3. Chapter 3
Chapter 3
I t’s in the blink of an eye that I come crashing onto my back, struggling to process everything that’s going on. All of a sudden, I’m out of the boundless nothingness and back in the Dining Hall, I’m trying to fight off Serra who’s trying to fight off both Lorcan and the raven who must be Raven, my spine is exploding in pain and there’s this insufferable ringing in my ears.
Gritting my teeth, I lift my legs and kick Serra away. She stumbles back and lets out a furious growl when Lorcan takes the opportunity to restrain her, Raven flying in wide circles around her.
I get up, zeroing on Serra’s face to use my Aurora powers to blast her to pieces once and for all.
Then my eyebrows pull down, this unease spreading through my chest when I spot something shifting under her skin as if she’s being eaten from inside.
The next thing I know, she’s turning into shadows and the shadows are being sucked in the direction of the archway into the Entrance Hall.
As soon as she does, the three of us start looking around, all seemingly confused by the fact that we’re alone all of a sudden. It’s not just that Serra is gone. So is everyone else — the soldiers, Jaeger, and Alaric.
“Can you smell anyone?” I ask my wolf, only then sensing she’s gone.
What the hell is going on?
My body remains tense in anticipation of another attack, but nothing happens.
I frown. Raven is still flying around in her shifted form so it’s Lorcan I turn to ask, “Where did everyone go?” My own voice sounds more distant to me than the ringing in my ears.
Looking more disoriented than I’ve ever seen him, Lorcan only helplessly shakes his head. “Maybe you should just give it another go, whatever it is that you were trying to do.”
But it’s the Hall that draws my attention away from him. Slowly, I look around once again. Now that I’m not fighting Serra off or looking around for everyone else, I can finally see it.
Something's definitely off.
Everything looks… brand new. The tables, the chairs, even the age-old flags. With the corner of my eye, I spot Lorcan following suit, taking a closer look around as well.
There’s a moment of silence before he asks, “What did you do, Miss Novak?”
It’s then that I spot it — the tapestry hanging off the wall across from me, showing the courting of a fae by a vampire. For a moment, I just keep looking at it. I guess I did manage to do something after all.
I turn to look at Lorcan and take a deep breath. “I got us back in time.”
The surprise makes him take a literal step backwards. He curses under his breath. “What year?” he demands.
“Could be 2010.” I glance at the tapestry again. At least that’s when I believe the Academy sold it to get money for the new training grounds.
“And what are we supposed to do in 2010?” Lorcan demands.
“Nothing,” I reply, forcing myself to be honest, despite how stupid it may feel. “I was supposed to bring us back to the day I got the Archivist role.”
It’s exasperated, the sigh that he lets out.
“It’s fine,” I protest, determined not to let this get to me, especially now that I’ve involved the two of them. “I’ll just try again.”
It’s Raven that snaps us both out of it when she starts flying around me.
“What is wrong with her?” I hear Lorcan ask just as I myself notice how frantic she seems.
My eyebrows pull down as I follow her with my gaze. “Raven,” I call out softly.
There’s another moment of frantic flying before her voice booms inside my head. “I can’t seem to shift back, Anna.”
The surprise makes me stumble back and keep staring at her in wonder. She just communicated with me telepathically. Is that something she can do? And what the hell is she talking about — being unable to shift back?
“What’s going on?” Lorcan asks, but there would be no point trying to explain this to him right now.
“Alright,” I finally say, shaking my head and forcing myself to stay on task, “if there really is something wrong, we’ll figure it out as soon as I get us to the right time, Raven.” I wave her over and motion at my shoulder.
She comes to land on it, seemingly calming down.
It’s with a healthy dose of annoyance that Lorcan snaps me out of it. “Shouldn’t we get moving?” He gestures in the direction of the portal. “This can’t be anything but highly dangerous, and is becoming more so with every second we spend here.”
I don’t hesitate. I don’t just know he’s right, I feel it deep in my bones.
But it’s only a couple of steps that I manage to take before I hear the sounds.
The sounds of people chatting. Lots of them. Fast approaching.
Both Lorcan and I freeze in place. We exchange a look and rush to hide behind the curtain separating the podium from the rest of the Hall.
The chatter is only growing louder, so I don’t dare peer from behind the curtain, but then Lorcan tugs at my sleeve and I crane my neck to see him motioning at the window behind us.
Frowning, I step closer to it and look outside, my gaze sweeping over the castle grounds.
My eyes round, my mind struggling to wrap itself around what I’m seeing.
There are some minor details about the Towers that seem… off. But that’s the least of it.
First off, there are the grounds themselves. They’re much less overgrown. In fact, you could say they’re very meticulously kept.
Then there’s the Dame Gothel courtyard. The statue is still rising high into the sky, but the cobblestone ring is not empty. It has a delicate stone structure winding around it, vines and flowers climbing the carved arches.
And then…
Then there are the students walking the grounds. Their clothes, to be more exact. But what I see simply cannot be.
Because all I see are hooped skirts, cloaks, old-fashioned hats, gloves, walking sticks…
“I don’t consider myself a history buff, Miss Novak,” I hear Lorcan say, “but this most certainly is not 2010.”
Holy fucking hell. This is all fashion from the mid-nineteenth century. I’ve made us go back to the eighteen hundreds.
I crane my neck to look at Raven. This must be the reason she’s back in her animal form. Back then, her curse hadn’t yet been lifted.
And it could be the reason my wolf has been pushed far from the surface of my consciousness.
I turn my eyes back onto the curtain, listening to the people chatting as they take their seats, seemingly getting settled in for some event. Some nineteenth-century event thrown for nineteenth-century students.
“ Now what?” Lorcan grits out.
I glance down at my jeans and shirt. We can’t go back there looking like this . But if we take the back entrance out of the Dining Hall and find our way to the laundry…
I look up again and turn to Lorcan. “The portal will still be open. We’ll come back the first chance we get,” I say with determination in my voice. “But right now, we need to find a way to blend in.”