Page 95 of The Messengers of Magic

Chapter Sixty-Seven

P en stood there, mere feet away from the man he’d only ever seen in sepia-toned photos, but he would have recognized him anywhere.

Rowland. The same sharp cheekbones, the same slicked back hair, no older than the day the photo was taken.

The man he’d come to know through scattered notes and old journals now stood before him, no longer ink and paper, but the author himself.

Rowland’s brow pinched as he looked at them. “Can you see me?” he asked, his accent thick with the lilt of the nineteen twenties. “Who are you?”

Pen stared at him, then took a breath. “Pen Turner,” he said, stepping forward and extending a hand. “Nice to meet you.”

Rowland’s grip was firm, and Pen’s mind reeled with questions. How was this possible? Why could he see Rowland but Adelaide couldn’t?

As if reading his thoughts, Rowland said, “How can this be? No one has seen me since I got trapped here.”

“To be honest, I’m not sure,” Pen said, looking over to Adelaide, who was standing by the door, eyes sweeping the room, searching for a man just out of sight.

Rowland followed Pen’s gaze, then his eyes narrowed. “That’s Carolyn’s niece,” he said. “She was here the other day. I tried to reach her.”

“Yes, she told me,” Pen replied, “she said you knocked over some books. Even though she couldn’t see you, she knew you were in here.”

“But she obviously still can’t see me. How is it that you can?”

Pen paused, wading through his thoughts, but none of them were clear. “Maybe because I was also trapped in a time loop by the watch.”

Rowland’s eyes widened, and he stepped closer, a flicker of hope sparking in his gaze. “You got out? But how?” he pressed, voice now edged. “How did you even get hold of the watch?”

Pen walked over to a stack of books, trailing his fingers over the worn spines.

“I found it in a hidden room beneath the Feather Thorn.” He recounted his story in pieces: the slow fade of the shop into abandonment, Emily’s passing, inheriting the shop from Ward, and the strange pull that made him stay, determined to restore it to its former glory.

The journals. The watch. The moment time buckled.

Rowland listened without interruption, face tightening in places, then going still as Pen described the ripple effect that followed.

As Pen finished, he turned to Rowland and asked him the question that had been weighing heavily on his thoughts. “If you knew using the watch would cause the patch John Dee placed on the rip in time to fray, why did you risk it?”

Silence stretched, and Rowland’s shoulders dropped as if the weight he carried had just grown heavier.

When he finally spoke, his voice was raw with regret.

“I had to, for her,” he answered, pausing for a moment.

“You have to understand. She got sick, so sick, and the doctor told me to say my goodbyes…” Rowland’s voice broke, and he swallowed hard.

“I couldn’t. I couldn’t just let her die. ”

He blinked hard, the sheen in his eyes betraying the sorrow sitting on the surface even after all these years.

“She was everything to me. I thought… if I could stop us from ever taking that trip, I might be able to save her. I had to try, had to reverse what had happened.” His gaze drifted to the window, voice just above a whisper.

“There was a full moon that night, with Saturn in alignment. I’d read Dee’s notes enough times to know what that meant.

I waited for the chimes, and when they came, I activated the watch. ”

Rowland paced the room, weaving in and out of the clutter on the floor.

“John Dee hadn’t meant for the Astral Synchronum to open portals through time.

That was an accident, something that happened after their failed attempt to activate it.

No one had ever meant to use it for time travel.

But I was desperate. I had run out of options; all I had was a hope and a prayer it would work.

So when the first chime rang out, I wound the watch backward, to the exact date and time I needed.

When the chimes stopped, it was like a hurricane had blasted through the room.

And I knew. I knew then that it had worked. ”

Pen listened, a dozen questions rising all at once, but one question slipped past the rest. “How did you end up trapped here? The watch can’t leave the Feather Thorn, right?” He glanced at Adelaide, who stood quietly, watching but only hearing one side of the conversation.

Rowland nodded. “You’re right. It couldn’t leave the shop.

That’s why I had to turn back time there, instead of where I should have been, here with her.

As far as I knew, there were only two rules to how it worked.

First, when your past and present selves share the same space, the danger isn’t in your proximity; it’s in knowing.

If you both become aware of each other, the tether weakens.

And when that breaks, so does reality. Second, the number of chimes determines how many hours the portal stays open.

It only chimed three times. Three hours.

What I didn’t know then was that if I didn’t make it back before the last hour of the final chime…

I’d be stuck, wherever I was when the portal closed.

” He exhaled sharply, gesturing to the guest room. “For me, that was here.”

Pen frowned. “But there’s no food in here, no water. How have you survived?”

Rowland let out a humorless chuckle and nodded toward a wicker basket tucked in the corner.

“Lucky for me, I showed up on just the right day, at just the right time. I arrived at Carolyn’s house just as I , my other self, was pulling up to take her on our trip.

I waited for myself to go inside, then stole the crank from the car. ”

Pen’s eyebrows lifted. “You stole from yourself?”

Rowland smirked. “I did what I had to. When they came out and the car wouldn’t start, I slipped into the house, up to this very room. I had to hide the crank somewhere we might find it again later, not somewhere too obvious, and the guest room seemed as good a place as any.”

His expression darkened. “I watched them trying to work out what had happened. My watch was ticking down the minutes, and I realized I hadn’t thought things through.

I couldn’t leave the room without passing them.

And if my past self saw me…” He shook his head.

“I couldn’t risk it. I would have destroyed both my reality and theirs.

So, I paced the floor, desperate to find a way back to the Feather Thorn.

I wasn’t paying attention and knocked over a potted plant sitting on the dresser near the window.

” His voice grew weary as he went on. “I heard her footsteps first… then my own. And I panicked. I slid under the bed, holding my breath as they stepped into the room.”

Rowland’s gaze turned distant, memory taking over. “She saw the plant on the floor, set down the picnic basket she was carrying, and started cleaning up the mess. I can still hear her voice: What in God’s green earth happened here? ”

His lips turned up into a half-smile, though his eyes held only sadness. “And that’s when my past self decided that if they weren’t going on holiday, they might as well make the most of their time at home, if you catch my meaning.”

Pen smiled, then laughed. “Are you telling me you got stuck in time because of…”

“Yes. Because of exactly what you’re thinking.

I stayed under the bed the whole time,” Rowland said, “as my last chance of escape ticked by. Later, as Carolyn was getting dressed, she spotted the crank. I watched as she walked out, crank in hand, down to the car. By then, my time had long since run out. The final hour had passed. When I tried to leave, it was like an invisible barrier had sealed me inside the room.” He turned back to Pen.

“That was the long-winded way of saying Carolyn left the picnic basket behind. I’ve been surviving on Scotch eggs and meat pies ever since. ”

Pen rubbed a hand over his jaw, struggling to find words. “How long before Carolyn started believing your spirit was here? That you were a ghost?”

Rowland moved to the window, staring out at something only he could see.

“Time’s a funny thing in here. I’m not exactly sure how long.

I failed to stop us from taking the trip, but somehow, she survived the fever.

By the time she was better, the past Rowland had caught up to my timeline and became me, and she thought I’d left her.

” His voice grew heavier. “She cried for days. And knowing I was the cause of her pain… it was unbearable. So, I found a way to let her know I was here. I knocked over the plant again. And again and again. After the fourth or fifth time, she finally realized it was me.” He hesitated, his voice breaking slightly.

“But she thought I was a ghost. She believed I had died.”

Pen remained silent, as the weight of the story settled over him.

“She became obsessed with figuring out what had happened to me,” Rowland continued.

“She knew about the watch and our family’s promise to protect it, but the journals were hidden away in the secret room, so she never knew the truth behind it.

She searched for years, notes, books, anything she thought might hold an answer.

But she was chasing the wrong thing.” He turned back to Pen, eyes misted.

“I watched her grow old. She never married. Never moved on. Just faded, became a ghost herself.” He swallowed hard.

“She’s spent her whole life searching for answers to a problem that didn’t even exist, and there was nothing I could do.

I’ve tried to reach her, Lord knows I have.

But all I can move in both our timelines is that damn potted plant and a few books. ”

Pen exhaled sharply, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m sorry you had to endure that.” He pictured Adelaide following the same path. It would be an awful thing to witness, to live with.

Rowland nodded. “Now you must answer my question. How did you escape the time loop?”

Pen glanced at Adelaide, a slow smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “Her.”

Rowland frowned. “What do you mean?”

“She’s a Nephilim.”

The blood drained from Rowland’s face. “No,” he whispered, shaking his head. “I thought they were just a myth, a story meant to keep us on our toes.” He ran a hand through his hair, pacing again, hope flaring in his eyes. “Can she free me?”

Pen hesitated. “I don’t know. To be honest, she doesn’t know how she broke me out.”

Adelaide stepped forward, gaze fixed on an empty space near Pen. “If I could free you, Rowland, I would. But I have no idea how to without the watch.”

Rowland’s face fell.

“There’s something else you need to know,” Pen said.

“When you used the watch to try to save Carolyn all those years ago, you weakened the seal John Dee placed on the rip in time. Then, when I touched and trapped myself, I made it worse; it unraveled even further.” He glanced at Adelaide.

“As soon as Adelaide got near it, being what she is, she accelerated the unraveling.” He inhaled deeply before delivering the final blow.

“Our reality is already being taken over by another.”

Rowland’s face turned ashen. “How bad is it? How much is left?”

“The town’s already gone, but the outskirts, this house, seem untouched for now.”

Rowland rocked back on his heels, hands shoved into his pockets. He was quiet for a long while before he finally spoke. “If she is what you say she is, then she can stop this. She can destroy the watch.”

“Yes,” Pen agreed. “But not until the solstice. Not until tomorrow night.”

“Then we’d better pray that what’s left of Dee’s patchwork will hold,” Rowland said firmly. “And if she is the cause of the acceleration, then you need to keep her far away from the watch.”

Pen turned to Adelaide, standing on the edge of it all, watching him, unaware of the full conversation, but likely understanding the gist. He nodded. “You’re right. We need to distance her from it, just one more day, and when tomorrow comes, we can destroy it for good.”

Rowland studied him, something unreadable in his expression. Then he exhaled, shaking his head. “You love her. I can see the way you look at her. It’s the same way I looked at Carolyn. The way I still do.”

Pen didn’t answer. He didn’t need to.

Rowland’s voice turned somber. “There’s something you need to understand. When she destroys the watch… it will erase the entire timeline it created.”

Pen’s stomach dropped. “What are you saying?”

“If that watch never exists… you never get trapped in time. And if you’re never trapped in time…” His voice softened, laced with quiet sorrow. “You two will never meet.”

Pen looked over to Adelaide, as a sick sense of impending grief flooded every inch of him.

“You will lose her,” Rowland added quietly, “forever.”

Pen’s jaw clenched. “What other choice do we have? What’s the alternative?” he snapped, sharper than he intended.

Rowland held his gaze. “There isn’t one.

You don’t have another choice. Once the watch is destroyed, all the timelines will realign as they were meant to be.

I don’t know what that means for me either; maybe I’ll never meet Carolyn, maybe the Feather Thorn will never exist. But it’s the only way I will ever be free.

” He paused. “Carolyn is growing older, and soon it will just be me trapped here alone for all of eternity.”

Pen couldn’t breathe. The future he’d barely begun to imagine, the one with Adelaide at his side, was slipping away.

He couldn’t tell her.

If she knew, she would never agree to destroy the watch.

A part of him dared to hope. That maybe they could find a way to stay here, in this broken sliver of reality. Patch together something new. Build a life in the ruins. But he knew better.

It wasn’t just about them or their love.

The timeline was too fragile, too many lives hanging in the balance. Rowland’s eternal imprisonment, the destruction of everything they knew… it was too much to sacrifice just to keep her by his side.

No. Things had to be set right. The watch had to be destroyed.

Even if it meant losing her. Even if it meant forgetting.