His deep voice calmed me, but I wanted to return to yesterday so badly, to erase the knowledge he'd lied to me and continue to live a blissful life with him on the steppes.
"I had planned to live with you here until we were too old to ride horses," he added softly. "I do not know when exactly I began to love you, but I was prepared to take you as my wife before the plague."
His explanation jived with what The Persian had told me.
But … I was still crushed, because I knew better than to let myself get attached and I had not only related to the people of this time but fallen in love and planned on spending my life here. I was a fool to think I could love Batu in peace.
Carter had damned me the moment we met, even before he put the microchips in my head that were so fascinating to Batu and Taylor's people.
"He won't let me go, Batu," I whispered hoarsely. "He won't let us stay together."
Batu's grip around me tightened. "We don't know that."
I do.
"The Persian. He told you," Batu guessed.
"Yes."
"I destroyed the ability for Carter or the agency to track me. When we stopped at the trading post, it was so I could return my tracking device to another time traveler there as part of my resignation. But if The Persian spoke to you, Carter spoke to him. He will know how to contact Carter."
I looked up at him. "You want to talk to Carter?"
"Yes, and tell him to let us go," he replied with resolve. "The agency will, once I assure them you will not harm the timeline of history."
"I don't even know why Carter sent me here. The Persian said his interest is unusual. He sent me on my first journey to … to uncreate … Taylor." The tears began again. "If I'm supposed to uncreate … you …"
"No, Moonbeam," Batu said. "Whatever Carter's intent, it is not this. I knew Taylor. We are the only people who can remember him. He was a good man, a very noble one."
It was nice to know Taylor was remembered by more than me. Whether or not it should have, Batu's admiration for the man who was uncreated took some of the burden of being the only person to recall Taylor from me.
"Carter was as adamant about me as he was you," Batu added. "He will not kill me. He may strand me somewhere in history, like he does his other agents, but he will not hurt either of us."