“Because it’s incredibly dangerous. It destabilizes everything around it and tears holes in the fabric of reality.” He waved his hand at the village. “Most magic fades, but not time runes. They keep looping, never weakening. Without you, this village stays frozen forever.”
My blood ran cold. “Forever?”
His fists clenched. “Reckless fucking bastard.”
“That’s why Vaeris used it,” I muttered. “He knows you can’t ignore this.”
The warriors brandished their weapons. One punched a fence post hard enough to crack it. Another kicked over a bucket, swearing. Uther paced like a caged animal, his face twisted.
“Those pious, silk-wearing slavers attacked farmers then ran like the cowards they are,” Uther raged. “I’ll kill all those altar-kissing cunts?—”
“Too soft to fight warriors, so they attack peasants!”
Two hundred waited for me to save them—Uther’s father, his brothers, families who grew grain, raised sheep,and danced at harvest festivals. If I failed, they’d stay trapped in a single moment for eternity.
My hands shook as I followed the magic to a moss-crusted well, the warriors’ fury roaring behind me. The weight of their desperate hope pressed down on my shoulders until I could barely stand. If I couldn’t free these people, every warrior here would know I was useless.
A frozen villager shifted slightly.
What…?
Kairos’s nostrils flared. “They’re here.”
I jerked my head up as Kairos lunged past, his broadsword slashing. A villager by the baker’s shop—no, not a villager—the glamour dissolved to reveal blue armor. The male ducked Kairos’s strike.
Chaos erupted.
Warriors shouted. Blades clashed. More villagers shattered their disguises as Skaldir soldiers joined the fight. A male with a blue-plated helm charged straight for me.
Terror spiked through my veins. I scrambled, but my boot slipped on frost. The soldier was three strides away. Two.
I dove for the well. My ribs slammed into the stone rim and pain seared across my side. I couldn’t breathe. The rope—I grabbed it, swung my leg over?—
A hand closed around my ankle.
I kicked hard. The grip loosened and I let go, plummeting into darkness. The rope whipped past my face, burning my cheek. Then I plunged underwater, cold punching the air from my lungs. The shock of it stole my breath. I broke the surface with a gasp.
“Aelie!”
My head snapped up.
Kairos’s helm appeared. “Don’t move. I’m coming down!”
He jumped over the edge and plummeted down.
The water should’ve exploded but he hit with a soundless impact, the ripples collapsing into glassy stillness as if nothing had disturbed it.
He surfaced. His helm turned toward me, water streaming down the black steel.
We swam into a vast cavern, the ceiling studded with stalactites, their purple light dripping over the water. I climbed over a rock outcropping.
Kairos vaulted up beside me. The purple glow deepened the farther I crept into the cave, then my boot crunched a brittle object.
A bone. I froze, then took another step. More bones were scattered ahead, half-submerged in the shallows.
My pulse thudded painfully.
Kairos reached over his shoulder, grabbing his broadsword—then he cursed. He slammed it back into its sheath and pulled a dagger free from his thigh scabbard.
