Jumping through time became effortless after the first experience with my parents. At the age of sixteen, those chosen few would get their powers that had lain dormant since birth. Since their inception, the Hero Society tried to get word out to all humans about this occurrence, but my birthday had been six years shy of that. The info would have been nice to know though.
Ever since that day, I made a rule to not change the past for myself. It made my life worse than it was before, and I wasn’t taking a chance again.
I couldn’t express how many times I wanted to go back and not give Chasity a chance in that bar. It would be so easy to shift that timeline. But what if I did and somehow she was tied to me further, or married another and became president? She could. That woman was conniving enough to get whatever she wanted.
Everything happened for a reason. At least that’s what I told myself. I thought back to my first interaction with the Hero Society. They’d made a mess of things changing time once, but it fared well for them. At least that we knew of.
“Time travel. Tricky gift.” A man with long brown hair stepped forward and clasped my hand in a strong shake. His blue eyes scanned over me, and I retracted my hand nervously. These people knew about my powers and could help me use them for good.
“Draco, whose power was that?” A blonde woman with a small baby bump stepped forward. She had a pink birthmark on half her face, and Draco pulled her in to kiss her cheek before speaking. It was interesting to watch the couple be so open with their affection in front of me.
“Yeah. That’s Kronos. The Titan and father of the big gods. He didn’t willingly give his powers like the others did. But when they faded, he did too.” Draco glanced my way and narrowed his eyes. “You’ve got one of the strongest powers known. You’ll need a balance or it’ll consume you. Kronos had Rhea. And Uranus and Gaia before that. Titans need another half. But we’ll help you figure it out. Welcome to the Hero Society.” He grinned and pulled his woman even closer.
My balance thus far had involved working for the heroes and jumping around time to escape my present. At my apartment above headquarters, I had costumes of different centuries so I wouldn’t cause a stir. The power had to be used or soothed. I had no Rhea to soothe me, so I used it. I’d been an interloper throughout all of history. I could watch but never do anything.
My stomach rumbled and I knew my time in this untouched land was over. I needed food and I wasn’t about to hunt for it.
I called the little orange glitter forward and closed my eyes. I focused on my hero apartment and willed my body to go there. But just before my body did the ole shake and vanish, warm sensations like the ones I got from E’s letters raced through my veins.
When I opened my eyes, I wasn’t in the apartment, but sitting in a hospital chair. The typical fluorescent bar lights on the paneled ceilings made me wince. Combine the lights and the white walls, and everything was too bright for having jumped through time. Thankfully, I’d been hidden off in a corner of the waiting room with a fake plant keeping others from seeing my magic.
“Emily! Hey! You forgot your chart!” someone called out as I rose to leave. Sometimes my powers would latch onto a feeling instead of the images in my head. Draco had told all heroes that our powers came from our emotions, so this mistake sort of made sense. I felt warmth, but where did that feeling take me?
Just as the thought came, a woman with pale pink hair walked by. My heart stopped.
Chapter Four
Emily
“Emily! Hey! You forgot your chart!” Morgan from the nurse’s desk called out, and I cursed. I’d been so distracted today between thoughts about my sister getting in trouble at school for skipping, feeling hard on myself about job number two, and V holding back in our letters. My gut twisted when I thought maybe this pen pal thing wasn’t working for him anymore. What would I do if I lost him as a friend? I shook the thought away as I walked back to the desk.
Then I felt that tingle of warmth on my neck of someone watching you. Instinctively, I glanced around and found a pair of wide brown eyes hyperfocused on my face.
“Hello.” I nodded and turned my head away before the blush on my cheeks tattled. In the few seconds of looking, I absorbed every detail of that beautiful man. Broad shoulders and so, so tall. He stood taller than all the adult males I knew in the hospital. His muscles strained against his gray V-neck shirt, and those jeans barely contained his thick thighs. Long light brown hair had been tossed into a bun on his head, and I’d give my left kidney to let it loose to run my fingers through. But it was the face that made my stomach flutter as I walked down the hall on autopilot.
Long lashes, high cheekbones, and a sharp jaw that made my mouth water.
“I’m grateful for attractive people to keep my heart pumping,” I whispered and heard a gasp behind me. I shifted to make sure whoever behind me was ok, and my face turned strawberry red.
“E?” The handsome man stood a few feet from me with his eyes wide and lips parted. It took a few seconds to see beyond his stunning presence up close to understand what he said.
“My name is Emily. I’m a nurse. Do you need help with something?” My thoughts jumped around so quickly that I felt like I missed something. The man shook his head.
“It’s me. I’m V. Your friend.” He stepped closer and I had to look up into soft brown eyes that slowly softened as they gazed on my pink hair. V… Like MY V? My friend-that-we-secretly-left-letters-in-the-mailbox-at-the-park V?
“Oh my gosh. Um… You’re V. Like letters V?” The moment I both dreaded and eagerly wished for merged. I had a huge friendly crush on V from our letters. He was the best human I knew. I didn’t want to meet him for many reasons. But now he stood before me. Just as shocked as I was. What did we do now? The anonymous pen pal had a face. A gorgeous face at that. His hand went to the back of his neck, and I fixed my eyes on his face and not the tan skin that showed at his shirt hem. Nope, I could pretend he didn’t have abs I’d only seen in porn.
“Yeah. This is wild, right?” he admitted, and I nodded vigorously.
“So wild. You’re, like, real and so big, and I just… Wow. Ok, this is happening.” I was obviously losing my shit, which only made V’s mouth shift into a big grin.
“You’re so you,” he said, and I did a little curtsy.
“I try.” I laughed and then remembered I was at work. “Um, I’d love to chat with you, so maybe we can meet at the park bench and, ya know, chat. But also, it’s totally ok if you’d rather not and just go back to writing letters. I get off in about two hours. Yeah. Either way is cool with me. Whoo! Is it hot?” In a sheer embarrassing display of my rambling, I fanned my chest and armpits. V knew me, he knew I was a wee bit dramatic. However, there’s a difference between knowing and experiencing.
“Yeah. Sounds good. I’ll see you there.” His body leaned forward like he was going to attempt a hug but stopped himself.
“I’ll see you there.” I grinned, nodding excitedly, then turned before I could scare him with more rambling.
