“I’m Maia,” I whispered. “And you can be calm now, my friend.”
Before us the waters stretched deep and still. Eerily quiet after the rush of the waves against the wood of the boat. I settled back into the boat and found Tristram’s eyes burning bright like fires. “What?”
“You are something else.” His hand reached for my waist and he pulled me closer. I didn’t resist as his lips met mine. It was all I wanted. The boat bobbed in the water unguided and unmoored but unmoving all the same. The water itself kept us still.
My lips were hungry, crashing into his mouth, my hands in the fair gold of his hair. He sighed, pulling me tighter, our bodies at once hard and soft.
I couldn’t leave this place without knowing him.
I couldn’t live without him one more moment. It felt fundamental to my soul. I needed him. Needed us.
Tristram and Mae. It was who we were.
My hands skimmed under his shirt, brushing his flushed skin and he sucked in a gasp. One of his thumbs ran along my spine, releasing a shiver of anticipation that created a heavy ache in my legs.
“I’ve wanted you my entire life,” he whispered, his words rushing into my heart.
“You’ve had me your whole life.”
We sank into the bow of the boat, lost to one another, our hands and lips searching and finding everything that we needed. And together, finally as one, I felt the enormous power I contained within reach up into the sky, lighting the heavens with our glory before settling back within me burning as bright as all the stars in the night sky.
He was my chosen one.
I knew it in my soul.
“You know I have to go back through those stones.”
His fingers stroked through my hair. “Aye, I know.”
I rolled a little so I could watch his face in the moonlight.
“I’ve learned a lot in Rome. More than I ever expected. I’m a goddess. It’s insane.”
“I think I’ve always known.”
I elbowed him gently. “Of course you didn’t.” My face fell. “But I’ve found out something, and I don’t know how to tell you.”
His eyebrow lifted. “You’ve seen me at my most vulnerable. Now you are going to bring me down?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I came back because I wanted to save you and Mae. I didn’t want you to die on those stones, for your lives to end like that.”
Tristram nodded, his nose skimmed mine as he leant forward and brushed his lips against my mouth. “But we have to die, don’t we?”
A tear rolled down my cheek and he caught it on his fingertip, popping it quickly into his mouth. “I don’t know any other way. Claudius said he always finds me. But I know he hasn’t. I haven’t been there to find. Now he is searching for me, the Mage has come for me again, but they don’t realise I know who I am. If you and Mae have the chance to tell the others who we are before it happens then they can pass down the knowledge. We could have an army ready to fight them.” I dragged in a shuddering breath. “The world I live in. Nature is at breaking point; the earth is at its limit, but I can heal it. I can take down those who seek to ruin it. I can give it back what it needs. If you and Mae live out your lives in anyway other than what has already happened, then that won’t be the case.”
A gentle sob rocked my chest and I clutched him close, tears slipping down my own cheeks.
“I don’t think I can’t not protect you.”
“I know. It’s why I’m telling you. Begging you. Don’t you see, you will be protecting her. You will be protecting her from thousands of years of being chased by that man. We have to break the cycle here, and I didn’t realise before that that is what you and Mae did. I thought you died for nothing, but you gave everything. This time when I meet the god of war again,” my words caught in my throat, “When I see you again, I will have knowledge on my side. I will be able to pull glory from an earth that it hasn’t felt in a long, long time.”
“But they could feel it always with you, with us if we lived.”
“And have men like that come and find us? Find our descendants? Better he thinks we are dead, that it is over.”
Tristram’s dark eyes found mine, soul searching and deep. “Promise me you love me in two thousand years.”
“With all my heart.”
We stared at one another, the boat gently rocking, reminding us we needed to reach our destination. “Promise me you will help our line, our legacy.”
“For as long as I have breath in my body, and then I shall swear that Augustus do the same.”
“That Augustus?” I lifted an eyebrow. “Don’t greet him like that. He might not be willing to help us.”
Tristram grunted and then mumbled something about helping me under his breath as he rolled up.
“How will we all find each other in this future you speak of?” He looked out at the wide and dark sea, his lips stretched into a taut line.
“I think it’s the place. It’s our homeland, Tristram. Fire Stone, where we lived and died. The land is ours.”
“Then we’d better get back to it.”
He pointed out at the horizon and I blinked in surprise at the dim shape of headland up above. “Has the boat guided us here, while we…?”
He smirked and I blushed.
“Aye, goddess it has. Let’s get you home.”
I nodded but my heart thudded heavily.
Was I doing the right thing? I didn’t know.
How could I know.
Four days later we slipped into the settlement. It was
