Chapter 6: Lost in Time
I felt like I was falling through eternity.
The shattered fragments of time swirled around me, glinting like broken glass under a thousand moons. Faces, places, and voices I had never seen or heard before flickered in and out of existence, each a fleeting memory from lives I hadn’t lived. I tumbled through them, my body weightless, untethered, as if I had become one with the very currents of time itself.
And then—just as suddenly as it had begun—the falling stopped.
I found myself standing in a quiet, fog-covered field. The mist curled lazily around my feet, the air heavy with silence. Above me, the sky was an endless canvas of stars, but none of the constellations were familiar. This wasn’t Earth. It wasn’t anywhere I had ever been before.
I turned in a slow circle, trying to make sense of my surroundings, but there was nothing. No landmarks, no sound. It was as if I had been dropped into the middle of a dream—empty, unreal, and eerily quiet.
A sudden pulse from the bracelet drew my attention. I lifted my wrist, staring at the faint glow that still radiated from the intricate band. It wasn’t as bright as before. The power was fading, just like the woman had said.
“Kael…” I whispered his name to the emptiness, feeling a hollow ache in my chest. I had no idea where he was—or if he was even still alive. Everything had happened so fast, the fight, the freeze, the shattering of time. I had been ripped away from him, flung into this strange place without any sense of direction.
My mind raced with questions. Where was I? When was I? And how would I ever get back?
A soft rustling sound broke through the fog, pulling me out of my thoughts. I spun around, my heart leaping into my throat. From the haze, a figure emerged, moving slowly, deliberately toward me.
It was Kael.
For a moment, I stood frozen, disbelief flooding through me. He was alive. Relief washed over me like a tidal wave, and I ran to him, my feet stumbling over the uneven ground. When I reached him, I threw myself into his arms, clinging to him as if he were the only solid thing in this fractured world.
“I thought I lost you,” I breathed, my face buried in his chest. His arms wrapped around me, pulling me close, and for a moment, the world didn’t matter. The chaos, the broken time—it all faded into the background as I felt the steady rhythm of his heartbeat against mine.
“I’m here,” he whispered, his voice low and rough. “I’ll always be here.”
I pulled back slightly to look up at him, searching his face for any signs of the conflict or secrets that had clouded our relationship before. But in his eyes, I saw only raw emotion—worry, relief, and something deeper, something that tugged at my heart. The world around us seemed to blur, leaving only the two of us standing in the vast emptiness of time.
“Kael,” I began, my voice trembling, “what is happening? How did we get here?”
His gaze softened, his hand coming up to brush a strand of hair from my face. “Time is broken, Celia. We’ve been thrown into the spaces between moments—the cracks that exist outside of any timeline.”
The words sent a chill down my spine. “Is there a way back?”
Kael hesitated for a moment, and I could see the struggle in his eyes. “There might be, but it’s dangerous. The bracelet—it holds the key to mending time, but using it again could unravel everything.”
I looked down at the glowing band on my wrist, a deep sense of dread settling over me. The bracelet had brought us here, but it was also the cause of all this chaos. Could I really trust it to fix what it had broken?
Kael’s hand tightened around mine, grounding me in the present moment. “We’ll find a way, together. But first…” He trailed off, his gaze shifting to the fog-covered field around us, as if he were searching for something.
“What is it?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper.
He didn’t answer right away, his eyes narrowing in concentration. Then, with a sigh, he looked back at me. “There’s something wrong here. We’re not alone.”
The words sent a fresh wave of fear through me, and I instinctively moved closer to him. My mind raced back to the woman, the mysterious rival who had been chasing us. Was she here too? Could she have followed us into this liminal space?
Before I could ask, the mist around us shifted, parting like a veil being drawn back. Through the thinning fog, I saw a figure standing at the far edge of the field—a man, his form barely visible in the eerie light.
“Who is that?” I whispered, my grip on Kael tightening.
“I don’t know,” Kael murmured, his voice tense. “But we need to be careful.”
We began to move slowly, cautiously, toward the figure. As we drew closer, I could make out more details—tall, cloaked in dark fabric, his face hidden beneath a hood. There was something familiar about him, though I couldn’t place it. My heart pounded in my chest, and I forced myself to breathe evenly, to stay calm.
Suddenly, the figure spoke, his voice deep and echoing in the empty field.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
The sound of his voice sent a jolt of recognition through me. I froze, my mind racing. I had heard that voice before—but from where?
Kael stepped in front of me, his body tense, ready for anything. “Who are you?” he demanded, his voice cold and sharp.
The figure didn’t respond immediately. Instead, he lifted his head slightly, and in the dim light, I caught a glimpse of his face.
It was impossible.
The man before us was… Kael.
I gasped, stumbling back in shock. My mind struggled to process what I was seeing—two Kaels, standing face to face. But how? How could this be?
The Kael beside me went rigid, his fists clenched at his sides. “No,” he growled, his voice filled with disbelief. “You’re not real.”
The other Kael smiled, a twisted, mocking expression that sent shivers down my spine. “Oh, but I am,” he said softly. “I’m as real as you are, perhaps even more so.”
I stared at the two of them, my heart racing. I had no idea what was happening, no idea how there could be two versions of Kael. Was this some kind of trick? Or was it another fracture in time?
“You can’t trust him, Celia,” the second Kael said, his eyes locking onto mine. “He’s been lying to you from the very beginning.”
“Don’t listen to him!” my Kael shouted, his voice desperate. “He’s trying to confuse you.”
I looked between them, my mind spinning with doubt and fear. One of them was lying, but I had no way of knowing which. My heart ached with the weight of it, the uncertainty gnawing at me. I had trusted Kael, but now, faced with this impossible situation, I didn’t know what to believe.
“I…” My voice faltered, trembling under the weight of the moment. “I don’t know who to trust.”
Before either of them could respond, the bracelet on my wrist flared with a sudden, violent light. The energy surged through me, knocking me off my feet, and the world around us began to twist and warp. Time was breaking again, spiraling out of control.
The last thing I saw before everything went dark was both Kaels lunging toward me, their voices shouting my name in unison.
***
When I opened my eyes, I was no longer in the fog-covered field. I was somewhere else entirely—a place where time didn’t exist, where everything and nothing were possible.
And I was alone.