Love Beyond Oceans by Rebecca Royce

pushed into her consciousness and she didn't try to stop them. At first she knew what happened, had full awareness she wasn't awake. What was the term for it? Ah, yes, the term came to her. Lucid dreaming.
    But the feeling passed and then she played as little a role in her dream as a bystander who really didn't have any control over what happened around her. The deeper she slept, the more she left her body, her present, the Earth.
    For once, Marina remembered.
    She stood looking at the three moons above her head, the green one was fuller than she expected for so early in the planting season. Maybe they were going to have a wet winter. She'd have to ask Leonardo the next time she and Drew travelled into town. She blinked at the thought. His name wasn't Leonardo any more than Drew was Drew. But that was how she knew them and so she'd think of them. Trying to understand multiple lives was confusing without making it worse.
    "Hey, beautiful." She turned at the sound of her beloved. Whatever she named him, he remained always the same, always hers.
    "Hey." She extended her hand and he pressed his palm to hers before linking their fingers. "All well?"
    Drew sucked in his breath before he pulled her close. "It's time."
    "No." She buried her head in his chest. "We haven't had enough time yet."
    "More time this round than ever before. I didn't even have to find you; we were always together as we were meant to be." He tipped her chin up to look at him. By the moons, Drew was beautiful. And deadly. She loved him so hard.
    He smelled of the salt mines where he spent his days crafting. The others, even warriors as they were, didn't go down there. Too close to where the demons lived. Drew was fearless. He went where the others wouldn't, which made her in equal parts, hotter than hell for him and scared to death.
    "I won't lose you again."
    "Marina." His lips met hers, so soft to go with the hardness of the man. "We always lose each other. That's part of the deal. Eternally together. Even death doesn't separate us for long. If I die, you know you'll find me again."
    She pinched him and the small assault only made him grin. "Eventually. It's the in between that throws me off. The not knowing what happens between lives. And don't act like you'd shrug off my death either. It might be me who leaves first this time. If we beat him or if we win, one of us might not come out the other end. So many lives, so few times dying in our sleep of old age."
    "Marina, if he kills you first, I'll scorch the ground. He'll never be back to harm anyone again."
    Marina jolted up in bed. Her heart raced and for a second she had no idea where she was. Sun beat through the windows and as she finally remembered—crazy Alexa's apartment in St. Croix—she realized she'd slept a long time. The brightness in the room indicated late morning at least, maybe later.
    Alexa hadn't given her a wake-up time. Still, Marina didn't like being caught unawares. The dream, or was it memory, of the night stayed with her. Doubting everything the Outsiders said had practically become a job for her. But now her mind opened to the possibility. She hadn't invented the strange location and Drew—she knew him like she did herself.
    Or at least she had then—in that life. In their current version she wasn't sure how well they understood one another's mind. Everything seemed different, harder, less certain than it had ever been. Although she couldn't have explained to anyone why she knew that.
    "Hello." She called out to the room. "Other me. Hallucination. Powers. Whatever you want to be called, I'm ready. Give me back my powers."
    Marina waited and nothing happened. She stood up and tried again. "Hello."
    When again, no magical poof of powers took place, she could have kicked something if she wasn't worried it would set blood-drinking Alexa off if Marina did.
    She didn't have anything to wear except the clothes on her back and she'd been in them a long time without a change. Gross didn't