POV: Maya Chen
I burn Lisa's letter in the fireplace, watching the paper curl and blacken.
Three days to decide. Join my betrayers or fight them alone.
The flames consume the evidence, but not the truth: I'm outnumbered, outmaneuvered, and running out of time.
A knock. The guards open my door and Sir Cedric enters, his face grim.
"Thomas is dying," he says without preamble. "The wound reopened. He's burning with fever again. His wife is begging for you."
Seraphina's sabotage. She promised this would happen.
"Take me to him." I grab my medical supplies. "Now."
The guards escort me through the castle to Thomas's quarters. His wife kneels by his bedside, sobbing. Thomas thrashes in fever-soaked sheets, his arm swollen and red.
Someone removed my honey dressing and packed the wound with something else—something dirty that reintroduced infection.
"Who changed his bandage?" I demand.
"A physician," his wife cries. "He said your treatment was devil's work. That proper medicine required leeches and prayer."
Rage floods through me. Some medieval doctor undid my work and nearly killed my patient out of ignorance and pride.
"Get me boiled water, clean cloth, and more honey. Fast!" I start cutting away the ruined bandage. "And find that physician. I want his name."
As I work to save Thomas a second time, Cedric watches with crossed arms.
"You care about him," he observes. "A simple gardener's son. Most nobles wouldn't bother."
"Most nobles are idiots." I flush the wound again, ignoring Thomas's screams. "Life is life. Rich or poor doesn't matter."
"The king needs to see this," Cedric mutters.
"See what?"
"That you're not what we thought." He pauses. "Lord Balthar's investigation uncovered something. Before he died, he told me he found evidence that someone in the castle has been selling information to Mordania. Names of our spies, defense positions, supply routes."
My hands freeze. "Mordania? That's where James is. Lisa said he's building a power base there."
"James?" Cedric's eyes sharpen. "You know someone in Mordania?"
Damn. I said too much.
"The man who betrayed me in my homeland," I say carefully. "He might be there. I'm not sure."
"If he is, and he's working against Valoria, you need to tell the king everything."
"Everything includes admitting I'm from six hundred years in the future," I snap. "You think Adrian will believe me? Or will he lock me up and torture me for information about future weapons and technologies?"
Cedric is quiet for a long moment. "You're afraid of him."
"I'm afraid of what powerful men do when they see me as a tool instead of a person." I finish bandaging Thomas, my hands steady despite my racing heart. "I've been used before. I won't let it happen again."
"The king isn't—" Cedric starts, then stops. "Actually, you might be right to worry. Adrian's been hurt too many times. He trusts no one completely. But he's also fair. If you help him, he'll help you."
"That's what James said," I whisper. "Right before he tried to kill me."
Thomas's fever begins to break as dawn approaches. The infection is under control again—for now. His wife clutches my hands, thanking me through tears.
But I know this isn't over. Seraphina will try again. And again. Until either I'm dead or she is.
When I return to my room, exhausted and blood-stained, I find Adrian waiting.
He sits in my chair, still as a statue, his scarred face unreadable in the firelight.
"You should be resting," he says.
"So should you." I'm too tired to be afraid. "What do you want?"
"Answers." He stands, moving closer. "Cedric says you mentioned knowing someone in Mordania. Someone named James who betrayed you."
"Eavesdropping on your knight's reports?"
"I'm the king. Everything is my business." His blue eyes pin me. "Tell me about James."
I could lie. Deflect. Protect myself.
But I'm tired of lies. Tired of hiding. Tired of fighting alone.
"James Hartford was my fiancé," I say flatly. "He and my cousin Lisa stole ten years of my research, framed me for fraud, and tried to kill me in a lab explosion. That explosion somehow sent me—and them—back through time to 1434. They've been here six months, building power in enemy kingdoms. Lisa admitted she killed Lord Balthar to protect James's operations in Mordania."
Adrian's expression doesn't change, but his hand moves to his sword hilt. "You're saying we have multiple people from the future actively working against us?"
"Yes."
"And you're one of them."
"I'm not working against you!" Frustration makes my voice sharp. "I'm trying to survive while they try to kill me. Again. Lisa sent me a letter offering partnership or death. I burned it. I want nothing to do with them."
"Show me the letter."
"I told you, I burned it."
"Convenient." His voice is ice. "You claim your enemies are here, working for Mordania. You claim they're trying to frame you. But I only have your word. No proof. No evidence. Just stories from a woman accused of murder."
"Thomas is my proof!" I gesture wildly. "I saved his life. Twice. Despite someone sabotaging my treatment. Why would I do that if I'm trying to hurt your kingdom?"
"To gain my trust." Adrian steps closer, towering over me. "To make yourself seem valuable while your allies work in the shadows."
"They're not my allies—"
"Prove it." His scarred face is inches from mine. "You say James is in Mordania? Tell me everything you know about future warfare. Weapons. Tactics. Technologies. If you're really on my side, give me the knowledge to fight them."
And there it is. The trap I knew was coming.
"If I tell you about modern weapons," I say quietly, "you'll use that knowledge to build them. To create guns, bombs, chemical warfare. You'll introduce weapons to this world that won't be invented for centuries. Weapons that could kill millions."
"Or save my kingdom."
"At what cost?" My voice breaks. "I won't be responsible for creating medieval nuclear weapons. I won't give you knowledge that could destroy civilization."
"Then you choose them over me." His expression hardens. "You protect your own time while mine burns."
"I'm protecting everyone!" Tears burn my eyes. "Don't you see? If I give you advanced weapons, James and Lisa will counter with their own. Then other kingdoms will try to catch up. It'll be an arms race that ends in apocalypse. I've seen what happens when humanity gets weapons before we're ready for them. I won't repeat that mistake here."
Adrian stares at me for a long moment. Then he turns toward the door.
"You're confined to this room until further notice. No treating patients. No wandering the castle. Nothing."
"You're imprisoning me for refusing to help you build weapons of mass destruction?"
"I'm imprisoning you for being a security risk." He pauses at the doorway. "Your wedding is postponed indefinitely. You're not my future queen. You're a prisoner with dangerous knowledge. And prisoners don't get privileges."
The door slams. I hear multiple locks slide into place.
I sink onto the bed, shaking with anger and fear and exhaustion.
I did the right thing. Refusing to weaponize the medieval world was the ethical choice.
But it might have just cost me my only ally.
Hours pass. I pace my cage like an animal, my mind spinning with impossible problems.
Then I hear it—a soft scraping at my window.
Someone's climbing the tower. From outside.
My room is four stories up. No one should be able to reach it.
Unless they have modern climbing equipment.
The window swings open and a figure slips inside, moving with practiced ease.
It's a man in dark clothes, his face covered. But I recognize his build. His movements.
"Hello, Maya," James says, pulling down his mask. His handsome face wears that same cold smile from the lab explosion. "Miss me?"
I back away, looking for anything I can use as a weapon.
"How did you get in here?"
"Climbing gear from 2024. Bought it for a mountaineering trip we never took. Remember?" He steps closer. "Funny how the useful stuff survived the time jump. Almost like fate wanted us to succeed."
"What do you want?"
"Lisa told you. Partnership or death." He pulls out a small vial filled with clear liquid. "This is synthetic poison from our time. Completely undetectable by medieval medicine. One drop in your water, and you die screaming within hours. They'll blame it on demon corruption."
"You're going to kill me? Again?"
"Only if you refuse to help us." James examines the vial casually. "We're building an empire, Maya. Using modern knowledge to dominate multiple kingdoms. Mordania is mine. Lisa's working on Astoria to the south. Two others are establishing positions in the eastern territories. In five years, we'll control this entire continent."
"And you want me to what? Design weapons for you? Help you conquer the medieval world?"
"You're a genius engineer. We need your specific knowledge—bioweapons, chemical warfare, advanced medicines we can monopolize." He smiles. "Think about it. We could save millions of lives with modern medicine while quietly eliminating our enemies with modern poisons. We'd be gods to these people."
"You'd be monsters."
"Says the woman who just refused to help the Demon King defend his kingdom." James's smile sharpens. "I heard your conversation with Adrian. Very noble, refusing to weaponize the timeline. But while you play ethical, Lisa and I are winning."
"Winning what? There's no victory here! We're stuck in the past!"
"Wrong." James pulls out something else—a small device that looks like a modified smartphone. "We've been studying the time phenomenon. The quantum rift that sent us back is still active. It appears every three months in the same location where your lab exploded. We've mapped it."
My heart stops. "You can go home?"
"We can. But why would we?" He pockets the device. "In 2024, I was a good doctor. Here, I'm a king in all but name. I have power, wealth, and no regulations limiting what I can do. This is paradise for anyone smart enough to exploit it."
"It's wrong."
"It's survival of the fittest. Darwin would approve." He holds up the poison vial again. "Last chance, Maya. Join us, or die. Choose now."
I look at the vial. At James's cold smile. At the window showing a four-story drop.
And I make my choice.
I grab the chamber pot and throw it at his face.
He dodges, but it buys me seconds. I scream as loud as I can: "GUARDS! INTRUDER! HELP!"
James lunges for me, the vial in his hand. I grab a candlestick and swing hard.
It connects with his temple. He staggers.
The door crashes open. Guards pour in, weapons drawn.
James drops the vial—it shatters on the stone floor, poison spreading. He dives for the window.
"Stop him!" I shout.
But James is already climbing down impossibly fast with his modern gear. The guards can't follow.
He disappears into the darkness, leaving behind only the shattered vial and the stunned guards.
And Adrian, who stands in my doorway, his sword drawn, staring at me with those ice-blue eyes.
"Explain," he commands. "Now."