounding had been stepped on by some of the best people I’ve known, and I was about to see them again.
I looked at the time on my phone. One hour was left before the palace closed. I needed to rush. The same booth lady welcomed me and handed me a ticket. My legs ran toward the entrance as if floating on a cloud. I sprinted passed the church, the additional constructions, and straight into the cellar. The few people wandering around looked at me as if I resembled a ghost. And in a way, I felt like one. For my soul lived five hundred years in the past close to the love of my life. I still couldn’t believe I was about to see him again. “I’m coming to you, Gabriel.Soon we’ll be together once more.”
I waited for the other tourists to leave the premises, placed the repaired pendant around my neck, and recited a new spell. After studying the Glinting Book thoroughly, I realized the more emotionally-charged the words were, the easier it was to time travel. And given the powers of this particular stone, I could recite a chant that could send me to the exact time I wanted.
“Magnus oculus draconis
mitte me ad quatuordecim quinquaginta
novem ubi dereliqui dilectum meum.”
And then waited. And waited. And waited a little more. But the transition never came. “Mother fudger!” Out of rage, I threw the pendant on the ground. Why did they even make these stones if they worked only half the time? “Oh, no, no, no.” I rushed to grab it. “I can’t afford to break you.” I wiped the dust off it.
“Now what?” I thought as I sat dejectedly on the ground.
“Miss,” a voice spoke. “The palace is closing in fifteen minutes.”
I rose to my feet and followed the staff to the exit.
“We will be open tomorrow morning,” she said and closed the gate in my face.
If only she knew it was a matter of life and death. My life and death. I withered on the idea of having to wait another day to see him.
I wandered the streets of Târgovi?te. I felt like someone shoved me into a snow globe, and I was just living the ride. A never-ending circle of rides around the world, past and present. If only there was someone who had knowledge of both. Then I remembered I had friends in the vicinity, Nadia’s great-great-great-great-granddaughter. From the one flicker of hope, I regained all my strength and sprinted toward what I remembered to be her office building.
I didn’t care about how far I had to run or if I risked getting lost in a town I knew only as its past version. I simply ran toward everything I fought for so long. By the time I reached the seer’s office building, I was out of breath, cramps began crumpling my body, and I could barely reach the door.
And, of course, the door was locked. Just my kind of luck. I began frantically knocking on it, ignoring the potential ruckus it might cause. I banged on the door as if my life depended on it till I heard someone.
“Can’t you read? We’re closed,” a woman’s voice said.
“Please, I need to talk to Cassia. My name is Petra. I need her help.” Dehydration made me slur my words. “I mean no harm.”
Finally, the door opened, and a robe-wearing Cassia appeared in front of me. “What are you doing here, Milady?”
“I need your help,” I said, struggling to produce words. “And water.”
“Come inside.”
After I entered the building and received a much-needed cup of water, I asked, “Do you live here?”
“The lot is my property. Why wouldn’t I live here?”
We walked into her office, and each took a seat in our respective places.
“So what’s going on, Milady?”
