Page 48 of Beyond Reason

I was lucky I was so close to him, or he would have hit the ground hard. I didn’t know what to do though—he jerked in my arms like he was having a seizure, and for all I knew, that’s exactly what was happening. I didn’t understand anything about how he’d gotten here, or what kept him tethered to the body he was in. The information on the flash drive might as well have been another language to me—I was barely tech smart, and I definitely wasn’t science smart. Reincarnation and pulling souls from past to present made no sense to me.

But Xavier jerking in my arms like he was in pain was enough to make me a believer in whatever god invented souls to begin with if it meant I could pray for it to stop.

“Xavier, please. Baby,” I whispered the word and stroked my fingers through his hair. “Come on.”

The violent motion finally stopped, but his eyes didn’t open. I could see them moving restlessly behind his shut lids, and I noticed the instant his expression shifted.

It was strange.

Unfamiliar.

He murmured beneath his breath in a voice that I didn’t recognize, that didn’t have the soft lilt of his accent.

“It’s not right.”

I froze. Had something happened? Because I could tell from the set of his mouth, from the tone of his voice and the way his brows pulled together, that the man in my arms wasn’t Xavier.

“Xavier?” I still couldn’t stop myself from saying his name.

“It’s not... Deke, they didn’t do anything wrong. We can’t just let them keep doing this.” The voice that wasn’t Xavier was a little slurred, so soft. So timid and afraid and unfamiliar that I wanted to scream.

I couldn’t see Xavier in his face. I couldn’t hear him in his voice.

“Who are you?” I whispered, and nearly dropped him when he responded.

“Marshall.”

No.

No, no, no.

No.

“Xavier, please.” I cupped his cheek and pressed my forehead to his. “Please, wake up.”

Memories weren’t important. Trying to get him to understand what had happened wasn’t important.

Fuck, if he woke up and he didn’t remember me, I’d spend the rest of my life making him fall in love with me all over again. I just couldn’t do this. I couldn’t have him so close and then taken away from me again.

I couldn’t have some hollow ghost version of him walking around with a too sweet voice and an expression that looked innocent even with his eyes closed.

“Don’t cry,” the voice murmured. “You sound so sad when you do.”

Fuck, the wrong voice was comforting me, and it just made me hold him harder.

“Please… I’m sorry that your life was cut short, but I can’t lose him again. Just…” I lowered us both to the grass and laid my head on his chest.

It let me press my ear to the unfamiliar rhythm of his heart.

It let him bring his arms up to gently stroke along my back.

“Shh, you’re okay.”

Even though it wasn’t Xavier, he still seemed compelled to hold me, to touch me.

Past lives. Soulmates.

Was some version of him always supposed to be in love with some version of me?

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