Chapter 25 #2
It wasn't a lie. Every word was true.
But it wasn't the whole truth either, and we both knew it.
He was quiet for a long moment. I felt the steady rise and fall of his breathing beneath my cheek, the thud of his heartbeat against my ear. When he finally spoke, his voice was carefully neutral.
"That's not an answer."
"I know." My voice came out small, almost childlike. "I'm sorry. I just... I don't have a good answer yet."
Another silence, longer this time. The fire crackled. Somewhere outside, an owl hooted. The bond between us thrummed with unspoken tension and I could feel the confusion and sadness as though it were my own. I couldn’t do it.
“Daska, if I tell you something, can you… not tell Rivik? Or anyone?”
“You are my mate. You come before anyone else. I will not tell.”
I closed my eyes, thinking about what I was going to say. My speech had come even further these last couple of weeks, but it was still hard to explain time travel to someone who had a very basic concept of time.
"The place I came from…” I started slowly, choosing my words with care. "It's not a place. Not really. Well, it is but…"
He said nothing, but I felt his confusion through the bond. His hand resumed its gentle stroking through my hair, encouraging me to continue.
"Do you remember... when you were a child?" I asked. "And then you grew, and became a man?"
"Yes."
"That's time passing. Seasons passing. Your grandfather was a child, then a man, then an elder, then he died. That's time moving forward. Always forward. Never back."
"I understand this," he said, though his tone suggested he wasn't sure where I was going.
"Where I come from..." I struggled, searching for words he would understand. "I haven't been born yet."
Silence. Then, cautiously, "What do you mean?"
"You know how your grandfather came before your father, and your father came before you?"
"Yes."
"And your child will come after you and grow, and have their child.
And their child will have a child, and so on.
I come after you. Far, far after you. So far after that if you counted every blade of grass in the valley below us, and then counted them again, and again, and again. .. that many seasons after you."
I felt his body go rigid beneath me. "That's... I don't..."
"I know it sounds impossible." I pressed on, desperate to make him understand.
"But it's true. Where I'm from, you and Rivik and everyone in your pack have been dead for so long that even the memory of your memory is forgotten.
The mountains have changed shape. The rivers run different paths. Everything is different."
"How?" His voice was strained, struggling to grasp the concept. "How can you be here if you haven't been born yet?"
"Magic. Very powerful magic." I took a shaky breath.
"And we came back, came to this time, because something happened here.
Something that broke the world, and it stays broken.
It gets worse and worse with each generation, each season, until in my time.
.." My voice cracked. "In my time, the earth is dying. "
He was silent for a long moment, and I could feel him trying to wrap his mind around it. "Dying how?"
"There are earthquakes that shake the ground for days.
Floods that swallow entire cities. Mountains that explode with fire and rock.
" I felt him tense beneath me. "And the magic.
.. the magic is dying. Shifters can barely have children anymore.
One birth for every ten matings, maybe less. The packs are dying out."
"The same is happening here," Daska said quietly.
"For many seasons now. Fewer and fewer children.
That's why Karik wanted you and Megan. Why he's been stealing females from other packs.
The birth rate is so low that unmated females are.
.." He paused, struggling with the words. "Precious. Fought over."
I nodded against his chest. "It's the same through all times from here until my time. Maybe beyond. We think... we know something went wrong. Here. In this time. Something that broke the magic and keeps breaking it, getting worse and worse with each generation."
He was quiet for a long moment, processing. When he spoke, his voice was careful, measured. "You came back to fix it."
"Yes." Relief flooded through me that he was following, that he wasn't dismissing it as madness.
"The thing Nathan has been trying to fix, the thing that broke when we arrived, it's called a scanner.
It was telling us where to go. Where to find the place where the magic is.
.. draining away. Where it's being broken. "
"And you have to go there."
"Yes."
Another silence. I could practically hear him thinking, turning it over in his mind, testing the edges of this impossible truth.
"How?" he finally asked. "How do you fix this?"
"Magic. Very powerful magic, more than any one person could hold." I swallowed hard, coming to the part I'd been dreading. "Dev and I... and my friend Stephen, before he died... we carry magic that isn't ours. Magic borrowed from many, many people. Enough to try and fix whatever is broken."
"Stephen," Daska repeated softly. "The one who died at the river."
"Yes. He was carrying a third of the magic. When he died, it... I took his share too. We need to find the source of the drain and stop it. If we don't..." I couldn't finish the sentence.
"If you don't, the magic keeps dying. The earth keeps breaking. The shifters keep fading away."
"Yes."
He was quiet again, but this time the silence felt different. Heavier. I felt something shift in the bond between us, a growing distance that made my chest ache.
"So you have to go," he said finally. His voice was flat, emotionless. "No matter what. You have to leave."
"Daska—"
"How long?" He cut me off. "How long to wherever you need to go?"
"I don't know. Many moon cycles. We don’t know where it is, and then we have to actually figure out how to…"
"And after?" His voice was harder now. "After you fix whatever is broken? Do you go back to your time?"
"I don't know!" The words burst out of me.
"I don't know if we can stay. I don't know if the timeline will allow it, if we can exist here without causing more damage.
I don't know anything except that I have to try and fix this, because if I don't, everything dies. Your people, my people, everyone."
He was so still beneath me that for a moment I thought he'd stopped breathing. Then, with movements that were almost eerily gentle, he lifted me off his chest and set me aside on the furs. He stood, his silhouette dark against the firelight, and I saw his shoulders rise and fall with a deep breath.
"Daska, please—"
"I need..." His voice was strained, barely controlled. "I need to think."
"Don't go. Please. Let's talk about this—"
"There's nothing to talk about." He still wasn't looking at me. "You have to go. And I..." He trailed off, shaking his head.
"Daska—"
But he was already moving toward the cave entrance, his steps quick and controlled. I scrambled to follow, the furs falling away, but he was faster. By the time I reached the entrance, he was already shifting, his body flowing into bear form.
"Daska please!"
He paused at the edge of the clearing, his massive shape turned away from me.
For a moment I thought he might come back, might shift and let me explain better, find some way to make this right.
But then he shook his head and disappeared into the shadows beneath the trees.
I stood at the cave entrance, naked and shivering in the cold night air, watching him disappear into the darkness.
The bond between us thrummed with pain and betrayal and a grief so profound it felt like drowning.
I felt as thought I was back in that hotel room, my heart feeling like it was being ripped open once again.
"I'm sorry," I whispered to the empty clearing. "I'm so sorry."
I spent the night alone in the cave, wrapped in furs that still smelled like him, watching the fire burn down to embers.
Every sound outside made me jump, hoping it was him returning, fearing it was something worse, even though I knew he would never have left me if he hadn’t believed I was safe.
The bond between us throbbed with distance and pain, a constant ache in my chest that made it hard to breathe.
He didn't come back.
Dawn came slowly, grey light creeping across the cave floor. I fed the fire, pulled on my clothes with numb fingers, and tried not to think about the look on his face when he'd left. I'd hurt him. And I didn't know how to fix it.
I was poking listlessly at the fire when I heard footsteps outside. My head snapped up, heart lurching.
Daska stood in the entrance, back in human form, his hair dishevelled and his eyes shadowed with exhaustion. He looked like he hadn’t slept either. But when our eyes met, something in his expression softened, just slightly.
"Ellie," he said quietly.
I was on my feet before I could think, crossing the cave in three quick steps. "Daska, I'm so sorry, I should have told you sooner, I just… I didn't know how…"
"Stop." He caught my hands, his grip gentle but firm. "We don't have time."
"What?"
"Karik is here." His voice was controlled, but I could feel the tension radiating through the bond. "I spotted his wolves coming up the valley. Maybe an hour behind me, maybe less."
My stomach dropped. "Karik."
"Yes." He was already moving, pulling our supplies together with practiced efficiency. "We need to pack. Now. Get back to the main camp before they do."
I started grabbing things, rolling up furs, stuffing our meagre possessions into the packs we'd brought.
We worked in tense silence for several minutes. My hands were shaking, fumbling with ties and knots, my mind racing. This was it. The sanctuary was over. Back to the main camp, back to politics and tension and…
"Ellie."
I turned. Daska was standing by the fire, holding the last of our supplies, watching me with an expression I couldn't quite read.
"Come here," he said quietly.
I crossed to him, and he set the pack down and pulled me into his arms. Not roughly, not desperately, but with a tenderness that made my throat tight. He buried his face in my hair, breathing deep, and I felt him tremble.
"I'm not angry," he said softly, his breath warm against my ear. "I'm... I need time to understand. To think about what you told me. But I'm not angry with you."
"Daska—"
"Whatever happens," he continued, his arms tightening around me, "whatever you have to do, whatever you have to do... you're still my mate. That doesn't change."
I clung to him, feeling tears prick at my eyes. "I don't want to lose you."
"You won't." He pulled back just enough to look at me, his hands framing my face. "We'll figure this out.
"What if this doesn’t work?" I asked.
Daska's expression hardened. "I will kill him before I let him take you from me." He pressed a quick, fierce kiss to my forehead, then stepped back. "Come. We need to move."
We finished packing in minutes, working with the kind of silent coordination that came from the mating bond.
Daska doused the fire, scattering the ashes, while I took one last look around the cave that had been our home for two perfect weeks.
My heart ached at leaving. I wanted to stay here forever.
We headed back toward the main camp along the same trails we’d come by. Daska set a brutal pace, but I kept up. My legs were burning and my breath coming hard, but I was still a lot fitter and stronger than I had been when I’d come through the stones.
Daska slowed, his head turning toward a break in the trees. "Up there," he said tersely. "We can see how close they are."
We scrambled up a steep slope, using roots and rocks for handholds, until we burst out onto a high ridge overlooking the valley.
The view was breathtaking, rolling hills carpeted in forest, the river cutting silver through the landscape, mountains rising in the distance, but I barely registered the beauty.
Spread across the valley below, moving through the valley with organized precision, were wolves. Dozens of them. Maybe more. Dark shapes flowing through the trees in tight formation, their patterns deliberate and coordinated.
A war party.
My stomach dropped.
"That's..." I couldn't finish the sentence.
"Karik's pack," Daska said flatly. His hand found mine. "He brought more this time."
“Why would he do that?”
Daska looked down at me, rubbing his hand over his face in frustration.
"He wants you. And he doesn’t trust Rivik, so he's brought enough wolves to take you by force."
Shit.