Timespell (30 page)

No. She had been turned into dark energy. Her essence flowed like scattered seeds on a current of fear and cruelty and hunger.

A burst of sound exploded through the void. Light and sensation flooded her soul so abruptly she would have screamed if there had been air in her lungs. She drew in an enormous breath, her eyes pinpricked with dark spots as she took in the fiery, noisy world she had emerged in. The sky was burnt orange. A mob of people gathered on the lawn of a palace. Angie lay gasping on the ground, her hand clutching the hem of Julia’s gown. Julia followed her own hand, wound tight in Ethan’s jacket. Her eyes lifted to the sight of the enraged echidna.

Angie screamed. The echidna’s free tail whipped out at them, leaving a burn of pain across Julia’s cheek. The echidna’s tail lashed out a second time, slashing across her arm as she brought it up to protect her face.

Angie lifted her hands.

What was the use? Blasting the creature hadn’t done any good last time. They were going to die.

Angie blasted Ethan, the jewels at her wrist sparkling as brightly as the mark on her arm. “Restore!” she screamed.

Ethan’s eyes flew open. The snake tail tightened but he shoved his arms free. With a grunt, he sprang to his feet and punched the echidna in her doll-like face. She snarled, black blood trickling down her lip as she lifted her arms. The mob of people surged closer, soldiers among them with long rifles and gleaming swords.

The echidna’s face began to flicker in waves of darkness. She
glanced behind her, jaw clenched as her body transformed against her will.

“No,” Angie yelled, getting up and firing her magic. “We have to stop her. Once she’s transformed she’ll blend into the crowd and we’ll never find her!”

But the people rushed over them like a wave. The echidna turned into a childlike woman, her eyes filled with venom. She turned and ran. Ethan plunged through the crowd after her.

Julia grabbed Angie’s arm. “Come on! We can’t worry about the creature now.”

Angie’s lips formed a thin line, but she nodded once and they ran, stumbling blindly from the crazed mob. Julia held her friend’s thin arm so tight she thought she might break it, but she wouldn’t lose her. Not in this mess of people.

This way,
Angie said.
Through that row of boxed-off hedges.

Julia had no clue what Angie was looking at, but let her friend take the lead. Her face and arm pulsed with pain from where the echidna had whipped her. She couldn’t catch her breath.

Angie pulled her through a small space between massive, square bushes. Julia was grateful to be free of the crowd. Gunshots blasted and she hunched down, her eyes darting across the night. She needed to get a grip. She forced herself to take a deep breath. Then another.

“Here,” Angie said, lifting her hands to Julia’s face. “Restore.”

“Thank you.” Julia’s eyes slid closed as the soothing warmth of Angie’s magic seeped into her skin, drenching her soul with healing light.

“Where
are
we?” Julia asked as she returned the favor and healed Angie.

“Don’t you recognize the palace?”

“Geez, Angie. We were almost killed. I wasn’t paying attention to the freaking palace.”

“We’re back at the Tuileries. The echidna slipped through a time rift. Why did you follow after it, Julia?
Why?”

Julia stared at her, dumbfounded. “How was I supposed to know? I thought they couldn’t do that on their own!”

“Time rifts are different,” Angie said, exasperated. “They’re little cracks in space-time that form around the portals.”

“Well that would’ve been nice to know two minutes ago. All I knew was the creature—” A cannon boomed and Julia cowered. Shouts rose in the air, fierce and terrifying, but she forced herself to straighten. “The creature had Ethan.” She swallowed.

“You could have summoned Ethan! Now we’re separated. How are we going to find Kaitlyn and bring her over from another point in history?”

Julia doubled over, her hands jammed deep in her hair. “Oh, man. We might be trapped here. We might never get back home.”

People rushed toward them. Their wild eyes glowed with hatred as they spotted her and Angie.

Julia’s heart thundered in her ears. These people wanted to kill them.

“I think—this must be the March on Tuileries,” Angie said, her face blank as she shoved the bracelet from her wrist. “And if we can’t freeze time, we’re in serious trouble.” She offered Julia the jeweled circle. “Hurry.”

Julia took it. The moment it touched her skin she felt a calming ripple of warmth. She stared at the jewels, magic flooding her, her thoughts slowing down as their power grew, making the bracelet feel heavier with each passing second.

“Put it on, now!”

Julia shook herself from the jewels’ spell. She slid the bracelet past her fingers as a man shoved her to the ground.

“No!” She hadn’t pushed the bracelet fully on and it slipped from her hand. She reached for it and her fingers were stepped on as a voice boomed above the commotion.

She had no idea what the man was saying, but he lifted her by the shoulders for everyone to see.

“Freeze time,” Angie yelled.

“I lost it.” Her voice sounded hysterical even to her own ears. “I lost the jewel!”

The man hauled her away from Angie as he kept talking to the people.
Angie!
She gasped for breath, half dragged, half-marched to a platform. Her stomach bottomed out and her knees buckled.
This cannot be happening. This cannot be happening.

The crowd cheered as the man lifted her chin and showed her off. People spat at her, closing in, tearing at her clothes and pulling at her limbs.

Waves of nausea rolled over her.

There was no sign of Angie.

What had happened to her? She had to find her. She couldn’t let anything happen to her friend.

She elbowed her captor, lifting her hands to blast him. Someone struck her across the jaw. A knife appeared at her throat and Julia stilled, her heart frosting over.

The mob started chanting. That was never a good sign. Her arms were roped together. She writhed and bucked, mindless now of the knife. She had to get away, to escape. They were going to kill her!

The hands on her arms were rough. No matter how hard she writhed, she couldn’t escape them. She started shaking uncontrollably as the mob’s chanting grew wilder. So many people, just like on the day of Marie Antoinette’s debut. Only this time, instead of delirious joy, the entire world had gone insane with hatred.

The knife returned to her throat and the crowd cheered. Julia’s stomach roiled. If Angie had escaped somehow, she would still be doomed if these men killed her.

Julia!

The voice boomed through her skull and her eyes darted around. “Ethan!” She fought against the gag that was shoved into her mouth. A rough hand jerked her chin up again. The filthy cloth was tied with a harsh tug. She blocked out the cloth’s foul scent and shut her eyes, reaching for Ethan with her mind.

Damn it, Julia, where are you?

I’m down the path, in the center of an enraged mob that’s about to kill me!

The crowd cheered again, jolting Julia’s eyes open. The sound of gunfire burst in her ears. Explosions lit up the palace in an angry red glow. Someone yanked her by the hair and she blinked hard, her head pulled so far back she could see the sky.

I can’t get through this crowd.
Ethan’s voice was laced with panic.
Summon me.

The gleaming knife waved in time to her captor’s speech. Her eyes slid closed.
I can’t.
Hot tears slid down the sides of her face, reaching her ears.
They gagged my mouth.

Call me, damn it. It wasn’t your words that brought me to you, it was your will. Your power. Command me over to you.

She felt the chill of a dagger against her exposed neck, and she focused every ounce of power she had on Ethan.
Find me,
and her heart hammered with furious heat as she shoved every ounce of emotion behind her words, willing him to obey her.
Find me, Wanderer.

An icy gust of wind blew through the courtyard. She set her gaze on the man with the knife, who lowered the weapon and looked around. A glimmer shone through the increasing mist—the silvery light that meant the magic had worked.

Julia’s chest heaved as she tried to suck in a lungful of air through the gag in her mouth.
Ethan, appear. Hurry-hurry-hurry!
The chill in her fingers grew colder. She pulled hard, forcing him through the distance that separated them as he swirled like a ghost come to life.

A collective gasp echoed across the crowd. Ethan’s nostril’s flared as his hand shot out and slammed the knife-guy in the face. The guy fell to the ground. Ethan took the knife and sliced off her gag.

“I figure we have another five seconds before this mob comes to their senses and tears us apart,” he said, cutting through the
ropes at her wrists. “Why don’t you cast a concealing spell over us so we can get the hell out of here?”

She nodded, lifting her hands. Magic trickled out, barely enough to light a candle, she was so drained. “Conceal,” she said, putting as much force as she could behind the word.

People turned away, no longer noticing where she and Ethan stood.

“That spell was so weak I don’t think it’ll last more than a minute,” she said. “But Angie—”

“She’s safe,” he said, urging her away from the pressing bodies.

Cries rose up as they wove through the mob now rushing the stage. Her stomach quivered at the memory of all those spitting faces and groping hands. She didn’t know how much time they had before the concealing spell wore off. What if she lost Ethan again? She grabbed his arm as they arrived in a darkened corner of the garden. Angie appeared out from the shadow of a tall hedgerow and headed straight for Julia. In one motion she lifted Julia’s arm and shoved the bracelet on her wrist. “Stop time. Now.”

Magic flooded into her from the jewel, nearly overwhelming her with its abruptness. Angie’s eyes bored into hers and she nodded, harnessing the steady stream of power and holding the present in her mind. The world became still, every sound closing in on itself.

She slumped down to the grassy floor. “I need a minute.”

Angie knelt beside her, her hand gentle on her shoulders.

Would this task ever end? Her hands shook and she clenched them, clutching her stomach. She was going be sick.

A presence built in the back of her mind, relaxing her frayed nerves. She blinked up at Ethan, who stood a few feet away. Her heart picked up speed as he studied her. Dark lashes fell across his cheekbones as he turned away. Calming emotions flowed through her mind, soothing sensations of warmth and sun. She breathed deep, inhaling the briny scent of the sea mixed with traces of coconut.

Her mind became calm. Exhaustion peeled away as he drew in the worst of her stress, taking it upon himself. His presence left her mind as quickly as it had arrived. She shut her eyes.
Thank you.

Silence echoed back at her. With a sigh she opened her eyes. “I’m okay, Angie,” she said, getting up.

Angie stood as well. “The creatures will be attacking now that they don’t have to disguise themselves.”

Julia nodded, noticing the way Angie’s gaze flickered down to her wrist.

“Oh. The jewel,” Julia said. She covered the bracelet with her hand, feeling its strong pulse as if the metal and precious gems had become a part of her. Her throat became dry. Power pulsed from the jewels, urging her to keep them. She slid the bracelet off her wrist, her heart aching with the motion.

Angie put on the bracelet, her eyes shutting briefly. “I think the portal must be here at Tuileries Palace,” she said. “This was where you were compelled to Journey us to the first time we came. Plus, why else would the echidna have tried to escape here?”

“Yeah,” Julia said, glancing up at the dark windows of the imposing palace. She let out a shaky breath. “But we can’t seal the portal without Kaitlyn.”

“Hopefully, I’ll be able to Voyage back in time with the jewel and find her,” Angie said. “It’ll be difficult. Without the threads of time I won’t have anything to latch on to.”

“Are you sure you’ll know which day to go back to?”

“No,” she said softly. Angie began tapping her fingers against her gown. Her brows came together as she said, “We’ll just have to try. As many times as it takes.”

Julia nodded, her eyes falling again to the jewels at her friend’s wrist. Her heart twisted painfully. So much power. It made the magic in her mark feel like barely anything at all. Her eyes stung with the uncomfortable feeling in her chest.

Ethan’s head turned sharply. “What’s wrong?”

Crap. Him and that stupid connection of his. “Nothing,”
she said, glancing away and pushing the jewels from her mind. Ahead, the gaping windows of the palace stared back at her, dark and empty. Those with light looked unnaturally bright in contrast. One window flickered with a bluish glow.

Her heart fell to the pit of her stomach. A flickering light? “I take it back,” she murmured, stepping forward. “Something is definitely wrong.”

Angie frowned, following her gaze.

“If time is frozen, that shouldn’t be happening, right?”

“It’s the creatures,” Angie said. “This is what’s going to happen if we leave time frozen too long.”

Two figures emerged from one section of the palace and hurried into another, their dark heads as black as the night sky behind them. Even in the darkness, she could see who they were.

Kaitlyn and Indira ... together. She bit down on her lower lip, stifling a groan. Didn’t they have enough problems without Kaitlyn screwing them over completely?

“At least we’re not separated anymore,” Angie said.

Yeah,
Julia thought,
because Kaitlyn joining forces with evil is so much better.

The
portal was in the palace. Angie could feel it. But without Kaitlyn, there would be no way to seal it.