Chapter 70 Reflection of Ruin II
Loyalists. Guards. Servants. All of them clutching throats. Collapsing. Dying.
The wine we switched was not the poisoned wine. It was ours. They poisoned our supply instead.
"It is a trap!" Theron roared. "Protect the royal family!"
Guards surrounded us. But they were dropping too. Poisoned. Dying. Too many. Too fast.
Daemon stood. Smiled. "Did you really think I would not plan for your interference? That I would not anticipate your cleverness?"
"Who told you?" Kael demanded. Blade out. Ready.
"Someone who knows you very well." Daemon gestured.
A figure stepped from the shadows. Female. Familiar. Wrong.
She looked exactly like me. But her eyes were black. Corrupted. Dead inside.
"Hello, sister," she said. Voice like mine but twisted. "Surprised?"
I stared at myself. At what I could have become. At nightmare made flesh.
"Who are you?"
"I am Sera Blackwood. From a timeline where you died. Where I survived. Where I learned that mercy is weakness and love is chains." She moved closer. "I am what you would be if you were smart enough to let go. If you were strong enough to choose power over sentiment."
"You are helping Daemon kill innocent people."
"I am helping him clean out corruption. You corrupted this realm with your half-blood daughter. With your weakness. With your foolish belief that change is good." She smiled. "But do not worry. You will not live to see the consequences. None of you will."
More people collapsed. Dying. The poison was spreading. Killing everyone loyal to us.
"Nyx!" I shouted. "Stop time! Now!"
She tried. Her power flared. Then stopped. Blocked.
The corrupted me laughed. "Did you really think I came unprepared? I know her power. I know how to counter it." She raised her hand. "I have something she does not. I have time magic too. And I am not afraid to use it."
She stopped time. For everyone except Daemon's people. Everyone except us.
We stood frozen. Unable to move. Watching our friends die. Watching everything collapse.
"Now," Daemon said. "We kill them. Slowly. Make it hurt."
His people advanced. Blades out. Ready to carve us apart while we stood helpless.
Then Nyx screamed.
Not pain. Power. Pure power.
She broke through the corrupted Sera's time stop. Shattered it. Her eyes went pure red. Glowing.
"You do not get to hurt my family," she said. Voice layered. Ancient. Terrifying.
Time split. I felt it. Reality cracking. Multiple timelines converging. Colliding.
"NO!" the corrupted Sera screamed. "You will destroy everything!"
"Good," Nyx said.
Then the world exploded into light and blood and chaos.
When I could see again, we were somewhere else. Not the throne room. Not the palace. Somewhere between. Somewhere that should not exist.
And standing around us were not just Daemon's people. But versions of ourselves from other timelines. Other Seras. Other Kaels. Other Nyxes.
All of them looking at us like we were the problem.
"What did you do?" I whispered to Nyx.
"I pulled every version of us here. Every timeline where this choice mattered. Where this moment happened." She looked at me with eyes that saw too much. "Now we fix this. All of it. Or we all die together."
The corrupted Sera smiled. "You just made this so much easier. Now I can kill every version of you at once."
"Or," a voice said from behind. "You fail in every timeline simultaneously."
I turned. Another figure stepped forward. A woman. Ancient. Powerful. She looked like Nyx. But older. Maybe twenty. With scars and power and sadness that went soul-deep.
"Who are you?" Nyx breathed.
"I am you. From a timeline where you made the sacrifice. Where you saved everyone. Where you learned that sometimes love means letting go." The older Nyx looked at corrupted Sera. "And I am here to stop you from destroying what I died to protect."
"You cannot stop me. You are dead."
"I am memory. I am choice. I am proof that redemption is possible." The older Nyx looked at young Nyx. "Listen carefully. Because I can only say this once. The ritual you will discover. The one that saves your parents. It works. But the cost is everything. You will forget. You will be reset. But they will live. The realm will live. And someday, maybe you will remember that you loved them enough to die for them."
"No!" I screamed. "She is not sacrificing herself!"
"You do not get to choose that," the older Nyx said. "She does."
"I choose now," young Nyx said. Voice strong. Clear. "I choose to end this. To save everyone. To fix what war and fear and hatred broke."
She raised both hands. Power exploded from her. Time magic. Reality magic. Everything.
The corrupted Sera screamed. Attacked. Was too late.
Nyx unmade her. Erased her. Removed her from every timeline simultaneously.
Then she looked at me. "I love you, Mother. In every timeline. In every choice. Always."
"No. No no no do not do this"
But she was already glowing. Already becoming something else. Already performing a ritual she had not discovered yet but would. Soon.
The older Nyx smiled. "She will be fine. Different. But fine. And you will find her again. You will help her remember. That is your purpose."
"I do not want purpose. I want my daughter."
"You will have both."
Then light exploded. Reality shattered. Time collapsed.
And I woke up in the throne room.
The feast was happening. The poison had not been deployed. Daemon was smiling. Everything was the same.
Except Nyx was gone.
"Where is she?" I grabbed Kael. "Where is Nyx?"
"Who?"
My blood stopped. "What?"
"Nyx. Our daughter. Where is she?" But even as I said it, I felt the bond. Not to Kael. To a child who did not exist yet. Who would not exist for years. Who had just sacrificed herself to prevent this timeline from falling.
Reality had been rewritten. The future changed. The sacrifice made.
And no one remembered except me.
"Sera?" Kael looked concerned. "Are you alright?"
"No. I am not alright." I looked around. "We need to stop the feast. Now. Daemon is going to—"
But Daemon was not there. None of his people were. The throne room was half empty. Different guests. Different timeline. Everything changed.
"What is happening?" I demanded.
Lyra appeared. "Your Majesty. Are you well? You look pale."
"What year is it?"
"What?" She looked at Kael. "Should I call healers?"
"What. Year. Is. It."
"It is year 247. Why would you"
Year 247. Three years before Nyx was born. Before the bond fully formed. Before everything.
She had not just saved us. She had prevented the entire timeline. Reset everything. Given us a chance to choose differently.
And erased herself in the process.
"No," I breathed. "No, we need to get her back. We need to"
"Get who back?" Kael grabbed my shoulders. "Sera. You are scaring me. What is wrong?"
How did I explain that our daughter sacrificed herself to save us from a war that had not happened yet? That she gave up everything to give us a chance at different future?
I could not. So I just held him. "Something terrible is coming. And we need to prepare. Please. Trust me."
He did. Because that was what bonds meant. Even when one person sounded insane.
We would face what came next. Together.
But first I had to find a way to bring my daughter back from a sacrifice that had not happened yet.
Time magic was cruel.
But I was crueler.
And I would burn every timeline to find her.