by Eve, Jaymin
Thankfully, she had shown me the light. Called me out whenever I started to grow hubristic. And reminded me that the more power one possessed, the more responsibility they held—the more they should help others, rather than lording it over them.
Elizabeth Montgomery changed me fundamentally, and it was for her safety and future, along with the rest of the supernatural world, that I was now standing in Antarctica about to try and shift a timeline. I’d attempted it only one other time, and I’d been only a few seconds into my attempt before I realized I couldn’t bring my dead mate back to life. Timeline shifts were not allowed for that, and if I’d actually succeeded in turning back the time on Regina’s death, I would have probably sent the world into a tailspin that would have destroyed it.
Death was beyond my power. Something I had come to terms with a long time ago, despite what I’d thought during the time darkness possessed me.
“Are you ready?” I asked the dragons, my eyes running across the four of them. Brothers.
Each of their giant heads bounced. I allowed my energy to flow from me then, trickling down in small waves to the ley line that ran beneath our feet. It was only a trickle, because if I went in full force, I could lose control. There was so much power in this area, it literally had my jaw clenched.
The mate bond thrummed in my chest, and I allowed it to join me. Not enough that if anything happened, Tee would be sucked in too, but enough to keep me grounded. I needed to return to my body here; I had no other option.
Reaching out, I placed a hand on the nearest dragon. To touch one was to touch them all, since they were bonded in a way that went beyond life and death, and immediately that ancient, earthy, foreign magic invaded my body. For a moment I almost pulled away, because dragon energy was … disconcerting. Not something I could easily explain, but I likened it to suddenly waking up in another country, one where the people didn’t speak the same language as you. Things were familiar there, but you still couldn’t understand anything.
My body started to shake, and I had to move quickly. Between the ley line, the dragons, and my own power, I was a veritable bomb waiting to go off. There was a spell specifically designed for timeline shifts, and I had memorized it long ago. I couldn’t speak through the power, so I just let the words spin across my mind. The ancient language was as familiar to me as English. It was actually my first language, since in my house we spoke it before we learned another word. It did help with spell casting. I’d been able to silently cast since I was very young.
As the words continued to rush around, they exploded into energy themselves, and using the power I held in my hands, I was suddenly seeing more than just darkness in my mind’s eye. I was seeing the entire universe. Time itself is not linear. It runs in mad circles and squiggles and loops, showing the infinite number of ways a timeline could have gone. Every decision a person makes changes the path that person is on, even if it’s only a small detour.
At first it was beyond overwhelming, the world zooming through my head, the billions of lives and their paths. But breathing deeply, I allowed only those paths where my energy had touched to stay, while sending the rest away. Some of the chaos died off, but there was still enough there to overwhelm anyone. Again, though, I only had to focus on the ones closest to the time I was in now. It had been a week since I cast the last spell, and that had caused such a ripple in my timelines—and in the world as a whole—that it was very clear where I needed to look. The moment I was in the right place, I sent out one burst of warmth to Tee, because this was the moment where everything could go to shit, and I needed her to know that she was my heart. That warmth came back to me with force, and I had to internally smile at my little spitfire. Time had not diminished her fire, and I was eternally grateful for that.
I reached out with my power and wrapped it around a spot in the timeline just before the huge squiggle. Then I was sucked right down that line and ejected into the past. It was disorienting for a moment, while I tried to calm my violently swirling energy. I wasn’t supposed to be back here, and the further back one went, the worse it was to deal with. The past was trying to eject me, but I couldn’t let that happen. Not until I fixed my mistake.
I was nothing more than a wisp of energy; no one could see me, but I could see all of the familiar faces. I was near the town hall, and past-Louis, with the swirling dark energy around him, had just stormed inside. I followed that energy. My energy.
From the outside looking in, I was astonished to see myself up on that stage: a cruel, mocking smile, eyes hard and cold. I knew I could be a cold bastard at times—I’d cut supes out of my life and turned my back when I shouldn’t have—but there was something scary in the mage I had been that day.
The book appeared then, and I realized I was going to run out of time if I didn’t move quickly. Focusing only on myself, I ignored everything else in this room, including Tee and my family who were fighting for my soul.
When I reached the front of the room, my energy merged with Louis of the past, and I spiraled into the same sort of darkness that had caused this problem in the first place. This had always been the riskiest part of my entire plan. If I couldn’t control myself and the darkness, then I would simply stay merged with this Louis, and if that went on long enough, I would die. Because Louis from the future would die, my vessel that I left there fading away, and then my timeline would end.
Darkness, sticky and unyielding, clung to me as I fought to take control of myself, trying to merge more of my energy into his, to give him some clarity. The internal struggle went on for what felt like hours, and I knew that it would have looked like my body was frozen on the outside, but inside we fought for everyone.
He was so much stronger than I expected. This was my fault. I’d refused to think about this time of darkness, and therefore I did not go into this battle with all the weapons I should have.
Spelled words were coming out of Louis’s mouth, and I couldn’t lock them down, because I was drowning in the addictive and evil energy consuming my soul. No. I’m stronger than this!
My mate bond, something this Louis didn’t have, thrummed in my energy. It gave me strength.
The second part of his spell came out garbled as I snapped back with power, not even caring if I had to hurt myself to stop the power. Desperation clawed at me, because I was running out of time. The second part of the spell was finished.
I had managed to delay him though, which changed the timeline, allowing Tee to freeze our power, and for the council members to pour into the room before the spell was finished. I wanted to kill the fucking council members right then, especially the ones who’d blasted Tee, but I had to let all of that happen.
What if she dies this time though?
The council blasted out before I could think about it, and a guttural snarl ripped from my lips as Tee, her beautiful face screwed up in panic, threw herself in front of me.
Before I could even catch her, as I had done that day, I felt pressure on my body in the future—the timelines started to shake as things grew unsteady—and I almost released my hold on the past.
Something was pulling me back, and it might happen before I had a chance to fix my mistake.
24
Elizabeth Teresa Montgomery II
The moment Louis’s energy departed this timeline and traveled into the past, I sagged and would have fallen if Jessa and Justice hadn’t kept me standing. “He’s gone now?” Jessa asked, urgency in her voice.
I nodded, barely keeping it together. The bond was still in my chest, but it was different, not as strong, more like a wispy tie to the vessel that remained. This was likely because Louis in the past was not bonded to me yet, and now current Louis was back there and our bond didn’t know what the hell was happening.
It wasn’t the only one confused by it all.
“Braxton said that he’s half in the past, half in the present,” Jessa whispered.
Grace and Mischa both nodded too. “Yeah, and my mate bond is acting very
weird,” Mischa added. “It almost feels…”
“Stretched,” I finished, and she nodded again.
“Yes, like it’s being stretched across time and space.”
Which was exactly what was happening. Only for them, most of their mates’ energy was still here, whereas mine was very much gone. It was in this moment that I realized how much I truly loved him. I’d been kidding myself to think it had ever gone anywhere. I loved Louis more than I thought it was possible to love anyone. Being with him completed me.
I couldn’t lose him again now. I refused.
So I used what remained of the mate bond and tugged on it every thirty seconds, reminding him what was here in the future for him, reminding him that he had to come back to me. There was no other option. After about ten minutes of that, I received something back along the tattered bond—chaos and pure, unadulterated rage. Panic rocked me again, and I wondered what he was experiencing. This time when I tugged on the bond, I poured a lot of my power into it. So much power that there was no way he couldn’t feel it.
“Braxton said that Louis needs to get out now,” Jessa bit out. “He’s been down the timeline too long. He feels the bonds of this future changing.”
Braxton was right. The longer Louis messed with the past, the more of the future he risked changing. Frustration and fear hit me hard; I should never have let him do this. We should have just taken the consequences and dealt with the humans.
My mate, always trying to play the hero. If he didn’t get his ass back immediately, I was going to hunt him down and murder him slowly. When I couldn’t take it any longer, I broke free from the girls and rushed forward. I knew I wasn’t supposed to touch him, but desperate times….
“Lizzie, stop!” Mischa shouted, and I briefly hesitated before throwing myself forward. Just when I was about to slam my hands to Louis’s chest, the barrier I’d erected around us started to rumble, and all of us were shot backwards, away from Louis. Even the dragons.
Wind, ice, and snow cut into me immediately, and I whispered a spell to protect myself as I tried to figure out what had happened. As I crawled forward, a body came into sight, and my heart stuttered at the sight of Louis sprawled across the ground. Pulling myself up and using magic, I cleared the path to him and ran as fast as my legs could take me, not stopping until I was crouched at his side, gathering him to me. “Louis,” I cried, trying to fit his huge frame into my lap but failing miserably.
The bond was still there, so he wasn’t dead—it felt the same as when he’d been stuck in the demon world. Something was missing from his body, leaving him nothing more than a shell.
Braxton appeared at my side in his human form, and he looked furious. “Is he stuck in the past?” he shouted, trying to be heard over the storm whipping up around us.
I shook my head and shrugged, my eyes never leaving Louis’s still face. I had no actual idea what had happened, and I couldn’t get to him in the past any longer because the spell had been broken.
Tears tracked down my cheeks and I let them silently fall, until a surge of heat in my chest had me gasping out loud. “He’s back,” I said a moment before Louis opened his eyes. Confusion bloomed in them as he blinked at me.
“Tee?” he said softly. “You’re okay?”
I narrowed my eyes on him. “Why wouldn’t I be okay?” I choked out. “You were the one risking your soul by going back in time.”
He let out a strangled laugh, slowly sitting up. I realized all the others were crowded around us; Maximus in dragon form still was blocking a lot of the elements. “Did you stop the spell?” Braxton asked.
Louis’s face went grim. “It was much more difficult than I expected. I didn’t remember being so strong when I embraced the darkness of my power, and it was a … a real fight. I couldn’t stop him completely, but I delayed the spell so the council got to him … and Tee.” His eyes met mine and I could see the fury there. Watching me almost die again had not sat well with him. “So there wasn’t as much power in the spell, and I reversed it as soon as I knew Tee was….”
“You wouldn’t leave until I lived, right?” I guessed.
Louis stood suddenly, lifting me with him like I weighed nothing. He held me close to his chest, his eyes closing as he breathed me in. “If you didn’t make it, there was no point in me making it,” he murmured to me. “So I fought for us a second time, and I would do it a million times more.”
Warm lips pressed to mine, and I forgot everything except my mate. The bond was strong again, thrumming between us like a thick beam of light.
“Uh, guys, can you like make out at home?” Jessa asked, her teeth visibly chattering.
I pulled away, a burst of laughter escaping me. “Oh my gods, I’m so sorry.”
I sent my power out again and blocked the cold from everyone, finally able to focus on something other than my mate. “How will we know it actually worked?” Justice asked, looking scared. “I mean, it didn’t sound like it went smoothly.”
Louis shook his head, hugging me even closer. I rested my cheek against his chest. “It didn’t go smoothly, but I definitely shifted the timeline. We won’t know the full extent of what happened until we get back to the US. If the humans are still camped outside our communities….”
“What are the chances we made it worse?” Tyson asked, locking Louis in his unflinching gaze. “There’s a reason we are warned about using this sort of magic, and while I’m fucking impressed you pulled it off, I’m also fucking worried that we may have screwed the world up even worse.”
Louis let out a heavy breath of air. “I’m worried about that too, and that was our only shot. I will not go back again. That part of the timeline will be too convoluted now for me to change it. Once it’s been touched once, there’s no second chance.”
I wouldn’t let him do that again, even if there was a second chance. For that brief moment, when he was not quite back with us, I’d died a thousand deaths thinking he would never return. Some of those sadder emotions must have leaked through our bond, because Louis leaned down and whispered softly to me, “Never, Tee, my love. I will never leave you.”
“Better not,” I said, just as quietly.
When Louis went to open the step-through, I wiggled against him. “I can walk,” I said playfully. “This is more a Compass thing anyway, right?” I’d been watching them carry their mates around for days.
Louis flashed his perfect teeth in a sexy grin, but before he could answer, Braxton said, “He’s a Compass.”
Joy flashed from Louis to me, and my heart actually hurt—in a good way—to know he was finally getting everything he deserved. A loving family. Our true mate bond. And a chance at saving the worlds. Now it was just time to see how the timeline shift actually went, and if we were still facing a battle on our hands.
Louis took us right to Stratford, and as we stepped out, all of us looked around to determine what might have been changed. Judging by the sun high in the sky, it was the middle of the day. I had no idea how long it had been since I properly ate and slept. “Everything looks normal here,” Maximus said, with a quick look around.
“Give me a minute,” Jacob said as he jogged toward a nearby tree, and in seconds he was gone up it, climbing all the way to the top. The agility of the fey was second to none. Justice’s mouth dropped open as she stared at him. “He just, like … ran up a tree?” she gasped, blinking rapidly. “What in the fuck.”
Jessa laughed, but before she could say anything Jacob called down. “Town is still filled with supes, and from what I can see, everyone is going about their normal business.”
I was on my feet now, Louis holding my hand tightly, our fingers interlocked. “Let’s check the barrier,” he suggested, and I knew he was slightly concerned about what we would find. I was nervous, because I had no idea what the supe world was going to do if this hadn’t worked.
It took us just under ten minutes to cross the town and stand before the barrier. It was strong and slightly shimmery, and I could f
eel Louis’s energy threaded strongly through it. He had been helping to power this shield for a long time, most of his life from what I could tell.
“No humans,” he said, almost sounding surprised. “They’re all gone.”
“Next step is to ask someone,” I added. “We were all somewhat excluded from whatever changed, so we still remember the previous history. But those who remained behind shouldn’t know anything.”
Louis closed his eyes and I wondered who he was communicating with. A moment later he said, “Quale knows nothing about our secrets slipping into the human world. He said he’s heard nothing.”
I was just about to cheer when he froze, his hand tightening on mine. Our connection started to slow, and I almost panicked because he was deliberately blocking me for some reason, but before I could start demanding he share his news, he turned narrowed eyes on me. “It didn’t work.”
“What?” Jessa gasped from nearby. “What do you mean? The humans are gone.”
Louis rolled his broad shoulders, like he was trying to relieve tension in them. “Quale didn’t know anything, but an elder here in America did. It appears I only shifted the timeline somewhat. So … the spell was cut off, and the council did not finish the spell because they didn’t have the power when it was so incomplete. But some footage was released to the humans. Only in America. The President of the United States is requesting a meeting.”
Braxton made a rumbly sound, which I recognized as his dragon poking its head up. “The president has never known about us, even though we have guild members in the White House.”
Louis nodded. “I know, but he definitely knows about us now.”
“He probably just wants to make sure we aren’t a threat to them, right?” Mischa said, looking around the room, her arms wrapped tightly around herself. “I mean, that makes sense.”
No one said anything, and the worry did not fade from any faces. “We have to check our kids,” Jessa finally reminded everyone. “If we’re going again, I definitely need to see them before that.”
