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  Darci drew in her breath. “Go home, then come back when your wife is alive and heal her heart—if that was what was wrong with her, that is?”

  “Yes, exactly,” Adam said.

  “You seem to trust a lot,” Jack said. “If I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t believe any of this. Who believes in time travel?”

  “I don’t have to believe,” Adam said. “I just have to try it. If you’re liars I lose nothing but some of the money that I have too much of. If you’re telling the truth I have everything to gain.”

  “What money?” Jack asked. “Did I hear anyone ask you for money?” His voice was rising in anger.

  “Don’t pay any attention to him. His father is a billionaire so he’s overly sensitive about money.”

  “A billionaire?” Adam asked, eyes wide. “I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

  “From a son’s point of view, it’s not great. I would’ve traded him for a chauffeur for a father. Actually, I did.”

  “None of it matters anyway,” Darci said, “because we don’t have a key to the box and I don’t have my Touch of God, so—”

  “Your what?” Adam asked.

  “Touch of God. That’s what the ball is.” Adam looked at her as though he wanted her to explain further. “God gave the angels a touch from His fingertip, then each angel blew on the touch. They enclosed the touch and their breath in what looks to be glass, but it’s quite indestructible.”

  “And how did you find this extraordinary object?” Adam asked.

  “Finding it was easy. It was locked inside a ball of crystal and I felt its energy. The hard part was getting the ball out.”

  “And how did you do that?”

  Darci looked down at her hands. “I passed a test.” She looked back at him. “A woman had done a terrible thing to me and I knew it, but I saved her life anyway.”

  When Darci said no more, Adam looked at Jack and he shrugged. “I don’t know anything about that,” Jack said. “That happened before I met her, but I have seen her paralyze a room full of people. Pretty scary sight.”

  “I thought you didn’t believe I did that,” Darci said, teasing. “Greg said that you had a logical explanation for everything I did.”

  “Yeah, well, that was before I woke up in a land where they’ve never seen a computer or MTV.”

  “And what are these things?” Adam asked.

  “If I stay here, I’ll draw you pictures,” Jack said. “In fact, maybe I’ll invent them.”

  “MTV?” Darci asked. “Do you think any age really needs lewd videos?”

  “They aren’t all lewd and just because you’re a virgin queen doesn’t mean that the rest of us—”

  “How about if you wake up tomorrow and Lavender is gone? Think you’ll want to jump into bed with someone else right away?” Darci shot back at him.

  “Who are you to judge me? I can see that you’re lusting after Drayton here so hot that the silverware’s about to melt,” Jack said with rage in his voice.

  Adam stood up so quickly that his chair almost turned over. “Sir! You will not speak that way at my table. You will apologize to Miss Marshall or I will throw you out!”

  Jack stood up and glared at Adam. They were nearly the same height, but Adam was brawnier. “You think you can?” he spat at Adam.

  “Jack!” Darci shouted.

  Jack seemed to come to his senses and all the anger left him in an instant. “Sorry,” he said to Adam. “I don’t know what came over me.” He ran his hand over his eyes. “For a minute there I felt like my old self.” He looked back at Adam. “I really do apologize. I guess you know that Darci and I aren’t really brother and sister, but we do sometimes fight like we are.” When Adam said nothing, Jack turned to Darci. “I apologize for my words and for my attitude. I don’t know what happened. It was like…”

  He glanced at Lavender, sitting quietly, her head on her elbow and happily and silently watching the three of them, unaware of the content of what was being said.

  “Apology accepted,” Adam said. “Shall we sit back down? There’s dessert yet to be eaten.”

  When Jack sat down, he looked at Darci in alarm. “I don’t know what happened, but for a moment I felt that old anger, as though there was something inside of me that was telling me to give pain before someone hurt me. I don’t understand it. Lavender’s here. She’s alive and in a body. Her spirit is anchored inside of her.”

  Darci said nothing, just looked at Jack in alarm. If only I had my powers, she thought. If only I could see and feel what was wrong! “Maybe it was temporary. Maybe it was just prewedding jitters. Or maybe you feel guilty for getting an innocent like Lavender drunk.”

  Truthfully, Darci knew what Jack was thinking because it was the same thing she was thinking. Earlier she’d said that maybe John had killed Lavender. Maybe John had been the one who pushed her off the building. It was true that the high school boy’s paper had said that John was at the church when Lavender fell, but so much time had passed that maybe that fact was wrong. Jack had taken over John’s spirit, but Darci knew that spirit was still inside him.

  Reaching across the table, Darci took Jack’s hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “If Lavender was being made to marry a man she doesn’t want to marry, John is probably angry about that. Or maybe he’s angry at you for taking over and making love to his girl.”

  “Yeah, maybe,” Jack said, squeezing her hand back. “But I wish you could paralyze him. At least until after the wedding.”

  Darci smiled and leaned back in her chair. “Yeah, me, too.”

  “What do you think will happen tomorrow?” Adam asked as he handed around plates for the dessert. It had been natural to Darci to get up and help him. Adam started to protest, but then he’d smiled at her in a way that made her blush. That little smile had been so intimate that for a moment Darci was flustered. He’s not your husband, she reminded herself yet again.

  “What?” she asked when she felt both men staring at her, then she remembered Adam’s question. “Don’t ask me, I know nothing more than anyone else does. Jack, you know all that I do. Or, actually, you should know more than I do because you’ve been with Lavender all day. Have you spoken to her for even two sentences?”

  “I’ll tell what I know as soon as you tell me who Simone is.”

  Adam looked at Darci. “Did you go to Simone?” When Darci nodded, he said, “What did she tell you?”

  “That I must return. Not that I should return, but that I must.”

  “I should have guessed she was another psychic,” Jack said. “I told you that I don’t believe—”

  The abrupt laughter of Darci and Adam cut him off, and when Jack got the joke, he looked a bit sheepish. “Okay,” he said, smiling, laughing at himself. “So maybe now I do believe a little bit. Okay, so I believe a lot.” He glanced at Lavender, saw that she had her head against the back of the seat, her eyes closed, giving a soft snore now. He turned back to Adam and lowered his voice. “The truth is that all we know is what we pried out of some high school kid who seemed to be in love with the beauty of Miss Lavender Shay. On her wedding day, she climbed to the top of a building and jumped off. Or was pushed.”

  “How did this affect the future?” Adam asked.

  “It didn’t,” Jack said. “Not really.”

  “It affected Jack,” Darci said. “You see, Lavender was so full of hate that she attached her spirit to him. He was the quintessential angry young man when I met him.”

  “As we just saw,” Adam said, looking at Lavender, who was still sleeping. “Forgive me for being naive, but I can’t see her ever being full of hate. And if this event is to take place in less than twenty-four hours, how does she build up that much hatred?”

  “A woman scorned,” Jack said, lifting Lavender’s hand and kissing it.

  “I would never leave you, Jack,” Lavender said abruptly, coming awake suddenly.

  “Perhaps that’s your answer,” Adam said. “Perhaps she didn’t leave you a