Chapter 197: Chapter Fifteen

Kyra

I couldn’t stop screaming. The black tattoo took over his entire face; it was tragically beautiful.

And I hated how much I wanted to reach out and touch him, see if I could rub away the angry lines now embedding themselves in his skin.

“I don’t understand,” I croaked. “I just—I feel like I’m missing an entire piece of his life, of mine, of the reason we’re connected.” I hung my head.

After a few minutes, Cassius put his hand on my back as I cradled Timber’s limp body in my arms, careful not to touch the ancient etchings on his skin.

“How badly do you want to know what you should not know?” Cassius asked gently.

I looked down. Timber. I wanted a person I didn’t know. It was scary. It was otherworldly. “Will my knowledge save him?”

“I do not know if he is beyond saving, just like I do not know if your journey would do anything except make it worse.”

“Why?”

“Because,” Cassius boomed. “It is not the place of the angels to know the destiny of anyone in this realm.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. “How do I help him?”

“One path,” Cassius said simply. I could feel the uptick in tension in the room. “You must go back and choose differently.”

“Go back?” I hissed. “Go back where?”

“To where it all began.” His eyes turned white. “A word of warning… if he dies in the past, if he does not listen, there is no future.”

I felt like I was going to be sick. “How do I know what to choose?”

It was Alex, the siren of all people, who came up and put his hand on my shoulder. I could tell he was trying to hold back. Even though it didn’t affect me, I still felt the heat from his touch. “Cassius will stay, Tarek and I will go with you.”

Cassius seemed stunned into silence. “You know what this would mean.”

Alex gave him a solemn nod as heat pulsed from his body. “It is time.”

“I’ll go too.” Mason stood to his full height. “She can’t win this on her own, and Timber from this time…” He leaned over and felt Timber’s pulse. “…is seconds away from being lost to us.”

Cassius hung his head. “Choose wisely. Trust no one.” And then his gaze went white. “Even the angels. Trust only the Creator, may He show you favor, because the gods, I fear, will not.”

Screaming erupted in my ears. I tried to cover them, but it was useless.

“Even now,” Cassius’s voice boomed. “They cry for release from the pit of the Abyss. They watch, they wait in painful silence. Make the right choice, and you’ll save Timber. If either of you choose wrong—” The screams intensified. “—your future is an eternity of constant dark.”

I could have sworn I heard a male voice utter, “Worth it.”

Alex squeezed my hand. Mason squeezed the other, and then Tarek with a cocky grin winked. “Ready for an adventure, princess?”

The screaming swelled to deafening proportions.

“Princess?” I repeated.

“Can’t wait.” He seemed pumped.

Abruptly the screams stopped.

My ears rang in the absolute silence.

And I felt… the intense heat of the sun.

“Ra,” I whispered, lifting my head toward the blinding temple.

Next to me, Mason stilled. I glanced over and my breath lodged in my throat.

His black hair was pulled back in a braid, his armor matched his hair, and he was towering over me with a sword bigger than my arm. Tarek flanked my right side, similarly dressed.

Alex looked the same, but his armor was gold.

The gold of a god.

My lungs cried out for oxygen, and I sucked in a sharp breath, too freaked out to even look down at my own dress or anything else, for that matter.

“Shhhh,” Tarek said softly. “So what if he has the blood of a god? We don’t let him out much, and he’ll have lots of tricks.”

Tricks were right. In the next instant, Alex’s eyes flashed red. His hair flamed to match as he approached the white throne. “Father—or should I say great-great-great-great-grandfather?” A smirk followed—of course it would.

My knees threatened to buckle. What. The. Hell.

Ra’s face was a tanned brown, his eyes crystal blue, long white hair wrapped in a crown around his head. “Son, this is unexpected.”

Alex shrugged. “Time travel typically is. By the way, you’re going to love Doordash—just wait.”

Ra rolled his eyes in amusement. “This is outside of your current time, son. Who has given you leave to exit and re-enter?”

“I’m aware,” Alex stood to his full height. “And we don’t really ask for permission, more like forgiveness. Let’s just say if the Creator wanted to stop us He could have, and since I have some of your blood running in my veins, I figured I was one of the better choices to come back. Then again, it’s always entertaining when you hang out with vampires, am I right?”

He made a face. “Ridiculous creatures, I prefer my own blood.”

“So I tell them. Every day,” Alex winked. “And we’re merely here as guides, with your awareness of course.”

He looked around Alex toward me and then back. “Trying to change a past or a future?”

“Both,” Alex’s body pulsed with energy that hit me in waves of heat and longing. I gripped the reins I was surprised to find in my hand and kept watching. “Apparently you’re about to make a deal with the devil and try to fix it in the worst way possible. I can’t tell you what you will do, but I urge you to trust carefully.”

Ra studied him and then stood to his twelve-foot height, placing both hands on Alex’s shoulders. “I do not trust easily, not with the wars, not with the mortals pushing us from their realm. But I do trust a true son of the light even if he’s part siren. So I will listen to your warning. Go with my peace. Furthermore, go with my permission in this time.”

Alex bowed and then came back to us. I could tell something was wrong by his less confident swagger. When he was finally at my side, he looked up to Mason with fear in his eyes. “I improvised.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I hissed.

“It means,” Alex whispered, “that we are smack dab in the middle of one of the greatest wars between the old gods that ever existed. The Great War. Most were banished. The Creator left them to their own devices. The original dark ones, more powerful than any, half human half god. They are the original creation. Like gods. The first of the last.” Alex choked on the last part. “I’m an idiot, should have put two and two together, maybe my own sadness and arrogance didn’t let me see what was right in front of me. You want a history lesson, look around you. These gods make us look like plastic toys. Their only weakness is they can’t intervene with free will. Everything else is a free for all. And in our time, they are all but extinct.”

“Except for you,” I pointed out.

He glared. “I’m not allowed to go full god, one of the rules of actually enjoying my time on the immortal council. Last time didn’t go so well.” His eyes went dark as he shared a look with Tarek and Mason.

“I’m hungry.” This from Tarek.

All of us gaped.

“What?” He shrugged. “Just because we’re trying to undo something doesn’t mean my appetite changes. And I can’t survive off sand. I’m not Mason!”

“Thanks, man,” Mason grunted.

“Up you go, princess.” Before I could say anything, Tarek had his hands around my waist and was lifting me up onto the horse attached to the other end of the reins I clutched. A lovely Arabian horse. ~My~ gorgeous Arabian horse.

Her coat was mostly white with faint shadings of gray at her feet. Her mane was braided and dyed different colors of blues and purples. She was so beautiful it hurt to look at her.

“Stop calling me princess.” I grabbed the reins.

Whatever I said earned chuckles.

“What now?” I hissed as we turned in the opposite direction of Ra’s temple.

“Thought your memory would be better now that we’re here,” Tarek shrugged. “Should we tell her?”

“No,” Alex snapped. “It has to be natural, organic. She has to experience things the same and make a different choice than last time. Furthermore, so does he.”

“Timber?”

Uneasiness fell over the three of them, but no one replied.

“Right?” I tried again.

“He’s… not known as Timber here,” was all Alex said.

“Who is he?” I almost didn’t want to know.

“Death,” Mason finally uttered as something flickered in his eyes, new knowledge maybe. “He is known as death.”