Chrysoprase (The Chalcedony Chronicles) Read Free Page B

in the past. The life she knew was here. How can this not be her time?” I tried to logically fight with the goddess. I did have a valid point.
    “I didn’t make the rules, and I cannot change them. One must return to where they are born,” the goddess replied. Her voice was farther away now. She sounded as if she we standing on the other side of the room. “But not all is lost. Mari, you can see your mom any time you wish. That is why I made sure to wait to take her from you. You now have the power to travel to her. I cannot change the past, or her fate, but I made sure you would never have to stay apart from her.”
    “But how?” I asked desperately.
    “You’ll learn in time. This cannot be rushed. You will learn,” the goddess’ replied as her voice began to fade. I felt that her presence was gone from the room. I was alone again.
    The goddess’s words were comforting, but it wasn’t enough. I sat back down on my bed and looked closer at the green stone. The etchings on the back were illegible, as they had been before, but I knew the secret to that now. I wanted to add a drop of blood and see if it would work, but I had to stop myself. I couldn’t run off quite yet. I needed to make a plan. There was no way I could leave her in that time, forced to marry someone she wasn’t in love with. No matter what the goddess said, my mother needed me, and she needed me to save her. I was going to get my mother back, but I’d need some help. I needed someone with a good grasp of what I was walking into. I wasn’t going to be unprepared this time. There was one person I could count on.
    I got up and ran back to my grandfather’s study. I needed to talk to Seth right away. He was up in the Twin Cities with his adoptive family, and he didn’t have a cell phone. Only he could use the excuse that he was too old for a cell phone. But I knew that it wouldn’t matter. There was one way to talk to Seth. He was Mr. Sangre’s adopted child, after all, and Mr. Sangre happened to be sitting in my house.
    Grandfather was still asleep as I entered, and I moved closer to Mr. Sangre while trying not to wake my grandfather. It was hard to look at my grandfather. He looked like he had aged ten years overnight. The strain of losing my mother was tough on him. Mr. Sangre looked up from his book as I came closer.
    “Do you have a phone number that I can reach Seth at?” I asked. Since we had returned to when we had left, Mr. Sangre should have already met the boys on their return weeks ago. Seth didn’t have a cell phone, but I doubted that he lived in a house without a landline phone in it.
    Mr. Sangre looked startled by the question.
    “I can give you the number to call Ty. He stayed back at their house on the lake for the holiday,” Mr. Sangre said.
    I looked at him. That was weird. Why would I call Ty instead of Seth?
    “But I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, Mari. You won’t be able to reach Seth by phone. He didn’t come back with Ty.”
    My world crashed down. I didn’t just lose my mother in my trip to the past; I had lost my boyfriend, too.
     
     
     
     

     
    Chapter 2
    Pieces of My Past
     
    I looked at the clock. It was already eight p.m. Sometime during my crying I had fallen asleep. I glanced at my phone. It was ringing again. That must have been why I woke up. I didn’t rush to answer it, since it wouldn’t be who I wanted to hear from anyways. A ringing phone made no difference now since Seth wasn’t here in my time. Who else would be calling me? It didn’t matter. Unless it was Ty calling. No one else would remember Seth, and I didn’t want to deal with that again. My heart broke the last time they were all forgotten; I didn’t think I could handle it again. I should talk to Ty and see what was going on, but I just wasn’t ready. I didn’t take the number from Mr. Sangre. Instead, he’d left it on my desk next to my phone at some point.
    Tears built behind my eyes as I thought about