43. Chapter 43
Chapter 43
River
I felt it when the protective shield around us fell. My own magic tingled through me, sharp and fast in response, as the necromancer pulled his magic away from the corpse he'd been raising and tried to snap the shields back up in time. I pulled back from defending the circle and instinctively reached into my own bag of tricks. Wrongness tingled over me. Bad luck warring against my own innate luckiness. The feeling said I had to get out of here. Now.
I saw it clearly in my mind’s eye, well used to making predictions by now. Dyre wasn't fast enough. And though the other magic users in the group would try to help, they were a beat behind him. They would all fail to get the shield back up in time, and even if they did, only the necromancer's magic had any chance of standing up to the next spell.
Dark magic. Black magic. Blood magic . The cultists released their sacrifice, her blood still pumping from the slash across her throat, soaking the dirt as she crumpled to the ground, her life force now powering their spells.
The killing spell hurtled toward our group. The caster's aim wasn't perfect, maybe because they were trying to control a magic that wasn't meant to exist. For whatever reason, I could see the trajectory, in that moment when my magic rose up and time stood still. It would hit the right side of the group.
I forced myself to watch it happen, to see what the reality was before I attempted to change it. I had long ago learned not to ignore that vital step, or I would only make things worse. Cats had lots of tricks up our sleeves. But this one was the rarest among my kind, and the most carefully guarded secret.
Because it had as much chance of failing as it did of succeeding.
The spell hurtled toward us. I used my magic to sidestep through time, watching from a safer distance. Bella and Andy were going to take the brunt of the spell. But of course, their lovers had other ideas. Junaid reached for Bella, using his jinn magic to phase into the path of the spell and violently shove her out of the way of the worst of it, but he wasn't quite quick enough. All of Andy's harem whipped their heads toward their witch, but the only one close enough to help was Hasumi. The water weaver stepped in front of the witch and wrapped their slender body around her, shielding them both in a bubble of water magic.
The spell hit, and everyone was thrown backward. I watched the carnage. Watched as four people I cared about were killed and two were badly wounded.
Not wasting time with the aftermath, I reached for my magic and rewound time. This time, I didn't stand still in safety. This time, I moved to save the strange people I was becoming so fond of.
And I failed.
Sucking in a deep breath, I yanked on the slippery fabric of time again.
And again.
And again.
I was only one person. I could only be in one place at one time. And I could only warp time for seconds…not even an entire minute.
It wasn't enough. I knew it from the moment that blast came hurtling toward the rebel leader and her reluctantly recruited sister and friends. And yet, I had to try. I couldn't stand by and watch this happen.
Of all the times I had cursed the limitations of the amazing power I had been gifted, this was one of the absolute worst.
Dead. Again, and again, they were all dead.
My legs shook and the magic burned as I grasped it again. I had to keep trying.
This time I only made it worse. I moved Aahil closer, hoping he could phase Andy and Hasumi out faster than the water weaver could. He couldn't.
I hit my knees as the blast hit the group, my vision wavering and the air burning as I forced my tired body to continue to suck in oxygen. As I forced my exhausted synapses to fire. One more. I thought I might have one more time skip left in me, though I had never pushed myself this far before.
I felt tears trickle down my cheeks. My body was burning hot and icy cold by turns as I forced it to keep doing things that went against the natural order. I pushed myself to my feet, swaying when dizziness swept over me. I had to move now, or I'd lose too much time. I could only set things back so far from the present. I had to try again.
I had to choose.
“I'm sorry,” I whispered as I grabbed the slippery, burning threads of time in one final attempt. “I’m so fucking sorry.”