Thank you to Mel and Pamela!

III

Edward

Darjeeling, India

December 22, 1897

It has been only a few hours since I woke to find my wife disappeared, and I have been unable to bring my heart a moment's peace about her fate.

My mind is frantic with the possibilities of what has happened to her. I know she has traveled again, even though she'd told me that her traveling days were over once she became pregnant. Was she wrong? Or was there more she kept from me?

I hate the doubt that plagues my mind and heart on the matter.

I cannot keep my panic from the rest of the household, and after watching me scour the neighborhood for any evidence of Bella, just in case she didn't in fact travel through time again, I finally succumb to the truth.

Carlisle, Esme, Alice, Jasper, and Mrs. Kaur are all in the parlor, seated throughout the room whilst they wait for me to gather my wits. Mrs. Kaur is keeping herself busy with setting tea and biscuits in front of everyone, but I know that she is just as distressed as everyone else at my wife's unexplained departure.

"Edward," Carlisle says, breaking through my muddled thoughts. "Please, tell us how we can help you."

I feel my hands shaking as I fold them into the pockets of my trousers.

"Bella has a secret," I say slowly. Mrs. Kaur stops pouring tea to look up at me. For a moment, I wage a war within myself about whether I am right or not to divulge this information. On the one hand, this is not my story to tell, but on the other, my wife is missing, and if divulging her secrets to our loved ones will help bring her back, then so be it.

I let out a breath and start again. "Bella has a secret. She wasn't born here."

Esme frowns. "In India?"

I shake my head. "No, in the nineteenth century," I correct. Everyone looks puzzled, and rightfully so. "I know the lunacy of what I speak, but you must listen to me carefully. Bella is not from our world as we know it."

There is a moment of silence before Carlisle clears his throat. "All right," he says slowly. "When was Bella born?"

I frown. "She told me she was born in the future."

It is a difficult subject to comprehend, one I myself feel I have not mastered yet. Time is linear; yesterday shall always be the day previously gone and tomorrow shall always be the day yet to come. That is the very nature of the world.

"Why would she say such a thing?" Jasper asks, drawing my attention to him.

"Bella told me that her family bears the weight of a curse." For a moment, I feel as if a mountain is pressing upon my chest as I recall the child we lost only last month. If our child had been born, would Bella still have traveled? Would I be left with a newborn babe and no way to retrieve its mother?

My very soul aches at all the questions mounting within me.

"A curse," Esme gently prompts.

I blink and let out a breath. "Yes. The firstborn women of Bella's family travel through time. They cannot control it, nor stop it, save for one option. She told me the only way to stop traveling was to become pregnant."

"But Bella was pregnant," Carlisle points out.

"I know," I say, my heart squeezing in my chest again. "By my understanding, she shouldn't have been able to travel again."

Jasper shakes his head. "Was Bella ill that we did not know of?"

I look at him. "My wife is sane and healthy," I tell him, feeling an edge creep into my voice. "It certainly sounds impossible, but everything I tell you is the truth."

Jasper looks contrite, but not enough to take back what he's questioned.

"So," Carlisle says, drawing my attention back to him. "You believe Bella has traveled again."

I nod. "Bella wouldn't just leave, not after …" I stop, my throat growing thick. All around the room heads duck and I know it is out of respect for what we have lost.

"If Bella has traveled through time," Esme says slowly. "How can we know when she is?"

I am surprised and grateful by her immediate acceptance of the impossible.

"I don't know," I admit.

"New London," Alice whispers. We all turn to her. Her cheeks are bright and her eyes are shining with unshed tears. When she sees our attention on her she licks her lips. "I had …" She hesitates and looks at Jasper who nods encouragingly at her. Alice turns back to us. "I had a vision of Bella in London, but it was unlike any London I've ever known," she says. "It was a city that gleamed with glass and steel."

"A vision, dear?" Esme asks.

Alice's face flushes further. "Yes. I sometimes have them. They are almost like dreams. I see things, things I cannot possibly know." She clears her throat. "I have a lot of visions about Bella."

I frown. What does it mean that Alice would see visions of my wife? Are they connected in some way?

"Can you see her now?" I ask.

Alice's face crumples. "I cannot will the visions to come," she moans softly. "Nor can I control what they shall be about."

I nod, unsurprised. It would be too easy to have answers so quickly.

In my experience, life is rarely so kind.

"So, you think Bella has traveled, but you don't know if it is forward or backward in time," Carlisle surmises. "Have you any idea how to start looking for her?"

I tug on my hair, which I am sure is a full disarray by now, and let out a breath.

"I have one idea," I admit after a moment. "But it's not a good one."

Carlisle looks at me eagerly and I let out a breath before I reach into my pocket and pull out the ruby Bella found in the temple. "I have to go hunt down the tiger who gave this to Bella."

…

This time, it takes only a day to prepare for the journey ahead. Alice and Jasper insist on coming with me, as does Carlisle. After making our plans, I finally consent to sleep, knowing I will need my strength to trek through the jungle. I am not fully confident in my plan, but it is the only lead I have at the moment.

My sleep is fitful, despite how long it has been since I last rested, and when I wake again in the morning, I am in a foul mood.

Whilst I slept, Esme made the trip to the home of Mr. Gupta, and she has returned with Aditi, Mr. Gupta's daughter who had sent Bella on the quest after the tiger in the first place.

Aditi looks somber as she waits for us in the parlor, and though I cannot bring it in myself to give her an overly warm welcome, I do my best not to show any hostility toward her.

It is not entirely her fault my wife is missing.

With Aditi and Alice in our party, it is my hope that someone will learn some information on where Bella has gone.

Aditi seems nervous to be part of our group, but with a friendly smile and reassuring words from Carlisle, I can see her begin to relax.

The journey from the home in Darjeeling is longer than it had been from Calcutta, something I am not particularly keen about. It takes nearly the whole day to travel to the small village just outside the jungle where we found the temple last.

Due to the shorter days of winter, the dark creeps in quickly and forces us to spend the night at an inn before we set off for the jungle in the morning.

Never have I felt so impatient.

The entire time I keep the ruby in my pocket, my fingers obsessively stroking it, as if I can coax answers from the rough surface.

By the time we finally reach the temple, I feel I will go mad with my impatience.

It is difficult to be back at this place, recalling what happened shortly after Bella and I were here last. Was her fate signed here? Or was it merely ill luck?

Our party finds our way into the temple, and I cannot help but feel immediately disheartened when I do not find a man nor a tiger inside.

This was a foolish errand.

"What are we meant to be looking for?" Jasper asks, looking at me from across the ruins.

I shake my head. "I don't know," I tell him honestly. I never went inside last time, and Bella never described how she summoned the tiger.

I spin around the room in a tight circle, my eyes tracing over everything I can see. I am desperate for answers but I have no idea what to be looking for.

"Alice," I say, looking at her across the room. "Do you have any sense of anything?"

Alice looks helplessly around the room.

I hear Aditi speak, and I look up to see her bending down to pick something off the floor. I move to where she is standing, but it is merely a flower that she has plucked from a small vine growing in the cracks of the tiles.

"What is she saying?" I ask Carlisle. I wish my Bengali was better.

Carlisle frowns. "She …" He pauses to listen to her as she gestures around the room. When she is finally done, he frowns and looks at me. "She says someone met fate here," he says, his brow furrowed. "There is a mark of power in this place."

I frown. "Bella?"

Carlisle looks at Aditi who shakes her head and begins to speak again. We all watch her in silence as she moves around the space, touching items and muttering in rapid Bengali. When she is finished, Carlisle lets out a breath.

"She senses the traces left from Bella and the tiger," he says slowly. "But they have not been here for hundreds of years."

I open my mouth before it snaps shut again. How can that be possible? Bella might be a time walker, but she said herself she cannot control it. "We were only here a month ago," I argue.

Aditi speaks to Carlisle who looks at me helplessly. "She says this place is marked by Death."

I scowl and shake my head.

"This is pointless," I say, feeling my fear drive my anger forward. "This"—I yank the ruby from my pocket—"is useless."

Aditi steps toward me, and before I can say or do anything, she snatches the ruby and holds it up so that it catches the thin shafts of light streaming in from the cracks in the ceiling.

"Where this from?" Aditi asks, her English broken and difficult to understand as she looks at me.

Carlisle answers her in Bengali and she turns to him, her head tilted.

Finally, she shakes her head and places the ruby back in my palm. She shakes her head again and stalks out of the temple.

I look at Carlisle in alarm. "What is it?"

Carlisle lets out a breath. "The ruby," he says slowly. "She says it's cursed."

I swallow hard. Of course it is.

"Should I leave it here?" I ask, tempted to chuck it as far as I can.

"No," Alice says, stepping toward me. "No, Edward, I think that it needs to stay with you. It was given to Bella for a reason. You need to return it to her."

I scowl at her. "Not if it's cursed."

"You must," she insists. "We don't know what is truly a curse and what is a gift. Until we know anything, you must keep it."

I stare down at the stone. In the shadows of the temple, it is dark and innocuous. I hold it up to the shaft of light coming in from above and swallow as my world is coated in blood red tones.

Did this play a part in Bella's disappearance?

After several moments, I slip the gemstone back into my pocket and resign myself on continuing my search.

There really is nothing left to find, and as we crawl out of the temple again, I feel my anger rising to hide the despair in my heart.

How am I supposed to find Bella?

…

It is Christmas Eve when we arrive back home in Darjeeling. Bella and I should be doing Christmas activities together. We should be huddled up warm and cheerful, lost in the joy of such a wonderful holiday.

I can hardly bring myself to participate in dinner, and when I finally get a chance to slip upstairs, I go without fanfare, hoping my aunt and uncle will have a better celebration without me wallowing beside them.

In our room, I set to pacing, my mind turning over everything that has happened and all that I know. The temple was fruitless, and now, I'm not sure what to do.

There is a knock on my door, and I look up from where I slumped over into a sitting chair by the window.

"Yes?" I ask, my voice surprisingly raspy. How long have I been sitting here in the dark?

The door opens and, with it, light spills in from the candle my uncle carries.

"Edward," Carlisle says, and I am surprised to hear the somber tone of his voice.

"What is it?" I ask, wary.

Carlisle clears his throat. "A messenger just delivered this letter to me," he says, holding up thick parchment. I know immediately that it has come from my father's house.

I feel my stomach tighten. "What is it?" I ask, climbing to my feet. "Is my father all right?"

Carlisle lets out a breath. "No, Edward. I'm sorry. Your father has died."

I feel my breath hitch. "How?"

Carlisle glances down at the letter, and in the flickering light of the candle, I can see the resemblance between him and my father. I forget constantly that they are brothers, if for no other reason than the two of them are so opposite. "There was an accident," he says, shaking his head. "There aren't too many details, but I suspect that his drinking had a hand in it."

I don't know how I am supposed to feel. My father is dead.

"What do I do?" I ask, feeling lost.

Carlisle clears his throat. "With your father's passing, you are now Duke of Devonshire." He looks at the letter. "You should head back to London."

Immediately I shake my head. "No, I can't. Bella—"

"We don't know where or when Bella is," Carlisle reminds me. "She is a remarkable woman, Edward. If she is in the past, then she will find a way to get a message to you. If she is in the future, she will be seeking out information about your own fate. Either way, you must continue to live your life."

Everything in me wants to rail against his advice. I do not want the title of my father, not without Bella by my side.

I want to give up my life to search for her, but I understand the futility of it.

I must keep living, as Carlisle has said.

"There are matters to tend to," Carlisle continues. "Your father's funeral must be arranged and your sister, you said she was in Russia?"

I nod once and Carlisle's mouth flattens a little. He is displeased by my father's decision to send Rose so far away, just as I felt.

"You will need to contact her too. Maybe think about bringing her home."

I let out a tight breath. "Very well," I agree, feeling my eyes fill with unshed tears. If for no other reason, Carlisle is right. I need to help my sister come home. "I shall depart at first light."

Carlisle stares at me. "He was a good man, your father," he says softly. "He wasn't the easiest to get along with, but in his heart, he was good." He smiles at me. "He loved you and your sister fiercely."

I blink, not wanting to shed tears in front of my uncle.

"I'm sorry," I say after a moment. "You lost your brother too."

Carlisle's face softens. "I regret that we drifted so much," he says gently. "But we each had our own paths to follow."

His words make me think of my sister, whom I have not written to nearly enough since I eloped. When we were children, we'd been close, but time and our social obligations had pulled us apart down separate paths. Were we doomed to be as distant as my father and Carlisle were in the end?

My uncle looks at me. "Go to London, take Alice and Jasper with you. We will continue to search from here and will be in touch if we find anything."

I nod.

"Do you think we'll find her?" I ask.

Carlisle frowns. "I don't know," he says after a moment. "But your wife is clever. If anyone can figure out a way through time, it will be her."

I give him a weak smile in response. He is right, of course. There is no one I believe in more than Bella. If anyone can figure out how to break the laws of time, it will be her.