Chapter 18
Rafe
“Faster, Lina!”
This part of the forest is a fucking snare. Branches claw at our naked flesh, roots try to trip us with every frantic step. The air hums with old magic, thick and tart, clinging to my tongue like ash.
I clamp down on Lina’s hand, she’s the only solid thing right now in a place unravelling with madness. Her palm is slick, breathing ragged, but she doesn’t let go of me. She doesn’t falter. Not even as a burst of sorcery cracks the sky behind us like lightning splitting stone.
“Keep moving!”
Clashes of steel and battle cries bleed into the forest, a rising tide of chaos that’ll drown us if we don’t outrun it. Barefoot, naked, our skin scraped by thorns, feet cut from roots and stones. Fuck dignity. Fuck shame. Survival is all I can think about right now.
Where was I at this time? Where was I, where was I, where was I.
Where the fuck was I!
“Left!” I yell, yanking her hard enough we both nearly crash into an ancient oak. The vibrations in the earth grow stronger, like a war drum pounding beneath the soil.
I risk a glance at Lina. Mud streaks her rosy cheeks, hair wild, lips parted with rapid, shallow gasps—and fuck if she isn’t the fiercest thing I’ve ever seen.
“Do not stop,” I rasp, chest burning. “Whatever happens Lina, you don’t stop!”
Another burst of power splits a tree twenty paces to our right, bark explodes in a hailstorm of deadly splinters. I lunge at Lina, scooping her in my arms and lurch us forward, rolling on the forest floor to cover her body with mine.
‘Rafe!’
Her scream has my balls shooting up inside my body. I curl myself around her shielding her head.
“We’re good. It’s ok.”
It is not ok!
‘What about any of this is ok, Rafe!?’
Sharp wood, rocks and debris rail down all around us, impaling the earth as more long-range blasts of power are exchanged by both sides.
“Just trust me!”
The vibration of marching feet and the tremors of power are so close it chatters my teeth.
“Stay on the ground! Don’t move!” Soldiers surround us, each with swords and daggers drawn, palms glowing with their elemental magic, ready to strike. I press Lina into me some more, making her as small as I possibly can.
“Allies! We’re allies!”
“Bullshit.” A soldier with a bloody gash on his chest spits. “Get Commander Kharson. Now!” He says to a runner holding a blue flag. He scuttles off behind the group of soldiers who scan the surrounding area, waiting for ambush at any second.
Commander Kharson, fuck. I’ve heard about this guy, if he’s as brutal as his reputation suggests, we may have just lost all hope of escaping my echo of this day.
“We’re just…”
“Shut your fucking mouth!”
‘Rafe…’ Lina’s whimpered whisper beneath me breaks my heart.
‘It’s ok, I promise. I’ve got this. I’ll get us out.’ I tell her through our mind-link with as much confidence as I can muster, unable to stop myself from kissing her temple.
I really don’t have this, and I don’t think I can get us out.
The runner stumbles behind a big brute of a man carrying a blood-soaked sword in one hand, a dagger in the other, his face obscured by a black hood and mask.
He points the dagger at us. “Up,” he orders, his tone deadly, the bright eyes of a warrior screaming bloody murder.
I drag Lina up, shoving her behind me to shield her naked body from the roaming eyes of the soldiers, who, every now and then crouch down as the battle rages around us in the distance.
He rips off his hood, unveiling a menacing glare drenched in blood.
“Name.”
“Rafe and Lina Foran.”
Lina shifts, peeking around my arm to see the brute standing before me, deciding our fate. I tuck her in some more, and she presses up against my back, the pads of her fingertips digging into my ribs. Commander Kharson tilts his head; his eyes scanning Lina, and I hold a breath.
“We’re just a couple of young, stupid newlyweds caught in the middle of a battle, sir.”
His eyes narrow, lines mar between his brows. He’s so still I don’t think he’s breathing. His aura exudes that of a predator, eyeing us up like prey.
But I’m not in the mood to be prey.
He stabs his sword into the soil, keeping a steady hold of his dagger and steps forward. And another. And another.
Lina’s nails dig into my flesh, her breasts pressed into my back, forehead pushing between my shoulders. She shakes as Commander Kharson stops right in front of me. Eye to eye. Toe to toe.
We’re roughly the same height, but with him fully armoured up and me unarmed and naked, even I know I don’t stand a fucking chance up against him.
I’d fight to the death though. If that’s what I must do to protect the woman pressed up behind me, I will. I’ll fight to the fucking death and go down laughing.
He leans forward and whispers in my ear. “Liar.”
I try not to jolt, but I can’t help my deep inhalation.
“I saw you not so long ago with the Chief Defender,” his grin is wicked. “That guy was definitely not married. Or naked.”
“I can explain.”
“I’d prefer if you didn’t,” he says, leaning in again to whisper. Though I’m starting to wonder if it’s to shield us from the men behind him awaiting orders. “Because I know who you are Rafe Foran. What you are.”
My heart drops into my stomach.
“I really can explain…”
“Shhh.” He places the blade of the dagger flat against my lips. “Who do you think sent him to you.”
So I have him to thank for this shit show.
He rips off his hood, shoving it around me. A cold breeze brushes against the patch of skin Lina dug into and in my periphery, her dainty fingers reach out, taking the black material from Commander Kharson.
She fumbles behind me, tying it around her.
‘Thank you, Commander. Hey…’ She prods me in the ribs. ‘…tell him I said thank you, he might spare us.’
‘Lina, baby, I don’t think your manners is what saves us here.’ I respond down our link.
‘I have full view of your arse, Rafe Foran. I won’t hesitate to ram something sharp up it.’
“She said thank you.” I rush out, swallowing, confident I won’t have any impending objects about to be rammed up my arsehole, but the thought makes the hole twitch.
The Commander’s eyes say nothing. “Tell me, what year is it?”
He doesn’t mean the year of this battle; he means the year of where I’m from.
“890,” I whisper.
“Have they broken it yet?”
The menace in his bright, blinding eyes soften a fraction at the mention of the cursed Princess.
I struggle to maintain his intense eye contact before finding my balls and shaking my head once.
I know better than to tell anyone anything of the future, but seeing as this is my echo, and nothing more becomes of this timeline after I—past Rafe—travels back, I give him the honour of some truth.
And even though Commander Kharson probably doesn’t survive today, in fact barely anyone survives today, I hold on to some faith that in my current timeline, he’s out there alive, thriving, after living through the horrors of the year 830.
He sighs, deep and heavy before taking a moment to peer up into the slither of blue peeking through the dense foliage.
“Go,” he says, jerking his head once, not taking his squinting gaze off the sky, and something tells me, that this moment he takes is just him making peace with his death today.
“With honour, Commander.”
Die with honour.
I glance at him over my shoulder as I clasp Lina’s hand to drag her further away.
He chuckles. “Always, Traveler.” He mocks a two-finger salute, and I nod, once, picking up speed with Lina.
As soon as we’re out of sight we break out into a sprint, putting as much distance between us and the battle. If I get us to the stronghold, find younger Rafe, I can get me and Lina safely home to 890.
‘Rafe, here.’
Lina tugs my hand and rushes over to a bundle I can’t quite see. Her body now partially covered by Commander Kharson’s hood. Now is not the most ideal time to be envious, but I really don’t fucking like it’s not anything belonging to me covering her nakedness.
‘I can’t look.’ She pivots, shielding her eyes. ‘Thought you might want to finally put your cock away.’ She jerks her head, and I finally see what she’s talking about.
A dead warrior, wearing nothing but boots and trousers, lies on the ground, a dagger impaled into his heart.
“Kinda like this way of life,” I mumble, and Lina’s shoulders shake.
“I was joking, kind of, something freeing about letting it all hang out. Ya know?” I disassociate from the body and yank off the trousers and boots, pulling them on.
My stomach churns as the fabric of the dead soldier brushes against my flesh. I fight off a shudder.
‘I hear you, but what if you got into a ‘fight to the death’ battle and your naked?’
“Well, I don’t have a sword, but at least I’d have another weapon.”
‘That was terrible.’
“I did warn you I had a lot of bad jokes up here.”
Her laugh is short-lived as I grab her hand again and break us out into another run, the outskirts of the stronghold coming into view.
So close.
So fucking close.