But everything within her screamedNo!Caleb had risked his life rather than give the Ring to a Montverre.How could she defy him now?Besides, there was something in this man’s eyes, a look she’d seen in the marquis, more than a resemblance, something hungry and sinister.
Briar brushed an invisible crumb from the table, his gold cufflinks flashing in the sun.“If the Ring truly could manipulate time,” he mused, “I’d go back to the moment before that pirate stole it.After that, our family’s fortune collapsed.For generations the Montverres lived in disgrace and ruin.”
“Until you,” Desi said quietly.
He straightened his lapels, chin high.“Until I clawed my way back from the ashes, yes.”
Camila’s eyes shone.“Rags to riches,” she said.“Such a great story.”
Desi sipped her coffee and stared at the cars passing in the street.If Briar went back in time and saved the marquis from losing the Ring, then maybe he would never pursue theSentineland Caleb would never die.However, if the Montverres took possession of the Ring and used it for their own power and gain, the world she knew might never exist.History itself would unravel.And for the worse.
“The Ring?”Briar’s voice cut through her thoughts.He extended his hand, palm up.
Desi’s fingers brushed her pocket.The Ring’s warmth pulsed against her skin.“I’m having it cleaned,” she lied, forcing a casual tone.
His smile vanished, replaced by a quiet snarl.
Camila frowned at her.“Desi!Just go get it!”
Then, a whisper.Not heard, but felt.
I can heal her.Only believe.
Desi froze.Her breath caught.The words resonated through her soul, tender yet commanding.Her coffee cup trembled in her grasp.
Was that real?
Visions rose unbidden—Caleb’s crew, once fevered and dying, now whole again.A God who heard.A God who healed.
Trust Me.
“Desi?”Camila’s voice broke through the haze.“You okay?”
Desi blinked.“I—yeah.”She rose, slinging her backpack over her shoulder.“I’ll pick it up this afternoon and call you when I have it.”
Briar’s eyes narrowed, but he said nothing.
Desi turned away before they could see the tears that threatened to spill.She needed time.Time to think.Time to… maybe…pray.
Yet time was the one thing she didn’t have.At least, not in this world.
Desi found herself once again in the worst place on Earth—the hospital.
Death, despair, and sorrow prowled the sterile corridors like specters from hell itself.The sharp scent of antiseptic clawed at her nostrils, mingling with the faint metallic tang of blood.The hum and chirp of monitors accompanied the moans of the sick, the muted sobs of families clinging to hope.
She’d been one of them once.
Thirteen years ago, a frightened ten-year-old sitting beside her mother’s bed, begging Heaven for a miracle that never came.Heaven remained silent then—cold, unfeeling, remote—and it had left her and Daria alone in the world.
Now, she sat at her sister’s bedside, and the years collapsed into that same suffocating grief.Only this time, it wasn’t their mother dying, it was Daria, still so young, still too full of life to fade away.
The doctors came and went like solemn ghosts, scribbling notes, murmuring words she no longer heard.She’d stopped asking.She didn’t need their platitudes or pitying eyes.She could read the truth in the hollow curve of Daria’s cheeks and the dull rhythm of the monitors.
From the narrow window, the sun slanted low, its dying light struggling to pierce the gloom.But it wasn’t working.With each passing minute, each blip of Daria’s heart, each faint puff of her breath, a despair as thick and dark as oil seeped through Desi’s soul.
She sank into the chair, numb, and pulled the Ring from her pocket.She’d taken a chance on touching it—had to test it before she allowed Briar to hold it, before it would send him vanishing into the past.But no, she was outside the reach of the portal.Which meant she could deliver it safely.
If she could bring herself to give it to the creep.
