Chapter 416

Chapter 416
Chapter 416
LUMINA
"It's not wrong," Janice said. "But it's not what we agreed to. And now, Lumina, I've come to collect my payment."
Terror shot through me. "What payment? What do you want?"
"I'm not going to tell you that," Janice said, and her smile was absolutely chilling. "Not yet. I just wanted you to know that I'm watching. That I remember our agreement even if you chose to ignore it. And that when the time comes—when this final battle with Jerome concludes—I will collect what I'm owed."
"Please," I begged. "Tell me what you want. Let me prepare. Let me—"
"No," Janice interrupted. "You don't get to prepare. You don't get to plan around this or find some clever way to avoid payment. That's not how debts work in my world."
She moved closer until we were nearly touching, and I could feel cold radiating from her form. "But I will tell you this much—the payment will be proportional to what you received. I gave you time, knowledge, and the power to change fates. What I take will be equivalent in value."
"Are you going to kill me?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper.
"Death is too simple," Janice said. "And too final. No, Lumina, what I'll take from you will be something that matters. Something that makes you understand the true cost of the gift I gave you."
She stepped back, and the fog around us began to swirl more rapidly. "I'm being generous, you understand. I could have collected immediately. Could have appeared the moment you broke our agreement and demanded payment. But I'm allowing you to finish what you started. To see this conflict with Jerome through to its conclusion. To ensure your family survives the war you helped prevent in your first timeline."
"Why?" I asked. "Why let me finish if you're just going to take something from me anyway?"
"Because I'm curious," Janice admitted. "Curious to see what you'll do with the time you have left. Curious whether you'll tell your mate the truth or continue carrying this secret alone. Curious if knowing I'm coming to collect will change how you face these final battles."
The fog was getting thicker now, obscuring Janice's form. But her voice still carried clearly.
"One more thing, Lumina. A warning, since I'm feeling generous. That timeline you escaped—the one where Ollie died and you died and Xenois held your corpse while you cursed him—I could make that reality again. I have the power to unmake everything you've changed, to reset events back to that original trajectory. So don't even think about trying to avoid payment or find some loophole. Accept what's coming with grace, or I'll take everything you've worked to build and return you all to that nightmare."
"No," I gasped. "Please, anything but that. Don't hurt my family. Don't take away what we've built."
"Then pay your debt when I come to collect," Janice said simply. "Accept the cost of the gift you received. And maybe—maybe—your family can keep the happiness you manufactured through time manipulation."
The fog swallowed her completely, and I felt myself falling, tumbling through darkness toward—
Light. Harsh, fluorescent light that made me squint.
I was lying in a hospital bed, my chest aching, monitors beeping steadily beside me. The dream—vision—whatever it was—faded slightly, but the memory remained crystal clear.
Janice. The necromancer who'd sent me back. Who'd given me a second chance at the cost of a promise I'd broken.
And who was coming to collect payment I couldn't predict or prepare for.


Continue from when Xenois asked her what's going on in his POV

"What do you mean?" I asked, trying to keep my voice neutral.
"The heart attack," he said. "The doctors say it doesn't make medical sense. You're young, healthy, no family history of cardiac disease. Yet your heart just stopped in the middle of a planning meeting."
"Stress," I suggested. "Yesterday was traumatic. The school attack, seeing the boys in danger—"
"Don't," Xenois interrupted. "Don't deflect. There's something else. I can feel it through our bond. You're terrified of something, and it's not Jerome."
I looked at him—my mate, my partner, the father of my children. The man I'd died cursing in another timeline because I'd thought his neglect had killed our son.
Should I tell him? Should I explain that I'd lived through all of this before? That I'd been given a second chance by a necromancer who was now coming to collect payment?
"I had a strange dream," I said slowly, choosing my words carefully. "While I was unconscious. About debts and promises and—" I stopped, unsure how to continue.