Page 55 of High Noon

Titus leaned against the wall with crossed arms, shaking his head. “Do you know a good way to tell if your feelings are real, or if his are?”

“How?”

“You go home. You go home and see if he’s done anything to prevent the hell we lived in, or if he still causes it, knowing what he knows because of what you’ve told him. If Enoch is different, if he makes choices that stop all this from happening, he loves you. Because anyone who loves someone else will do what’s best for that person. Not what’s best for themselves.” He pushed off the wall and walked towards where I sat on the bed, looking into my eyes earnestly. “Enoch… is selfish. He says he loves you, but how does he show it? And I’m not talking about holding hands or steamy kisses or flowery professions of his affection, but real action. People say a lot of things, but what they actually do will tell you what their mouth doesn’t.”

I swallowed, wondering if Titus was right. Enoch told me he wanted me like I am, but the only way I would be like this is if everything happened the same as it did before we jumped. Meaning, he wouldn’t have changed a thing.

But I wanted him to. I needed him to make a better future. For me. For him. For us and for the world.

Maru pushed off the wall and stretched his arms over his head, letting them fall to his sides. “He’s right. Don’t stay for him, Eve. Go and see what he does for you. Better yet, go for us,” he challenged. “If things are the same or worse than when we left, we will need you to fight with us, Eve. Because war is looming. It’s never been closer. We’ve been sparring up until now, but all the small slays are nothing compared to what’s coming.”

“It’ll be all hands on deck,” Titus warned. “We need you, and I need you to have my back. Maru can fight alone, for once.” Titus grinned in my trainer’s direction.

Maru flipped him off and leveled me with a glare. “Are we a team?”

“Always have been,” I answered.

“Always will be,” Titus responded with finality. “Do you want me to try to link us?”

Even before I said the words, I knew they were going to fight me on this. “Can I just have one night? In the morning we’ll get linked up, and Yarrow can do her thing and drag us back home. But can I just have tonight with Enoch?”

Maru’s lips went thin.

“I know you don’t want to stay here any longer than you have to, Maru, but this might be all I have with him. You can’t argue that when we land back in our time, things might have changed for the worse. As much as Yarrow thinks she can help, she may not be able to.”

I didn’t want to say it out loud, but if Victor or Kael intercepted one or all of us…

“Tonight,” he answered grimly, looking to Titus, who repeated his answer.

“Tonight. We link in the morning.”

I needed to find Enoch and spend every second I could with him. I had a feeling they would be our last.

* * *

When Enoch returned,I told him what the three of us had decided; that we would link together in the morning, which would signal Yarrow to pull us home, hopefully using Enoch as our target.

“You could stay for a few days. Kael isn’t planning to pull you back this soon.”

“He could literally pull us any minute, Enoch. I may not even have until morning, but if he doesn’t act, this time is all I can offer. Maru is really worried about what’s happening back home. We need to go and set things right. We need to help you.”

“What if you get there and Victor finds a way to make you believe I’m the enemy again?”

“I need you to make it abundantly clear that you aren’t, so no matter what happens, I know without a shadow of a doubt that you are not my enemy.”

“How can I do that?”

“I need you to change the world.”

“Is that all?” he asked, giving a nervous laugh.

“That’s all.”

“Well, assume I’m able to do that. You still don’t need to leave so soon.”

He was a great negotiator. Logical to a fault. But I made a promise to my friends. A promise I wouldn’t break, even for him.

“Whether it happens tomorrow or the day after won’t matter if we find each other in the future.”

---