The Two-Week Deadline

The Two-Week Deadline
Elena's POV

"Get behind me!" I shouted, putting up a magical shield just as Marcus raised his hands toward Maya and Damien.
Dark energy slammed into my defense spell so hard that I stumbled backward. My knees hit the broken library floor, but I kept the shield up. I'd been hiding my real magical abilities for twenty years, pretending to be just a history professor, but I couldn't hide anymore. Not when my kids were in danger.
"Professor Martinez?" Maya gasped. "What are you doing?"
"Protecting you," I said through gritted teeth as Marcus's power pushed against my wall. "Maya, listen to me very carefully. That witch was lying about some things, but she was telling the truth about the time gate."
Marcus laughed, a sound like breaking glass. "Ah, Elena Martinez. Or should I say, Elena Ravenwood, last of the Time Witches?"
My blood went cold. Nobody had called me by my real special name in decades.
"You know him?" Damien demanded, raising his sword.
"We have a history," I admitted, pouring more energy into my shield as Marcus's attacks got stronger. "A very long, very complicated history."
What I didn't tell them was that Marcus wasn't just some random evil magician. He was my brother.
My twin brother, who had chosen dark magic while I decided to protect people from it.
"Elena," Marcus said in a voice that sounded almost sad. "You always were too soft. Still trying to save everyone, I see."
"Someone has to," I shot back. "Maya, Damien, you need to know the truth about the link. The two-week date isn't just some random time limit."
"What do you mean?" Maya asked. She was still shining with magical energy, and I could see she was getting stronger by the minute.
"Time portals aren't like doors," I explained, avoiding a blast of shadow magic that Marcus sent around my shield. "They're more like... wounds in reality. And wounds heal."
"Speak English, Professor!" Damien yelled.
"The portal is closing itself," I said. "Every day that passes, it gets smaller and weaker. We started with two weeks, and seven days have already gone by. That means we have exactly seven days left before it closes forever."
"But the witch said we only had three hours!" Maya protested.
"She was lying about that part," I said. "But Maya, there's something worse. Marcus's presence here is making the link unstable. Every minute he stays in this time, the portal gets more damaged."
Marcus sent another wave of dark magic at us, and this time my shield cracked. I could feel my energy begin to run out.
"What does that mean?" Damien asked.
"It means," I said, sweat forming on my forehead, "that instead of seven days, we might only have hours. Or minutes. I can't tell how fast it's breaking down."
That's when Maya did something that shocked everyone, including Marcus.
She stepped out from behind my cover.
"Maya, no!" I screamed.
But Maya walked right up to Marcus, her own special energy crackling around her like blue lightning. "You're her brother," she said. It wasn't a question.
Marcus stopped striking, his dark eyes widening with surprise. "How did you know?"
"Because you have the same eyes," Maya said. "And the same way of tilting your head when you're thinking. Plus, you called her Elena, not Professor Martinez. Family always uses first names."
I felt my heart sink. Maya was too smart for her own good sometimes.
"Very observant," Marcus said with genuine praise. "Yes, Elena is my sister. My dear, soft-hearted, foolishly brave twin sister."
"Elena," Damien said softly, "is this true?"
I nodded, feeling like the worst person in the world. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. But he chose dark magic, and I chose to fight against it. We've been on different sides for forty years."
"Forty years?" Maya stared at me. "But you don't look older than forty-five!"
"Time magic," I said simply. "It's complicated."
"Everything is complicated," Maya muttered. "Why can't anything just be simple?"
That's when Marcus started laughing again. "Oh, Maya, you want simple? Here's simple. I'm not actually here to hurt anyone."
We all stared at him.
"What?" I said.
"I said, I'm not here to hurt anyone. Elena, dear sister, didn't you wonder why I'm not trying to kill your precious students? Why I'm just standing here having a nice chat?"
I had wondered about that, actually. The Marcus I knew would have attacked first and talked later.
"Then why are you here?" Damien demanded.
Marcus smiled, and for a second he looked exactly like the brother I remembered from when we were children, before dark magic changed him. "I'm here to warn you."
"Warn us about what?" Maya asked.
"About her," Marcus said, looking at the ancient witch, who had been standing quietly in the corner this whole time. "Elena, that's not just any old witch. That's our grandmother."
I felt like someone had hit me with a truck. "That's impossible. Grandmother died fifty years ago."
"Did she? Elena, think about it. Who taught us magic when we were children? Who told us all those stories about the Blackthorne family and their special powers? Who said that someday, a Blackthorne relative would be powerful enough to control time itself?"
My knees gave out totally this time. I sank to the floor as the terrible truth hit me. "She planned all of this."
"Every single bit," Marcus confirmed. "The time spell that brought Damien here? Grandmother cast it. Maya's adoption by the Chen family? Grandmother arranged it to hide her real name until she was old enough to use her powers. My claimed evil plan to take over the kingdom? Grandmother's idea, intended to make Damien desperate enough to accept help from anyone, even a strange girl in the future."
"But why?" Maya whispered.
The old witch finally spoke up, and her voice was different now. Warmer. More like a real grandma. "Because, my dear children, I'm dying."
"What?" I gasped.
"I've been living for over three hundred years, Elena. I'm tired. But before I die, I need to make sure the family magic goes to someone worthy. Someone who can use it to protect people instead of hurting them."
She looked directly at Maya. "I needed to test you, Maya. To see if you would choose love over power, sacrifice over greed. And you have. You've proven yourself worthy of receiving not just the Blackthorne magic, but the Ravenwood time magic as well."
"Inherit what now?" Maya asked weakly.
"My dear girl," the witch said, "you're not just Damien's heir. You're mine too. Elena and Marcus are your great-great-great-grandparents."
The quiet that followed was so complete I could hear my own heartbeat.
Then Maya said, in a very small voice, "Does this mean Elena is my grandmother?"
"Great-great-great-grandmother," the old witch corrected. "But yes."
Maya looked at me with big, hurt eyes. "You knew, didn't you? That's why you were always so nice to me. That's why you helped me learn about magic. Not because I was your student, but because I'm family."
I opened my mouth to answer, but before I could say anything, the old witch suddenly screamed.
Not a scream of anger or pain, but a scream of pure terror.
"The portal!" she gasped. "Something's wrong with the link! It's not just closing—"
The air around us started to shimmer and twist, like looking through water.
"It's collapsing!" I yelled. "Everyone grab hands! Now!"
But as we reached for each other, I could see it was too late. The link wasn't just closing.
It was about to explode.