Chapter 3: The Secret in the Shadows
The tension in the alley was palpable, and for a moment, I felt frozen between the two figures. Edward stood rigid, his gaze fixed on Clara, while the mysterious woman’s smile only seemed to grow, like she thrived on the unease she’d created.
“What mess?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady even as fear gnawed at the edges of my mind.
Clara’s eyes flicked toward me, her smile sharpening. “You’ve gotten yourself tangled in something far beyond your understanding, my dear. Time doesn’t like to be played with.”
I looked at Edward, hoping for an explanation, but his jaw was clenched tight, his hands curling into fists at his sides. “Clara, don’t—”
“Don’t what?” she interrupted, her voice mockingly sweet. “Don’t tell her the truth? Don’t warn her that the longer she stays, the more dangerous things become?”
“Enough,” Edward snapped, stepping forward, his entire frame tense. “This isn’t your fight.”
Clara’s gaze flickered between us, and for a moment, I saw something dark and unreadable flash in her eyes. “I disagree,” she said softly, her tone suddenly serious. “Everything that happens now is my fight, Edward. You of all people should know that.”
Before I could process her words, Clara turned on her heel, disappearing into the shadows as quickly as she had appeared, leaving a cold emptiness in her wake. I stood there, heart pounding, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Who was Clara? And what did she mean by dangerous?
I turned to Edward, the flood of questions overwhelming me. “What is going on? Who is she? And what does she mean by ‘time doesn’t like to be played with’?”
Edward’s shoulders sagged, the tension in his posture ebbing away as he ran a hand through his hair. He looked at me, his eyes conflicted, as though debating whether to tell me the truth. Finally, he sighed. “It’s complicated.”
“That’s not an answer,” I pressed, stepping closer. “I deserve to know what’s happening. Why am I here? What does Clara want?”
He met my gaze, something haunted in his expression. “You’re here because the locket chose you. It’s a powerful artifact, tied to time itself. Once you touched it, it bonded with you. Now, you’re linked to it—and to this time.”
“Linked?” I echoed, the word feeling heavy on my tongue. “What does that even mean?”
“It means you can’t just leave,” Edward said quietly, his voice laced with regret. “Not until the locket is ready to let you go.”
I took a step back, the weight of his words sinking in. “So I’m trapped here?”
Edward shook his head, though his expression remained troubled. “Not trapped. There’s a way back. But it’s… complicated.”
“Everything seems to be ‘complicated’ with you,” I muttered, frustration bubbling up inside me. “What aren’t you telling me?”
He hesitated, and in that moment, I saw the flicker of something deeper—something he was afraid to reveal. “There are rules,” he said carefully. “Rules about time. About how it can’t be altered without consequences.”
My heart skipped a beat. “Consequences? What kind of consequences?”
“If you change too much,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper, “you risk unraveling everything. The past, the future, even the present.”
The weight of his words hit me like a tidal wave. Time wasn’t just a stream I could dip in and out of at will. It was fragile, delicate, and the slightest disruption could cause ripples that might destroy everything.
“And Clara?” I asked. “What does she want?”
“Clara is a guardian of sorts,” Edward explained, though his tone was bitter. “She ensures that time remains undisturbed. She believes you being here is a disruption, and she’ll do whatever it takes to ‘fix’ it.”
I swallowed hard, my mind racing with the implications. “What does that mean for me?”
Edward’s gaze softened, a hint of sorrow in his eyes. “It means we need to be careful. Clara won’t hesitate to remove any threats to the timeline. Including you.”
The next few hours were a blur. Edward took me to a small, tucked-away inn, the kind of place where no one asked questions, and I found myself seated by a low-burning fire, trying to wrap my mind around everything I’d learned. The locket, the time travel, Clara—it all felt like something out of a novel, but the weight of the situation was very real.
Edward sat across from me, his expression distant, as though he was lost in his own thoughts. The firelight flickered across his features, casting shadows that made him seem even more mysterious.
“Are you always this quiet?” I asked, breaking the silence.
He looked up, startled, as though he’d forgotten I was there. A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips. “Only when I’m trying to figure out how to fix a problem.”
“Am I the problem?” I asked, half-joking, though there was a hint of truth to my words.
He didn’t answer immediately, and that only made my heart sink further. But then, after a long pause, he stood and crossed the room, sitting beside me on the worn sofa. His proximity sent a shiver down my spine, but it wasn’t from fear. There was something electric between us, something that had been building ever since that first moment in the museum.
***
“I don’t know if you’re the problem,” he said softly, his voice low and full of something I couldn’t quite place. “But I do know that I don’t want you to be.”
The way he said it, the vulnerability in his voice, made my breath catch. I turned to face him, and the intensity in his eyes pulled me in. He was so close now, close enough that I could see the flicker of the fire reflected in his gaze, close enough that I could feel the warmth of his presence.
For a moment, the world outside—the dangers, the confusion, Clara—faded into the background. It was just him and me, the space between us shrinking with every breath. I felt my heart racing, my pulse quickening, and I knew, without a doubt, that this connection between us was more than just a fleeting attraction.
“Edward…” I whispered, but the words got lost in the silence as he leaned in, his hand gently brushing against my cheek.
“I don’t know what this is,” he murmured, his breath warm against my skin. “But I can’t ignore it.”
His lips met mine, soft and searching, and for a moment, everything fell away. The kiss was gentle at first, tentative, like we were both testing the waters of something new and dangerous. But as I leaned into him, the kiss deepened, a surge of emotions neither of us could contain. There was an urgency in it, as though we both knew time was against us but didn’t care.
His hands slid to the small of my back, pulling me closer, and I melted into him, letting the heat of the moment consume us. For that brief moment, there was no time, no Clara, no locket—just us, tangled in the possibilities of what we could be.
But just as quickly as the moment had begun, it ended. Edward pulled back, his breath uneven, his expression conflicted.
“We shouldn’t…” he began, but the words seemed to hang unfinished in the air.
I reached up, brushing my fingers against his cheek. “Then why does it feel like we should?”
He closed his eyes, exhaling slowly. “Because time has its own plans for us. And they’re not always what we want.”
I wanted to argue, wanted to tell him that we could make our own choices, but deep down, I knew he was right. There was something bigger at play, something beyond either of our control.
***
Just as I opened my mouth to respond, the door to the inn burst open, the hinges creaking under the force. A figure stood silhouetted against the doorway, cloaked in shadow, but I recognized the voice immediately.
“We need to leave. Now.”
It was Clara.
Her eyes locked onto mine, and for the first time, I saw something close to fear flicker in her gaze.
“They’re coming for you.”