We stayed in the clearing long after the firelight had faded behind us.
The stars swirled above, too bright, too fast—as if the night sky had begun to spin.
That's when it began.
Not with sound, but with sensation: a shiver beneath my skin, a sharp tug behind my ribs like someone was pulling on a thread that wasn't there moments ago.
I sat up straighter, breath catching in my throat.
"Anna?" Kai's voice was calm, but alert.
And then I heard it.
Faint.
Fractured.
<
The voice cut through my mind like a trembling echo. Distant, frayed—desperate.
I gripped the pendant at my chest. It pulsed in time with the voice.
<>
My eyes widened, and the clearing swam before me. I was still there—but the world seemed thinner, like I was standing on the edge of something not fully real.
"Kai," I gasped. "Someone's calling me."
His brow furrowed. "Kaelion?"
"No." I shook my head. "It's not him. It's someone trapped. Someone afraid."
I swallowed, trying to ground myself. "It sounded like... me. But not me. Like someone from another timeline—or another life—begging for help."
Kai's voice dropped low. "What did she say?"
I met his eyes, my own full of dread. "She said 'he's coming'—and the blade wasn't supposed to do what it's doing."
We sat in silence as the stars above shifted—just slightly—as if time had blinked.
Then Kai whispered, "Someone's in danger… and they're using your bloodline—your bond—to reach back before it's too late."
My hand tightened around the pendant.
Whoever she was… she wasn't just warning me.
She was trapped. Somewhere.
And if I didn't act soon—
"I have to find her," I said, breath shaking, my hand still pressed tightly over the pulsing pendant. "She called out to me. I don't know where—or when—she is, but she needs help."
Kai was already beside me, removing the silver rings he used to focus his time-walking magic. "Then let's follow the thread. Together."
He took both my hands in his, and this time I didn't just follow his magic—I wove mine into it. The bond between us was no longer passive. It was active, resonant, powerful.
I let the binding magic rise in me, glowing gold at my fingertips, and whispered, "Let me guide it. You walk the path."
The threads shimmered through space like veins of light, seeking the source—the voice. Not a place, not a memory—a soul.
Kai exhaled slowly. The air folded around us.
The Broken Vision – A Woman in the Ashes
We landed in darkness. Cold wind howled through a ruined stronghold high on a crag of obsidian rock. The sky was the color of dried blood.
And there—near the broken altar—was the woman.
She was slumped against a shattered wall, wrapped in dark green robes, soaked in mud and blood. Her hands trembled around a cracked obsidian shard. Her lips were pale. Her aura flickered, barely holding together.
She wasn't me.
But something about her felt like home—like we were part of the same storm.
Her eyes lifted, and when she saw us—saw me—her whole body flinched with hope.
"You heard me," she breathed. "Oh stars… you heard me."
I stepped forward. "Who are you?"
She winced, pressing the shard into the ground to hold herself upright. "You don't know me yet. But I know the blade. I've felt it take… too much. It's waking in your time, isn't it?"
"Yes." I kneeled beside her. "You called to me—across time?"
"I anchored the call to blood," she rasped. "To the oldest thread. I didn't know who would answer, only that you had to stop it before it finishes binding. Before it feeds."
Kai stepped beside me, his voice tight. "Feeds on what?"
Her eyes met mine, haunted. "On you. On love. On soul bonded power. The more you intertwine with others, the more the blade evolves. It becomes what you are. It rewrites itself."
My pulse skipped. "Why me?"
"Because you're its echo." She pressed the shard into my hand. "But you might be the last to resist its will."
Suddenly, the ground trembled.
She gasped, clutching her side. "He's near. He'll try to silence this—he hates when I break through."
The sky cracked with lightning. The vision began to unravel.
"Remember—don't bind what you don't fully understand," she shouted. "Or you'll become the blade's next voice."
And then—
The world shattered.
Back in the Clearing
I gasped, stumbling into Kai's arms as we snapped back into the present. The wind in the trees roared, then fell completely still.
He held me, steady and silent. I looked at him, still gripping the black shard in my hand.
"She wasn't me," I whispered.
Kai nodded slowly. "No. But she knew you."
I closed my eyes. "And she knew the blade. Too well."
The obsidian shard still pulsed in my hand, the last trace of magic from the vision fading slowly into the cold night air.
Kai stood beside me, tense. I could feel questions rolling off him in waves—but before either of us could speak, a familiar voice called from the trees:
"Anna! Step away from that shard."
I turned.
"Mary?"
My cousin emerged from the shadows, her boots dusted from travel, her long coat lined with sigil-stitched cuffs glowing faintly. She looked older than I remembered—worn by time and knowledge—but her presence felt like a protective wall slamming into place.
Kai stepped slightly in front of me, cautious. "Who is this?"
Mary raised a brow. "Family. And the one who's been tracking the blade's pattern since before either of you realized it had started to wake."
She strode toward me, her gaze locked on the shard. "You saw her, didn't you?"
I swallowed hard. "A woman… she called out through time. She's trapped. Dying. She said the blade wasn't supposed to feed—wasn't supposed to finish binding."
Mary's hand hovered near the shard, but she didn't touch it. "Did she say her name?"
I shook my head. "No. But she… she felt familiar. Not like me. But like she was part of this."
Mary exhaled slowly, then turned her eyes on Kai.
"She's not just part of it. She's his."
I stared at her. "What?"
Kai's posture shifted. Not surprise—but regret.
Mary's voice dropped low. "Her name was Sarah. The blade's first chosen. And Kai's former lover—before you, before any of this."
I turned to Kai, stunned. "You never told me."
His jaw tensed. "Because I thought she was gone. Lost to the blade. She made the choice to bind with it… and it took everything from her."
Mary stepped closer. "Not everything. She's still alive—somewhere far along the timeline. That shard is linked to her. Which means her soul is caught between the blade and whatever future it's feeding on."
A cold realization sank into my bones. "And she called to me. Not to Kai."
Mary nodded. "Because the blade's interest has shifted. It doesn't just want magic. It wants connection. It's choosing the one whose heart is most open to it now."
My voice cracked. "Me."
Kai stepped forward, placing a hand on my shoulder. "Anna, I didn't want to keep Sarah from you. I just… buried that past. I failed her. And now she's trying to warn us."
The shard pulsed once, and a whisper trembled through the air—
"Anna… don't let it use him like it used me."
I wanted to confront Kai, but there was no time—something in the air felt like it was closing in around us. I turned to Mary and asked, "How do we get to her, cousin?"
Mary gave Kai a pointed smirk and replied, "He knows. He's the one who sent her away—with her blessing."
The words hit harder than I expected.
I turned to Kai, my throat tightening. "You sent her away?" My voice was quiet—but it cracked halfway through.
His jaw clenched, but he said nothing.
Suddenly the weight of it all—Sarah's voice, the blade's pull, the echoes of old love—crashed down on me. My chest burned, not from jealousy, but from something deeper.
Betrayal. Confusion. A pain I hadn't prepared for.
"She called to me, Kai," I whispered, backing away a step. "Not to you. She's still holding on… and you let her go?"
The wind stirred the trees around us like a slow exhale. And for a moment, it felt like even the stars were waiting for his answer.
The air held stillness—just for a breath.
Then the shard in my hand flared with light—a deep violet pulse, sudden and wild. It burned against my skin, hotter than before, and I cried out as it knocked me backward into the grass.
Kai lunged toward me, but the shard lifted from my palm, suspended in midair, spinning rapidly like it was reacting to a power outside any of us.
Mary cursed under her breath. "It's not just a message—it's a link."
Cracks of magic began to arc from the shard to the ground, searing golden lines into the earth like ancient sigils trying to rewrite themselves. The air around us shimmered, and I felt it again:
Her.
Not a whisper this time.
Not an echo.
A voice, raw and trembling, laced with both pain and resolve.
"Anna—listen to me. I don't have much time—he's trying to pull me into the blade. It's changing. It's remembering me… and it won't let me go unless someone breaks the bond."
My head throbbed. The shard's magic wrapped around my chest like a tightening coil.
"Please," she gasped through the connection. "Don't let him use your love like he used mine."
I gasped, tears stinging my eyes—not because I was afraid, but because I could feel her pain as if it were my own. Her loneliness. Her fading grip on reality.
"Sarah," I whispered, heart pounding, "I'm here."
"Then come find me."
The light burst upward in a narrow column, illuminating a sigil in the air—half-faded, unstable. It hovered between worlds, an anchor point in time, one that was quickly beginning to tear apart.
Mary reached out. "She's opening a path. But only you can hold it long enough to cross."
Kai grabbed my arm, voice low and tight. "If you go… I'm coming with you."
"No! How could I let you come with me when you're the one who sent her away because of the blade?" I ripped my arm free from his grasp and touched the pendant, which was now shimmering like a portal. Without hesitation, I stepped through—and the portal began to close behind me. Kai's scream echoed behind me, but I tuned it out.
As I crossed the threshold, a storm of emotions churned inside me—anger, fear, and a fierce determination. I couldn't let Kai come; not now. Not when the blade's shadow still clung to him. My heart ached, torn between wanting his support and needing to face this alone.
Behind me, Kai's voice cracked with desperation. "Anna! Don't do this! You're not alone—I'm not letting you face this by yourself!"
But the portal's closing light swallowed his words, and all I could focus on was the weight of the unknown ahead—Sarah's desperate call pulling me forward, and the promise that whatever waited on the other side would change everything.
Kai stood frozen at the edge of the clearing, his hands trembling, eyes wide with helplessness. His scream faded into a silent plea as the portal vanished, leaving him alone in the growing darkness.
Kai's Pov:
Kai stood alone in the clearing, the sudden silence pressing down like a heavy weight. The portal's glow had vanished, leaving only the faint scent of ozone and magic lingering in the air. His hands clenched into fists, nails digging into his palms, desperate to hold onto something—anything—that could bring her back.
"Anna…" His voice broke, barely more than a whisper. The pain of losing her, even if only for a moment, was like a physical blow. But deeper than that was the gnawing guilt. He had sent Sarah away once, and now he'd nearly lost Anna the same way.
He sank to his knees, closing his eyes as the echoes of her last words—their last argument—played over in his mind. How could I let you come with me when you're the one who sent her away because of the blade?
The weight of those words crushed him. Was he the reason she was walking into danger alone? The blade's curse, Sarah's fate—they all seemed tangled around his mistakes.
Kai's breath hitched, and a surge of magic flared from the pendant hanging at his neck. It pulsed weakly, but it was a lifeline—a tether still connected to Anna somewhere beyond.
He forced himself upright, determination hardening his features. I won't lose her. Not like this.
Gripping the pendant, Kai whispered a spell, summoning the strength of his time-walking gift. The air shimmers around him as he prepared to follow her—no matter the cost.
But even as the magic gathered, a cold shadow crept into his heart: the blade was watching, waiting, and the game was far from over.
Kai's fingers tightened around the pendant, its faint pulse syncing with his racing heartbeat. Without hesitation, he began the incantation—words older than memory slipping from his lips as the air around him thickened and shimmered.
The world bent and folded, and for a moment, he felt the familiar rush of time's currents beneath his feet. He was moving—chasing her through the tangled threads of past, present, and future.
But then, a sharp resistance hit like a wall.
His breath caught. The magic faltered.
The blade, Kai realized with a jolt. It's fighting me.
An invisible force clawed at his essence, trying to drag him back, severing the connection. The pendant burned hot in his palm, threatening to crack beneath the strain.
Kai gritted his teeth, summoning every ounce of willpower. "Come on… hold together," he muttered.
Sweat beaded on his forehead as he pushed harder, feeling his strength drain with every second. The rift was closing—their window shrinking fast.
For a fleeting moment, he glimpsed a silhouette—a figure moving just beyond the veil of time.
"Anna!" he called out, voice raw with desperation.
But the vision flickered and blurred.
The portal collapsed around him, leaving Kai gasping on the cold earth, panting and exhausted.
He clenched the pendant tightly. I couldn't follow her yet. Not fully.
A silent vow hardened within him: I will find a way. I will bring her back. Whatever it takes.
Kai lay on the cold earth, chest heaving, the fading pulse of the pendant echoing the ache in his heart. The failure to follow Anna burned sharper than any wound. If he was to find her, he needed more than willpower—he needed power he hadn't yet mastered.
He pushed himself upright, eyes narrowing with determination.
There was one place—an ancient library hidden deep within the Elders' Sanctuary, whispered of in old tales but rarely spoken of aloud. It was said to hold forbidden knowledge about time magic, secrets from before the blade was forged.
Without hesitation, Kai raced toward the sanctuary, the night air thick with the weight of coming storms.
Inside, the library was dim and silent, shelves towering with dusty tomes and scrolls crackling with latent magic. Kai's fingers traced the spines as he searched for the texts that might hold the answers.
Finally, he found a leather-bound grimoire—its cover inscribed with shifting runes that glowed faintly in the moonlight.
Opening it, Kai's eyes scanned arcane diagrams and cryptic incantations detailing ways to strengthen the bond between time and soul, to push beyond normal limits without shattering the self.
But the warnings were clear: such power demanded sacrifice. Overreach could mean losing oneself in the flow of time forever.
Kai's jaw tightened.
For Anna.
For Sarah.
For the future.
He would risk everything.
He began to chant softly, weaving the new magic through his pendant's glow, readying himself to walk the most dangerous paths yet—paths where the past and future collided, and where the blade's shadow loomed largest.