I froze, and Vel seemed to shiver. I hadn’t watched this home consistently during past loops, but it had always been dark and abandoned anytime I went near it in the past. It wasn’t impossible that someone was looking for the original residents, and I’d simply never been here when it happened. It was more likely that we were followed, however. That was, at least, what Vel obviously believed. I held one finger to my lips as I watched him. He was shaking, but he nodded. I glanced at Margaret, who needed no instruction to rush to the window.

  As she did, I raced through possible solutions in my head. If Vel’s father was on the other side of that door, I needed to come up with a way to escape. Or… I shook my head. I knew what Margaret wanted. But I had killed too recently. I hadn’t been in control when I’d done it, but I had still killed, and I was still haunted by the feeling. I knew what it felt like to kill. To even try. And every single time, my victims had been innocent. That wasn’t the case this time. I believed Vel, and I would get him to safety if it killed me. But even so, I didn’t have the heart to take a life again. Not yet. So I scanned the home around me.

  We’d closed every window and door. A safety measure when no one knew where to find us, and a trap now that someone was at the door. Even if Vel could hold his breath for long enough, I couldn’t open any doors while ‘Still World’ was in place. I’d moved the girls during the spell before, but even replicating that wouldn’t let me interact with the entire world as if time was still moving. When time was frozen, so was everything else not explicitly included in my spell. I had to open at least one exit before I cast, or we wouldn’t be able to leave. I considered some of the tricks I’d employed against Margaret. A localized casting separated us from whoever was at the door, but Margaret spoke up before I got the chance to plan an escape around it.

  “There are dozens of them,” she cursed. “The guy from before isn’t here, as far as I can tell. But… I can see all of them from here. I think there are more than I can see.” I looked up and saw my grandmother’s smiling eyes, taunting me from the back of the room. I’d wanted to remain quiet, but with so many outside, it seemed unlikely they didn’t know someone was in the building. I would have noticed this, at least, in previous loops. They were there because something had changed, and that was us.

  “Around the back?” I whispered. There was no back door on such a small home, but slipping out a window was plausible if no one was there.

  “I’d guess so,” Margaret answered.

  “What?” Vel asked. I clenched my fists.

  “I think we’re surrounded,” I answered. “I’ll have to talk to them to get us out of this.” Vel shook his head before I was even done speaking.

  “You can’t!” he protested. “It’s not safe!” I offered a pathetic attempt at a smile.

  “I know. Which is why you need to hide before I open the door. I said I would keep you safe, and I will. I swear to Luna I will keep you safe, or I’ll take her gift,” I promised. Vel bit his lip and glanced at the door again.

  “Vel! Your father is worried about you!” a man yelled from outside. Vel flinched.

  “Hide,” I repeated. “I’ll get them away from here, and you can run again once it’s quiet.” His eyes widened.

  “How?” he asked. I sighed.

  “I don’t know. But I’ll do whatever it takes,” I promised. I fixed my eyes on his, offering what little comfort I still carried in them. He was trembling, but he nodded. As he scrambled through the house, looking for a place to hide, I looked at Margaret. I was vaguely aware of Vel locking himself in the kitchen pantry as I finally met Margaret’s eyes.

  “Will you?” the grave keeper asked. “Will you actually do whatever it takes?” I stared at her, wincing as my nails dug into my palms.

  “Whatever I am capable of,” I answered. Margaret scoffed.

  “You’re capable of a lot more than you do. You could kill all of them if you wanted, couldn’t you?” she pressed. My mind wandered back to the loop I’d spent as Luke’s slave. The killing I had done. The magic I thought I’d forgotten. Luke himself might have been able to overpower me. I didn’t know how, but these sudden mages without any aura of their own seemed to consistently outclass me. But his followers? She was right. I probably could. Any of the spells I’d used to punish Luke’s enemies could be used in a wider range. But they were also cruel and slow. I could maybe figure something faster out. I could exclude them from ‘Still World’ and let them suffocate inside. I could accelerate time around just their hearts, so they crumbled to dust with age before their minds knew what was happening. My magic had an unparalleled potential for violence. But I did not.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “That’s not me,” I finally answered.

  “Then what are you going to do?” Margaret pushed.

  “Vel, if you don’t come out, we’re going to have to come in. Aethon does not favor the disobedient sons. If we are forced to come get you, you will have to face his judgment. You know that,” the man outside called again. I was out of time. I had to do something. Vel had risked everything because a mage promised to protect him. I had to follow through. I didn’t answer Margaret. Instead, I walked to the door, suppressing my nerves and painting my face with as blank an expression as I could manage. As I opened it, a large man held a fist up, ready to hammer against the door one final time.

  “What can I do for you?” I asked. My voice was almost steady, even. I glanced around at the crowd outside my door. Margaret was right. There was almost certainly someone behind the house as well. I didn’t know which had been baptized and which were here of their own accord. All I could see was sweet smiles and looks of concern.

  “Well, hello, miss. I’m so sorry to bother you, but I’m worried you’ve made something of a mistake,” the man responded. His voice was kind and gentle. Like a parent comforting their daughter. It made my stomach lurch. These were the clothes of a cult. Not dark cloaks and bloodied knives, but amiable words and sympathetic eyes. I recognized the violence of his gentle response. My grandmother was a master of it. I was too familiar with the cruelty of calm violence. Of threats behind polite veneers. It wasn’t just to lure people in, but to disarm them. So that, even if their victim saw what they were doing, fighting back would look like starting the fight. I was meant to be the witness who turned on Vel if he wasn’t polite in response. I suppose they didn’t know for sure why I had helped him leave in the first place.

  “I don’t think I have,” I answered. My voice was meant to be defiant, but it sounded more like a mouse in my head. The man tilted his head.

  “I understand poor Vel may have told you some unpleasant stories, but you have to understand. He’s only a child. He doesn’t know any better. But his father was taking care of him. You took a child from his parents because you believed in his fantasies. That could go badly for you. Come now. Send the boy out, and we can go our separate ways. Re-unite the child and his family, and go on your way,” he insisted. I thought back to Vel’s face. He couldn’t be younger than sixteen summers, and was likely older. In any case, he was far too old for the way he was being described. Like a confused child.

  “You assume I brought him with me because of a story?” I asked. “When a child is taken from their parents as you describe, isn’t it normal to assume some other motivation?” The man was quiet for a heavy moment after I asked this, so I continued. “You aren’t questioning me for abducting him. You didn’t even seem to consider I’d done it for any reason other than because of something he told me. Why would you do that, if not because he had something real to tell?” I didn’t know exactly where the confidence to speak like this was coming from. It could have been that same lie I’d let trap me before. Granted with borrowed aura. Or perhaps I remembered how dangerous I could be—when I was forced to do it. Likely, I just so desperately wanted to keep Vel safe that I had no room to doubt every word as much.

  The man frowned. “He is known for telling stories, that is all. I didn’t assume you were a dangerous person, I’ll admit. Am I wrong?” he asked. His final words had dropped the amiable tone and taken on a more threatening flavor. I had to mentally restrain myself from taking a step back. I was a powerful mage. I could stop him if he made a move. At least if I knew it was coming. I had to remind myself of that.

  “In my experience, kids are far more upfront and honest than men who follow women home and shout threats through their doors,” I replied. He closed his fists, and his frown deepened.

  “But this isn’t your home, is it?” he pushed. My entire body wanted to flee as his muscles tensed, and it somehow felt like he was growing taller. I sent aura through my body, not using it yet, but preparing it if I needed it.

  “It’s more home than either Vel or I had before. I won’t let you take him from it,” I replied. The man let a heavy breath out through his nose.

  “Is that so? Well. Then I am very sorry, but I’ll need to take him by force. You won’t keep a child from his parents’ protection. Not for a moment longer,” he threatened.

  We moved at the same time, my aura filling the air around us, and his fist lifting at the same time. He didn’t look like he was planning to hit me, but the half-closed door behind me. He was acting as if he wanted to shove his way past me, but that made little sense. I was sure they’d followed me using the sight of my aura, and they knew I was a mage even if they didn’t. I’d told Vel’s father as much, and I'd used magic to help his son escape. So I ignored the fist, targeting the man’s other hand with ‘Slow’. As I expected, it held a knife with an unpleasant yellow gleam to it. I had to assume it was coated with the same poison used to stop me from casting before. It moved at a glacial pace, allowing me to side-step the oncoming attack. That had been easy enough, but the man was still moving past me.

  I was a mage, but I was no combatant. He clearly intended to push past me despite his now slow arm, leaving me to the dozens of now-moving supporters he’d brought with him. I couldn’t fight him. Not as someone else in my position may have. But I could stop him. I just needed to keep him away from Vel. I closed my eyes, ignoring the danger rapidly approaching me, and sending my aura out as far as I could. I needed to surround every single cultist in it before I cast my next spell. I pictured the version of me that Luke had controlled. The precise and confident command I’d had over time. I thought of myself when I was younger. The power I’d been able to demonstrate. I had to be that version of Mars. Because if I could be the woman in those memories, I wouldn’t have to hurt anyone to protect Vel.

  The world screamed with a thousand sounds. Margaret yelled. My body ached. Something resisted the flow of my aura on the other side of the home. I had to tune it all out. Finally, I began to chant.