Her Mortal Mate

Chapter Fifty Two: Turn Back Time

***For those who have read the Forbidden Trilogy and will be reading the series, there are some spoilers coming up in this chapter and the following chapters just as a forewarning***

***For those who have not read the Forbidden Trilogy, music has been a big influence in my life. Music has helped me in many ways and it helps my creativity flow. I wish there was a way to add music to chapters. If you are able to, go listen to "Towards the Sun" by Rihanna, it was the song that inspired this chapter.***

Jadea

My heart and soul were shattering to pieces as I felt the surge in souls.

That was the thing about being a hunter. You became over-sensitized to the loss of souls in death. And right now there was an abundance of them as they rose from the ruins. Young, old. All taken away before their time in such a debilitating way. Each and every one of them had been in fear and it still clung onto their souls in death.

There was so much loss, so much torment, so much sadness it felt like talons tearing at my chest, trying to ravage my heart and soul...

It reminded me of the time when my family and I had been held in Dante's cavern. We had been placed right in front of the fire where the innocents were slaughtered and the demons danced and rejoiced in their deaths.

I couldn't stop the sobs that wracked my body. There was no containing it. I knew I should be concerned about my pack, especially Blade and Briar because they were on the empathic scale. They tended to feel deeper emotions and were more in tune with others feelings and emotions. This had to be more devastating and harrowing for them because of their abilities, but I was at my wits end.

Somehow, I found the strength to push myself up into a sitting position on my knees and I stared emotionless across the dust-hazed rubble.

I was so lost in my own emotions, so lost in my own head, I didn't see the figure who stood by my side until a hand rested gently on my shoulder. I jerked and looked up into caramel-brown eyes. "Lance!? W-What are you doing here?" I blurted, shooting onto my feet, throwing my arms around his neck. My gaze frantically looked him up and down, and I was thankful to find him unharmed. However, there was a new mark on the back of his hand in the shape of a panther. "You're part of the guard," I whispered breathlessly as I met his gaze.

"Yep! I'm the last one," his blinding smile seemed odd after so much death and devastation. "Everything is going to be okay, Jadea," he reassured, sobering. His hand stroked down my face before he turned and faced the wreckage.

As my gaze followed his, it caught on a slow spiraling red and blue light that was rising from the very center of the wreckage. It climbed higher and higher, leaving a path of interwoven light until it burst and a half blue, half red phoenix reached high into the sky before spreading its wings.

As it hovered over the land, I nervously asked, "Lance? What's happening?" When he didn't answer, my gaze shifted to him once more, but his eyes were closed his body relaxed as if he were meditating. His body was also engulfed in a dark purple-black light. Slowly his hands met in the middle of his body, as if he were going to pray. He stayed like that for maybe a heartbeat or two before he moved his hands away from each other. He stretched his arms out wide, palms up to the sky, his face lifting up towards the sky as well.

"Jadea?" Adam's voice called out nervously but I couldn't move, so taken aback by Lance's actions.

As the phoenix's light started pulsing, my attention was once again diverted to it where the air started pulsing in time with the power being generated at the core. However, it wasn't pulsing outward. The pulses were being pulled towards the center, towards the red and blue light. The air became charged with an overwhelming buzz of power. The hairs on my arms stood on end. A vicious wind had also started ripping at my back. Looking around at the outer edges of the wreckage, I noticed many other signs that the air was moving towards the center, that it wasn't just moving in one direction like a normal wind would do.

What were they doing?

I could only imagine it was Constance and Celeste in the very middle of the wreckage. They were phoenixes after all...

Suddenly, Lance's purple-black light became a beacon as it shot up into the cloud covered sky. At the same time, there were several other beams of light that shot up into the darkening, turbulent cloud cover. The lights made a completed ring around the rubble. Each beam of light was a different color representing a different member of the Imperium Guard. The blue and red phoenix glowed brighter and slowly, Lance was lifted off of his feet and into the air.

I stared open mouthed as his body hovered far overhead. My eyes shifted and I was able to recognize those closest too. Nikolai. Ickarous. Gabriel...

The colored beams of light slowly started lowering in unison towards the center, the wind becoming stronger until the beams converged on the phoenix where the lights combined into one bright white light. The form of the phoenix dissipated and the whirl of wind acted almost like a vortex, pulling and stretching the light both towards the sky and the ground.

I could feel the energy as it was being sucked from the very air towards the white light. I couldn't move. I was held spellbound by the spectacle unfolding before my eyes. And then, a blast of energy surged out from the very center, where Constance and Celeste were and in its wake, time itself came to a grinding halt.

People stopped moving, hearts stopped beating, dust particles froze in place.

I was left wondering if I was the only one left breathing...

There was a sudden shift, an audible click and then Lance and those who were held in the sky started slowly drifting, moving in a counter-clock wise circular motion. As the seconds ticked by, they were moving faster and faster until they were going so fast that I could no longer make out their individual persons. They were a blur of white light.

As the ring vibrated audibly with power, I suddenly felt dirt and debris as it moved past me towards the center of the rubble. The pattern it moved in was odd... The way the clouds of dust and bits of stone and concrete were pulled back into the wreckage. My gaze shifted and when I turned to look behind me, I saw my pack cowering on the ground. The earth beneath my feet started rocking and shifting, like it was going into another earth quake.

But that didn't seem right... It didn't feel right.

None of them seemed to notice the spectacle before them!

My frantic gaze shifted to others in the area as I desperately tried to rationalize what was happening. What I saw only confused me more. There were people running backwards. Others were doing some kind of reverse fall. Glass was falling... Upwards? I followed the shards and watched as the glass windows were suddenly pieced back together while the buildings swayed in the eerie silence.

And that's when it clicked.

Constance and Celeste and their Imperium Guard were somehow reversing time...

I swung back around and watched as the lost city was suddenly rebuilt piece by broken piece. The skyscrapers returned. The lost souls returning to their bodies.

How were they doing this!?

There had never been a living soul who could turn back time!

Which one was the controller of time?

And why was I the only one not affected by this spell?

I stared in wide eyed astonishment as Los Angeles was rebuilt from the ground up. I wanted to believe this was real. I wanted to believe this could be possible, yet I was skeptical.

Time wasn't something that could be tampered with.

Right?

Messing with time was dangerous... At least that was what every immortal had been told.

Though, it shouldn't have surprised me. Constance and the Imperium Guard were always defying the odds and breaking the 'rules' of the universe.

The light in the center became increasingly brighter and started to expand outwards as it encompassed the now rebuilt city.

And as the light moved by me, engulfing me in warmth and hope I closed my eyes and allowed its surprisingly soothing properties to ease my fears and doubts.

I couldn't say how long I was in the comforting embrace of the light, but when I blinked open my eyes I was on my hands and knees inside the shop that led into the immortal city. My pack and Adam frantically looking to me for direction as the floor underneath my hands vibrated and a sense of deja vu settled over me.

It took precious seconds for me to understand I had been taken back in time. That Constance's and Celeste's spell had worked... But to what end? What were they hoping to gain by reversing time? They couldn't change the outcome, right?

Sirens blared and I looked up as dread clutched my chest.

Would I have to relive this cruel nightmare over again!?

Garret's confused and concerned gaze met mine as he read my thoughts and memories. I couldn't blame him for thinking I had gone off the deep end, that I had lost my ever loving mind.

"Move!" I screamed, knowing there were only seconds to get out of the building and to safety. I needed to get them away from the edge of the cavern before it collapse in on itself.

My pack and I ran outside and fell in the same spot we had before... Glass shattered... Buildings swayed... I reached out to them, connecting us and initiated the song to calm us all down, even though inside my mind and chest I couldn't calm the storm.

I didn't know if I was strong enough to go through this again... However, I didn't have a choice.

I felt my shoulders tensing as I waited for the fall of the city.

Instead, the quaking slowed and stopped.

The cavern didn't collapse. The city did not fall. The insurmountable lives weren't lost...

Suddenly, happy tears were streaming down my face because so many lives had been spared by Constance and her guard.

Somehow, Constance and Celeste not only turned back time, they had changed and robbed fate herself of the lives and blood she’d demanded on this day.

But, what devastating consequences would come from such an act?