Chapter 5

Chapter

Five

GRAYSON

P rue was taking this awfully well. Almost too well. In a matter of hours, I've made her leave her house, told her she's some form of supernatural human, a group of people were after her, and that she has to save the universe. And she's casually sitting next to me. Calmly? No screaming? The girl who fainted when she first saw me? Something's wrong.

"Tell me the plan." Her words hang between us as I contemplate what more to share with her.

"How do you feel about heights?" I ask, and she fucking shrugs at me.

"Don't have an issue with them." She clarifies for my benefit.

I lean back against the bench we're on, my arm stretching out behind her. "We're going to time jump to Earth Two's time stream." I point in front of us, to the ledge that's a few feet away. "Using this hill." I'm going for blatant honesty, but still no response from her. She remains sitting there, no expression, her hands on her lap. No nervous movements at all.

"What do you mean?" Finally she speaks.

"We're going to propel ourselves off the hill, and I'll use my abilities to shift us into the right time stream," I say.

She shifts, she looks forward then back at me, and repeats the motion a few times. Then she leans over the side of the bench we're sitting on and throws up. There we go—the normal-freaked-out reaction I was expecting.

"You okay?" Clearly she isn't. But what else can I ask?

I cup the back of her neck, lingering there so my cold fingers can provide some relief to her hot skin. She heaves again, straightens, and turns to me, the action causing my hand to snake around her neck, as if I was pulling her closer. I drop my arm, and she shifts a bit away from me. Her green eyes are glossy, and her cheeks are flushed. She rakes a hand through her hair.

"No," she says flatly.

She grabs a bottle of water out of her backpack, rinses her mouth out, and finds a piece of gum. I give her space to do what she needs to, attempting to not let my impatience work me into an annoyed state. But time is against us here. The longer the time streams remain ripped, the harder it will be to repair them. Not to mention, people will be coming for us sooner rather than later.

"Prue, can you try walk me through what's going on with you?" I wave across her, giving her the floor.

She clears her throat. "I somehow both believe you and don't believe you. I'm sitting here wondering, if I have lost my mind, which some would say wouldn't be unexpected. Except you clearly had a conversation with Andria back at the restaurant so you're real. And I saw what you did to that flower, but now you're expecting me to jump off a hill and fix the universe. Me? Prue? The girl who's been so inconsequential her entire life that the foster system didn't even notice when I went missing. Yet, I'm supposed to believe I'm a Time Witch?" She pauses and flinches at the word ‘witch.'

I stay silent. We don't have time to be delving into her past, but I'm the idiot who brought it up. So how do I play this? I have a few options, ranging from picking her up and running off the fucking cliff, which is the most appealing option to me currently. Or I can talk to her about it and work our way to a middle ground. She's leaning back against the bench, her eyes closed, and where her eyelashes meet her cheek under her right eye, that one individual freckle stands out. I trail my gaze down her face, finding the other freckle on her lip. I need a compromise here. I can't throw her off the cliff, yet.

"We have to go. I know you have more questions. Which I'll answer, but the only way you'll figure this out and find out who you are is if you come with me and fix the time streams," I say, attempting to use some semblance of rationale to reason with her.

"Okay, so, not only do I supposedly need to save your universe and mine? But I'll only get the answers I duly deserve if I come with you and fix everything?" She gestures between us then at everything around her.

"Yes."

"What the fuck, Grayson?"

"Final offer, Prue. Otherwise, I'm leaving, and you'll be a simple observer to what happens." I stand up and grab the small bag of clothes I repossessed while here.

"Fuck. Fine." She huffs, stands and stares me down. "I want you to know, this is the most idiotic thing I have ever done." She pauses and pokes me in the chest. "The. Most. Idiotic."

"Don't worry, darling. We'll top that soon enough."

I'm about to jump off a cliff. You know when adults say to you, would you jump off a cliff if your friends told you to, the obvious answer was always no? Turns out, all I need for someone to convince me to do just that, is for a naked, dark haired, chiseled guy to land in my garden, threaten the destruction of my world, and inform me that people are after me because I'm a Time Witch.

Hold on. I jerk back for a second. Naked? Grayson was in no way clothed when he landed on my lawn. The image of his penis flashes in my head once more.

"Grayson," I screech.

"What?" He's taken aback and turns from looking down the cliff and stares at me with raised eyebrows.

"You were naked when you arrived in my garden," I say and gesture toward his torso.

"Indeed," he replies.

God, he was frustrating with his one-to-two-word answers wherever possible. It wasn't a redeeming quality of his.

"Right, let me rephrase. You were naked when you time jumped into my garden, so why are we taking clothes with us? And what the hell?"

"Uh." His hand goes to the back of his head, and a slow smirk appears across his mouth. "You don't need to worry about that. That was an extenuating circumstance. You'll arrive fully clothed and with your bag."

"Care to elaborate?"

"I'll make you a deal. You save the universe, then I'll tell you why I arrived naked on your lawn." He gives me a small wink and faces the cliff again.

"I'll keep that in mind." I shift marginally closer to him. My feet are sweating through my socks, because of the nerves. I don't know why, but deep down I sense Grayson's telling the truth, that I somehow can do this. What I don't understand is, other than my little throwing up session, why am I not freaking out more?

"We should do this now," he says and holds his hand out for me to take.

I nod, stepping forward but not taking his hand yet. "How does this work?."

"I'll explain in a second. Come here." He extends his hand a bit more.

I sigh in annoyance. Right now, I have to do what he wants, but as soon as I can, I will gain control of the situation. I take another step toward him and take his hand. My fingers loop with his, and he grips my hand tightly. He's icy, but I can't think about that too much when he pulls me into his side.

"What do we do now?" I ask softly, because I'm pushed up against him, and he has me right at the edge of the cliff.

He catches my gaze. "This."

And before I can process what he's said, we're tumbling. The wind's shoving against my body, and I want to scream, but I don't because I'm trying to get a better grip on Grayson. I shut my eyes, attempting to block out the image of the ground rushing up. There aren't enough seconds for me to contemplate exactly what decisions I made to land me here, in this situation.

"Open your eyes," he says into my ear. "Come on," he coaxes and I finally do.

We are still falling or at least it feels like falling, but when I take a minute to look around, I notice we're not in complete darkness. There are bright specks of light, in different colors from silver to pink to gold everywhere.

"You have to trust your instincts when you jump. You can't overthink it." He hasn't let go of my hand, and his other hand is firmly on my waist holding me in place. It doesn't do much to stop the sensation that I am tumbling, and the air is rushing past us.

"What are these lights?" I gasp, mesmerized by them.

"All of the time streams available to us." He says simply.

"They look like stars." I take a deep breath, trying to ignore the lurching feeling as we keep pushing ahead.

"They are. Stars are the physical manifestation of everything that has happened and will happen," he says.

"Grayson." I want to ask him how he knows where to go, and how this all exactly works, but my words are cut off. Before us is a growing purple light, similar to when he landed. Somehow, I know that's where we are going.

"This is going to feel weird," he says.

As he does, a sensation like I'm being shoved into this purple orb hits me. I'm falling once again, and with a heavy weight pushing against me. I'm condensing, and now I really want to scream.

I can't breathe. My lungs are being crushed as we hurtle through time. His grip on me tightens, but I'm slipping away.

"Prue," he yells. "Stop! You have to focus!"

Focus on what? I'm spiraling out of control. A painful roaring sound fills my ears. His face blurs in front of me. I'm desperate to hold onto him, but my fingers pass right through his.

I'm flung free, spinning wildly. I catch glimpses of stars and darkness. He reaches for me, shouting something I can't hear over all the noise. I flounder for his hand, but the force pulling me is too strong.

"Prue!" His voice echoes distantly. "Stop! You'll rip us apart!"

"Prue—ack—Don't—find you!"

His words reach me, but I can't seem to decipher them and all I see is his panicked face. I have no idea how to stop what I'm doing.

"Prue—ack—Don't—find you," he yells at me again, but I still can't make out what he is saying.

A blinding flash makes me squeeze my eyes shut. When I open them again, Grayson is gone. I'm alone, still falling.

Panic rises in my chest. What have I done? How do I get back? I flail my arms, searching for something, anything to grab onto. But there's nothing but empty space.

The darkness lightens. Details barely swim into focus below me—trees, the ground racing up. I brace myself for the impact.

Then everything goes black.