I managed to find the Sun Dagger! I was elated. I now wondered if I could perhaps save Balthazar instead of killing him. I missed him all the time I was with Jack. How could Balthazar find me throughout my first four years of escape but not seek me out during these last many years? Had he movedon and found another lover?
This thought breaks my heart.
November 17th, 1994
I have birthed another child, this one in La Cueva del Fuego. I dragged Jack to this cave, hoping it held the Moon Dagger. I was so determined to find it that I barely noticed when I went into labor! The baby seems strong and feisty, as if she will be a force to be reckoned with. We have named her Olivia.
But she was born during the eclipse! I tried to delay her birth. I even tried to stop her from entering the world. I didn’t want her to have the kind of life I had, on the run from demons, but she was determined to enter the world at this time. So, she is a Timeborne.
My time of safety is running out. I haven’t seen Balthazar in a long time. I have to protect my child from him. I have to! I don’t want her to suffer as I have suffered these many years. I would rather she grew up safe and ordinary. I will hide the dagger that came into existence when she was born. She will never see it and will never have to travel in time.
I wiped my eyes with my thumb and forefinger, unsettled by what I had just read. I had always known that Mom tried to kill me while in labor, but here, in her own words, she confessed to wanting to protect me at all costs.
Entry after entry detailed the turmoil of her relationship with my father. When I was seven, Papa had begged her for a divorce.
“I can take care of our child,” he had told her. “You can travel the world and find whatever you want.”
But Mom refused, clinging to something neither of them could mend.
Then, just before my eighth birthday, she shocked him.
“I need time and space away from the relationship,” she had said.
Papa’s response was quiet. “Okay. Take whatever time you need.”
“I’m going on another excavation. I might be gone a long time.”
“I understand,” he replied.
Tears blurred my vision as I turned the page, bracing myself for what came next.
I have decided to travel again in time, even though Lee told me not to.
“Balthazar will find you,” he warned. “He will feel you time travel and know where you are.”
“I don’t care,” I said. “I’ve got to do this and find the second blade. Balthazar has not been hunting me for the last fifteen years. Why would he start now? He no longer wants me.”
It saddened me to think this was true. I still loved him despite his evil ways. I missed him.
I returned to Italy in 1582 to hide the Sun Dagger there. I returned to the village and sought out Giovanni. The blade would be safe with him.
When he saw me, he peered at me through rheumy old eyes. “Alina? Is that you?”
“Yes, Giovanni, it’s me!” On impulse, I hugged him, and he embraced me.
“Come inside,” he said, patting my back.
His home looked much the same as before, just more worn. I told him of my travels once we’d settled with a glass of mead wine. I left out my obsessive need for Balthazar through the years, but I sensed that he knew without me uttering a word.
“I found the Sun Dagger, Giovanni,” I finally said. “I need you to keep it and protect it with your life. Make sure to keep it safe. Make sure whoever wants to defeat the darkness gets it.”
I retrieved the dagger from my pocket and handed it to him.
He eyed the blade with a mixture of wonder and fear. “I don’t know who to give it to. Who would be searching for it?”
“Trust me. When the person arrives looking for this blade, you will know who they are.”
Giovanni’s head bobbed up and down in acknowledgment. “I shall guard it with my life.”
