Page 31 of High Stakes

“I don’t have any,” he replied, throwing an elbow over his eyes. “Yet.”

“Kael would’ve taken the plague into account before sending us here,” I tried to reassure him.

He snorted. “The moron sent us to the wrong time, so I wouldn’t be so sure of that.”

“He didn’t make a mistake, Titus. He sent us exactly where he intended.”

Titus moved his arm from his eyes and raised his head, a sign of life coming to his eyes for the first time. “What are you talking about?”

Chapter Thirteen

I told him where I first landed and the people I’d scared, along with their names.

“Adam, Eve, and Edenshire...” Titus muttered to himself. “That son of a bitch.”

I nodded my head in agreement. “He meant to send us here, and he wanted me to know it.”

“Do you think we can get back home?” he asked as he sat up, his arms propped up on his knees.

I didn’t have an answer for him and didn’t know what to say, so I just waited for him to come to the same conclusions I had. Titus stood and began to angrily pace. “There’s something else you should know,” I began. Titus paused his stride and met my eyes. “A man has been coming down here and bringing me tea. When they first brought me here I had a fever, and he was trying to help me.”

“The blanket came from him?” he asked, eyeballing the wadded-up fabric on my cot.

“Yes. Titus… he saw my hand. My tech has been messed up since I landed, but it lit up for a minute and he saw it when he came back last night. He thinks it’s magic.”

Titus swore softly. “Who is he?”

“I don’t know. Just the jailer, I think, but he knew you had tech in your hand, too. I guess he saw it when they brought you in. He’ll tell Enoch, if he hasn’t already. We have to get out of here.”

Titus cursed again.

“There’s something else. My tech is damaged, and if it isn’t repaired, I won’t be able to go home. I know you’re okay at fixing things, so I thought maybe—”

“I’m better than okay and you know it,” he interrupted, scooting closer to the bars. “Let me see it.”

I sat next to the bars and he settled beside me on his side. I threaded my arm through the bars and he went to work, encountering the same issues I did earlier.

“It’s on,” he announced. “Wait, it turned off again.”

“I know,” I answered, exasperated. “That’s the problem. It won’t stay on.”

“Could be a systems glitch,” he pondered.

I sighed. “Could be. It could have gotten damaged when I splattered onto the ground.”

He nodded distractedly, typing in a series of commands I didn’t know. “Possibly.”

“Everything of yours is working?” I asked.

“Yeah. I haven’t had any issues at all, Eve.” A cold shiver worked its way up my body and I trembled. “Is your suit damaged, too?”

I shook my head. “The suit’s fine.”

He ticked his head back. “And you’re still cold?” I didn’t like the look he gave me. It wasn’t a That’s not a good sign look. It was a You could be stuck here forever or have the plague look. Neither of those was an option.

“I don’t have the plague, Titus. Yes, I had a fever, and I’ve felt ‘off’ since I got here, but I think it’s just a side effect of travelling.”

He quirked a brow. “A side effect I’m not experiencing?”

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