Chapter 4: Fragments of the Future
The glowing structure loomed ahead, growing larger with each passing step. Kian held my hand tightly, his face set in grim determination, but his silence unsettled me more than the ominous light on the horizon. My heart pounded in rhythm with our hurried footsteps. Every fiber of my being screamed that we should turn back, but something deep inside told me we had no choice.
I glanced at Kian, his jaw clenched, eyes fixed straight ahead. “What’s waiting for us in there?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady, though my fear was palpable.
Kian didn’t answer right away. His grip on my hand tightened as we approached the towering structure. The air around us crackled with energy, a low hum vibrating through the ground beneath our feet.
“Kian?” I pressed.
He finally looked at me, his expression haunted. “This place… it’s a remnant of the future. A fragment of what could be. But it’s also where I made my greatest mistake.”
I swallowed hard. “What do you mean?”
He stopped walking and turned to face me fully, his eyes dark and full of regret. “This is where I met her,” he said softly. “Where everything began to unravel.”
My heart skipped a beat. “The woman—the rival?”
Kian nodded slowly. “Her name is Elara. We were once close… too close. I trusted her with secrets I never should have shared, and in doing so, I unleashed something dangerous. Something that’s haunted me ever since.”
A chill ran down my spine. “What kind of secrets?”
Kian hesitated, then looked up at the towering structure ahead. “You’ll understand soon. But there’s something you need to know before we go any further.”
I waited, holding my breath.
“I didn’t just time travel for adventure, Lyra,” he said quietly. “I did it because I was running—from my past, from Elara, and from the mistakes I made here. But now… now it’s caught up with me. And with you.”
The weight of his words settled over me, heavy and suffocating. I felt a strange mixture of fear and anger. Fear of what was waiting for us inside that glowing structure, and anger that Kian had kept so much hidden from me. But beneath it all was something else—a deep, unshakable desire to stand by him, no matter what the cost.
“I’m not afraid,” I said, though my voice wavered slightly. “We’ll face it together.”
Kian stared at me for a moment, his expression softening. He stepped closer, gently cupping my face in his hands. “You don’t know how much that means to me,” he whispered, his eyes full of emotions I couldn’t quite name. “But I can’t lose you, Lyra. Not now. Not after everything.”
“You won’t,” I replied, leaning into his touch. “I’m not going anywhere.”
For a moment, the tension melted away. Kian’s thumb brushed against my cheek, his touch gentle but firm. He leaned down, his forehead resting lightly against mine, and the warmth of his breath sent shivers down my spine.
“I don’t deserve you,” he murmured.
Before I could protest, he kissed me—softly at first, as though testing the waters, but then with more urgency. It was the kind of kiss that made the world blur at the edges, that erased every fear, every doubt, until all that was left was the two of us. His arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me closer, and I melted into him, the steady rhythm of his heartbeat grounding me amidst the chaos that surrounded us.
For a brief, stolen moment, it was just us—no rival, no danger, no fragments of a broken future. Just Kian and me, locked in an embrace that felt like it could defy time itself.
But the moment didn’t last.
A sharp, crackling noise split the air, and I pulled away, breathless, my heart still racing. Kian’s expression had shifted from tenderness to alarm, his eyes snapping toward the glowing structure ahead. The eerie light had grown brighter, pulsating with a strange, otherworldly energy that made the ground tremble beneath our feet.
“We have to move,” Kian said urgently, taking my hand once again. “It’s starting.”
***
We hurried toward the entrance of the structure, my mind spinning with a thousand unanswered questions. The walls of the building seemed to hum with power, a low, constant vibration that made the air feel thick and heavy. The moment we stepped inside, the temperature dropped, the cold seeping into my bones.
The interior was vast and disorienting—endless corridors lined with strange symbols that glowed faintly in the dim light. The air smelled metallic, sharp, like the scent of something old and forgotten.
“What is this place?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper.
Kian glanced around warily. “It’s an archive—one of the last remnants of a future that was never meant to be.”
We walked deeper into the structure, our footsteps echoing off the metal floors. As we passed through narrow hallways and towering chambers, I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were being watched. The shadows seemed to shift and move on their own, and every so often, I would catch a glimpse of something—an outline, a figure—just out of the corner of my eye. But when I turned to look, there was nothing there.
Finally, we reached a room at the center of the structure, the walls lined with towering columns of light. In the middle of the room stood a pedestal, and on it, a small, glowing orb.
“This is it,” Kian said quietly, his eyes fixed on the orb. “The source of everything.”
I stared at the orb, its soft glow pulsing rhythmically, as though it had a heartbeat of its own. “What does it do?”
Kian’s jaw tightened. “It’s a fragment of time itself. A piece of the future that was never supposed to exist. Elara wants it—she thinks it will give her control over time, over the universe. But she doesn’t understand how dangerous it is.”
I stepped closer, feeling the strange pull of the orb. It was mesmerizing, almost hypnotic. “What are we supposed to do with it?”
“Destroy it,” Kian said without hesitation. “It’s the only way to stop her.”
But as the words left his mouth, the air around us shifted. A cold breeze swept through the room, and I felt the unmistakable presence of someone else.
“Kian,” a voice called, smooth and dangerous. “You should know better than to think you can hide from me.”
I spun around, my heart lurching in my chest. Elara stood in the doorway, her eyes gleaming with cold amusement.
“I’ve waited a long time for this,” she said, her gaze flicking between Kian and me. “And now it’s time to finish what we started.”
***
The ground trembled beneath our feet, the walls of the structure groaning as if they were alive. Elara’s eyes glowed with malevolent energy, and she raised her hand, the air around us crackling with power. “You don’t understand, Kian,” she said, her voice full of dark promise. “This fragment isn’t just a piece of time. It’s the key to everything.”
Kian’s grip on my hand tightened, and I could feel his pulse racing beneath his skin. “Lyra, get behind me.”
But before I could move, a bright flash of light filled the room, and the world around us shattered into fragments.