Chapter 13

13

XAVIER

I shot awake in the dark, sucking in a sharp breath.

"Roman?" I gasped, my throat burning.

Darkness surrounded me, shafts of moonlight beaming through the window. There were no curtains, yet to be put up, the entire house waiting to become a home.

My house in Mile End, East London. A wonderful property beside the Regent's Canal I'd called home for the past ten years. Until Tanith chased me out of it, capturing me along with her silver-dressed humans to torture The Word out of me with Lemon Drop. Lemons were repugnant to me, the ancient concoction of Lemon Drop their worst iteration.

"Roman?" I spoke into the dark, the fire in my throat ebbing. "Are you here?"

Why was I here?

"Roman?"

My arm was no longer broken.

"Roman?"

A dull ache bloomed across my forehead. I rubbed at it, trying to piece this together. My mind was clogged with confusion blocking the truth, everything hazy.

I swung my legs off the bed, noting my nakedness. I must have been sleeping, as I always slept naked. The air was warm, like it was summer.

Yes. I came to Earth in the summertime.

"Roman…" I whispered, my head full of him.

Where could he be? Why wasn't he in these sheets with me? He should be.

Was he in the bathroom? Was he downstairs eating a snack?

I padded across the bare bedroom, opening the door. The only time this room had been bare was my first week moving here from the demon realm. I'd quickly added more furniture and decorated the space.

It was silent on the landing, no light coming from downstairs. With the house being small, I would pick up on any hint of activity.

"Roman?" I called.

Nothing. He wasn't here.

A shiver licked up my spine, the hairs on my arms standing to attention. I sniffed the air for my witch, then noticed something strange at my bedroom window.

"Is that possible?" I wondered, taking a closer look.

No dust. Had it stopped falling already?

And then the next strange piece of this puzzle appeared. A sense of myself, of my power. I wasn't so hollow now without my ability to shift. In fact, it was there, ready to use.

I tried a part shift, my hands becoming spinnerets and released a small amount of web on the window, covering my reflection in the glass.

Everything as it should be. As it was.

Before. Before. Before.

"No…" I returned to my humanoid state. "This can't be…"

I pulled on some jeans and a vest and ran downstairs, flinging the front door open. The moonlight sparkled across the surface of the canal, the water as still as dark glass.

In my tiny concrete garden, surrounded by a low pebbled wall, had been a pesky weed. My nemesis. It grew next to the garden gate, refusing to die despite the onslaught of attacks from me. Chemicals, pulling it out by the roots—all of those methods. It took me five years to get rid of it.

Memories swirled around the edges of my mind, trying to break through the clog.

"You're still here." Barefoot, I approached the weed, crouching down to inspect it.

A memory slithered in, taking me back to the moment Darcy died.

"Darcy died?" I asked the weed. "What about Roman? He'll be devastated. He'll?—"

The blockage gave way, everything sliding into place, my memories restored to the moment I died because of Roman's wish.

"He killed me and…" I grabbed the weed by its bristly head. "He killed me and sent me back in time."

How was I alive? I checked myself over, feeling my own pulse. The rhythm of two heartbeats was there. And why here? Why did I rewind ten years, taking me back to my first night in my canal house?

"Back to those lonely days," I said, my grip on the weed tightening.

Back to when my life changed from living in the demon realm to living on Earth. Leaving my past and sorrows behind me—or at least trying to. They followed me eventually, forever shackled to me.

Until Roman's star changed my life.

Was this all part of my death, my afterlife? Or was this a case of fractured rules?

Possibly a combination of the two.

What it did mean was Roman was alone with Ismael and the demon monarchs, facing a possible death sentence of his own—if he could truly die right now.

But how did I get back to him?

A growl rumbled in my chest. I yanked the weed free, tossing it over my shoulder.

"I won't lose him."

Magic still existed here, meaning somewhere out there Roman existed in this timeline with the device dormant in his chest.

If I could find him, maybe I could reach the future him.

I'm not giving up, Roman.

I hurried inside, a plan already formulating in my head.