POV: RAVION
Timeline: Storm Paths – Hour Two
Location: Reality's Edge
---
"Don't touch the rifts!" Nyx shouts.
Kaelis, not watching where he's going, brushes against one of the temporal tears.
He vanishes.
"KAELIS!" I lunge forward.
Nyx grabs my arm. "Don't! You'll get caught too!"
"Where did he go?!"
"Temporal rift. He's been thrown into a different time stream." Nyx is already moving, hands glowing. "I can pull him back, but you need to anchor me. If I get pulled in—"
"I've got you." I wrap shadows around his waist. "Go."
---
Nyx plunges his hands into the rift.
His entire body goes rigid.
"What do you see?!" I demand.
"Multiple Kaelises—past, present, potential futures—" His voice strains. "I need to find the right one—"
"How long do we have?"
"Minutes. If he's in there too long, the timeline will try to stabilize. He'll be stuck."
"Then hurry."
---
Nyx goes deeper.
The shadows I'm using to anchor him strain.
Whatever's in that rift is strong.
Hungry.
"Got him!" Nyx gasps.
He pulls.
Kaelis tumbles out of the rift and lands hard on the path.
Nyx collapses beside him.
---
"Are you both okay?" I help them up.
"Define okay," Kaelis mutters. "I just saw seventeen different versions of myself. Three were dead. Five were evil. One was married to you, which was weird—"
"Focus," I snap.
"Right. Sorry. Time travel is disorienting."
---
"We need to keep moving." I look ahead.
The path is getting narrower. More unstable.
"We're close to the Shadowlands entrance, but this is the most dangerous part."
"Of course it is," Kaelis mutters.
---
We move forward carefully.
The path ahead is barely there—flickering between existence and void.
"One at a time," Nyx says. "Too much weight and it collapses."
"I'll go first," I volunteer.
"If it collapses with you on it—"
"Then you pull me back. Like you did with Kaelis."
I step onto the unstable section.
It holds.
Barely.
"See? Fine."
"That's not reassuring!" Kaelis calls.
---
I make it across and wave them forward.
Nyx goes next.
Slower. More careful.
He's halfway across when the path starts to crumble.
"Nyx!" Kaelis shouts.
"Keep going!" I command. "Don't stop!"
Nyx runs.
The path disintegrates behind him.
He leaps—
I catch him.
Pull him onto solid ground.
"One more," he gasps.
---
Kaelis stands on the other side.
Looking at the gap.
At the void beneath.
"I can't make that jump!" he calls.
"Yes you can!"
"I'm not athletic! I'm a chaos mage! I explode things!"
"Then explode your way across!"
"THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS!"
---
The path under him starts to shake.
Something is coming.
From the void below.
"Kaelis, jump! NOW!"
He backs up.
Takes a running start.
Leaps.
He's not going to make it.
I can see it.
He's going to fall short.
---
Nyx and I both lunge.
Reaching.
Desperate.
Kaelis' hand catches mine.
I pull him up—hard.
He slams into me and we both fall backward onto solid path.
"I MADE IT!" Kaelis laughs hysterically. "I MADE IT AND DIDN'T DIE!"
"Congratulations," Nyx says dryly. "Now get up. We're here."
---
I look ahead.
The Storm Path ends at another tear in reality.
Beyond it: the Shadowlands.
Dark.
Twisted.
Wrong.
And somewhere in there—
Kieran.
---
"Ready?" I ask.
"No," they both say.
"Good. Me neither." I stand. "Let's get him back."
We step through.