Page 97 of Dance of the Phoenix

I stopped my rant as the meaning of its words sank in. The Phoenix didn’t tell me to stop time. It told me tousetime.

Heart racing with sudden hope and excitement, I held my hands together, closed my eyes, and fervently, desperately, thought,I wish I could go back to that moment. I wish I could stop him from going to that fight. I wish ... I wish to save him—

Another wave of pain exploded in my head, making blood trickle down from my nose. This time, I couldn’t stop myself from screaming. My vision turned white as the pain increased, and I wasn’t able to hear, see, or even feel anything other than pure, undiluted agony.

And just as suddenly as it hit me, the pain was gone.

Slowly, the white in my vision dissipated, blurring, before sharpening and showing me I was no longer in that stifling bedroom.

Instead, I was in the Hecatomb arena. In the Rayne League’s lounge, to be more specific.

I was sitting on the sofa, with Isora at my side, holding on to me, and Ragnor on my other.

And I realized I’d done it. I’d actually done the impossible.

I’d turned back time.

Chapter 52

Aileen

If I’d let myself, I would’ve grabbed Ragnor’s face right there and then and just kissed the hell out of him.

I would’ve stripped him naked right in front of everyone and rode him to oblivion, feeling his warmth. Consoling myself that he was alive. That perhaps it was all a bad dream, and the final battle hadn’t happened.

But when I looked at Ragnor and saw his exhaustion, the resignation in his eyes that I’d seen before my own battle, I realized something crucial.

Ragnor had gone into the battle with Atalon knowing he wouldn’t make it.

And that meant yet another secret Ragnor had hidden from me up until the very end.

I had questions. So many fucking questions. I wanted to kiss him and shake him at the same time so he would spill everything. How did he know he would lose to Atalon? Why didn’t he tell me he used to be a Malachi and that I was his Alara Morreh? Why didn’t he confide in me, after I’d given him everything I had to give?

But those questions would have to wait.

Because the most important thing was to ensure we both survived the Hecatomb this time around.

I rose to my feet, startling both Isora and Ragnor. “I need to breathe,” I said, urgency in my voice. “Ragnor, can you take me out?”

My beautiful Ragnor frowned, confusion temporarily wiping that awful resignation I could now recognize from his face. “Why?”

“Please,” I said, holding his gaze, my body aching to jump on him, to feel him, to reassure myself that he was alive. That his heart still beat in his chest. But there was no time for that. “Just for an hour.”

Whatever Ragnor saw on my face, he nodded and stood up. “Let’s go now, then.”

I had no complaints whatsoever.

For everyone else, the present I remembered didn’t exist.

They didn’t know Ragnor had died and I was kidnapped. For them, it had only been earlier today when the Hecatomb participants fought to the death and we lost important League members because of it.

The reason I was able to deduce that much was that everyone acted the same as they had when this day played in my memories. No one seemed the wiser about the fact we were now in a completely different timeline.

Because in this timeline, I knew what was going to happen, and I would do everything to stop it.

I would not lose Ragnor Rayne again.

Ragnor and I didn’t speak as he took me out of the arena and back to the streets of Houston. It wasn’t until we hit a main road when I said, “Where is the closest pharmacy?”