A Vicious Circle

Quinn

A whirlwind of colors.

Jodie’s wicked grin.

Her hands, a flurry of movement.

The crimson tiles.

~I’ve been here before.~

~I’m certain now.~

This wasn’t a dream.

It wasn’t déjà vu.

And Jodie knew it too.

We locked eyes, both of us clueless as to why we were trapped in this awful, repeating day.

My aunt, Matheius, or some other powerful force was pulling the strings.

I had to figure it out.

“Don’t fret, my niece,” Jodie said. “You won’t be here long. It’ll be over soon.”

But as she spoke, her face clouded with confusion.

As before, I was frozen. I couldn’t do anything to get the answers I needed.

Jodie

~What’s going on?~

Twice, I’d done my master’s bidding.

Twice, I’d held the precious moonstone.

And yet, here I was again, with Quinn at my feet and the stone missing.

My mind was a jumble of confusion. But one thing was clear.

Matheius wouldn’t be pleased.

Keeping Quinn under my paralysis spell, I reached out to Matheius with my mind.

Jodie

My Lord.

Jodie

I had the moonstone in my grasp and yet, here I am again, back at the beginning.

Matheius

It’s true. I feel it too.

Jodie

But why?

Matheius

I feared this might happen.

Matheius

The moonstone dictates the space-time continuum. When you summon it to Earth, it seems to throw it into a state of flux.

Matheius

Summon it again and make haste to me, for once I ascend to the Astral realm, stone in hand, the linearity of time will resume as normal.

Jodie

And how do I ensure that the loop does not restart before I arrive at your temple?

Matheius

The stone is tied to the fate of the girl whose energy was used to summon it. Keep Quinn alive.

Jodie

Yes, My Lord. It shall be done.

I knelt beside Quinn.

There was no time to waste.

Just moments ago, Quinn’s body was nothing more than a tool for me.

Now, my future hinged on her staying alive long enough to deliver the moonstone to Matheius.

I whispered in her ear. “We’ve been through this before, and you know how it can end. Work with me now, and your mate will be spared.”

Then, for the third time, I called out, “With our combined powers, I summon the power of the Great Moonstone through the realms of time and space.

“Together, we’ll use its mystical abilities to add another to our cosmic nexus. Another descendant of divinity.”

Quinn

She was doing it. She was summoning the moonstone again.

They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome.

If that’s true, then Aunt Jodie was definitely insane.

I waited for her to lose herself in her trance and release her hold on me.

But when the moonstone appeared, she held it in one hand, the other still pressed against me, keeping me still.

~So, she did learn something from the last two loops…~

She muttered a spell under her breath, and suddenly, I could talk.

“What do you want?” I managed to say through clenched teeth.

“The only thing I’ve ever wanted, Quinn—your cooperation,” she replied. “Do you know what this is?”

“The moonstone,” I said.

“What do you know about the moonstone?”

I didn’t answer because, honestly, I didn’t know anything about it.

She nodded. “It’s more than just a charm or talisman. It has real power. Pure power. It’s the source of the Moon Goddess’ power.”

~What?!~

If Jodie was holding the Moon Goddess’ power, then the world was in more danger than I’d ever imagined.

“Well, Quinn,” she said, her body trembling as the moonstone’s power flowed through her. “We’ve been here before. I hope you’ll be reasonable this time.”

“It wasn’t my plan,” she continued, “but time will keep repeating until the moonstone is returned to Astria. Only with your help can we end this strange loop.”

“Why would I help you stop this loop? Now I have endless chances to stop you and escape.”

My aunt chuckled dryly.

“You’re always so clever. But are you willing to take that risk? So far, every future has ended with your mate’s death.

“Would you let him suffer over and over, without knowing if you can save him?”

Her words hit me like a tidal wave.

The pain of losing Jax twice weighed heavily on my heart.

~What if she’s right? What if I can’t save him? What if his life is the cost of my freedom from this time loop?~

That was a price I couldn’t pay.

I’d rather surrender to Jodie than be the reason for my mate’s death.

He’d already risked his life for me more times than anyone should.

Jodie had me cornered.

She’d cheated death and forced me to give in.

“Fine,” I said, my head bowed, “I’ll go with you to Matheius. Just end this. And leave Jax alone.”

“A wise choice.” Aunt Jodie smiled, a cruel satisfaction in her eyes. “But you’re not dressed for a meeting with the Great Matheius.”

I didn’t know what she meant. But at this point, it didn’t matter.

My life was in her hands.

“Let’s get you ready.”

I lay back on the stone table, defeated.

As Aunt Jodie raised her arms, I closed my eyes.

Whatever she was about to do, I didn’t want to see it.

“Matheius, I offer you Quinn’s body and spirit. She’s the offspring of our sacred lineage, the next in line to our legacy, and—”

“Capture them!”

“What the hell now?!” Jodie yelled, her voice filled with fury.

We both turned to see a group of Anthony’s soldiers storming into the room.

Without Jodie to hold them back, they must have broken through.

With a furious growl, she started hurling beams of light at the intruders.

They groaned in agony as their souls were ripped from their bodies, turning into ghostly wisps.

But the gruesome fate of their comrades didn’t deter Anthony’s men. They kept charging into the room, one after another.

I could see from the frantic look on my aunt’s face that she was struggling to fend them off. If I was going to act, now was the time.

Sure, I wanted to protect Jax. But it was going to be on my terms, not Jodie’s.

I rolled off the stone table onto the floor, knocking my aunt off her feet.

“Damn you!” she yelled as she hit the ground.

As she tried to get back up, I managed to pull her down and pin her hands to the floor. She kicked at my stomach, trying to make me let go.

But I was determined to keep her down.

Suddenly, a group of five wolves burst into the room and surrounded us. One of the wolves approached Aunt Jodie and clamped its jaws around her neck, ready to kill if she made another move.

~YOWW!~

Pain surged through me as two of the wolves bit into my legs and dragged me away from her.

The remaining two stood guard over the scene, growling menacingly at my aunt and me.

Their threatening growls stopped as a large shadow fell over the room.

The two wolf guards snapped to attention as the dark figure approached.

I looked up to see that the ominous figure was Alpha Anthony.

He was accompanied by a large group of both humans and wolves.

“Well… Well… Look who’s alive and… relatively well. Luna Quinn.”

I didn’t answer. I just watched him as he walked towards me.

“So it turns out you weren’t the helpless victim everyone thought. You’re just a traitorous backstabber.”

The last thing I wanted was to listen to his petty accusations.

He had no idea what he was dealing with.

What powers he was provoking.

And it was damn clear that none of the wolves could sense that the space-time continuum was broken.

Still, he had managed to subdue Jodie better than anyone else.

Suddenly, an idea hit me.

Maybe if everyone thought I was a victim, I should play the part.

If I could get them to kill my aunt, Jax would be safe. No matter what happened to me.

“I’m not a traitor, Anthony!” I cried out dramatically. “She’s the one you want! The leader of Vulpes! She’s the mastermind behind everything.”

Anthony’s scornful gaze shifted to my aunt, still held in the jaws of a wolf.

He looked almost disappointed.

“This is the Vulpes’ leader? A middle-aged woman? I was expecting a bigger challenge. This post-menopausal nobody isn’t worth the blood on my teeth.”

Anthony snapped his fingers, and the wolf holding Aunt Jodie bit down on her neck.

She gasped in pain as blood started to flow from her neck.

After a few moments of choking on her own blood, she fell to the floor. Dead.

I was stunned.

My plan had worked.

Aunt Jodie was gone.

It had all seemed so easy.

But my brief moment of triumph was cut short as Anthony walked over and knelt in front of me.

“Now to deal with you,” he said, a cruel smile on his face.

~Out of the frying pan and into the fire.~