Swing Time: Yr 3 - The Nightshade Guild: Broken Time, page 1
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Sneak Peek of Restoring Time
About the Author
Also by Cassidy K. O'Connor
Bibliography
Bibliography
Bibliography
In the heart of a battle against a formidable vampire, Isla Ryan and Killian find themselves inexplicably transported from their modern-day world to the swinging times of 1952. Stranded without a means to return, their shock turns to despair upon encountering the Elven Queen, Ameria, who unveils a startling truth: over a decade has slipped by, leaving their world ravaged by an impending apocalypse.
In a daring attempt to set things right, Ameria presents a perilous plan, teetering on the edge of uncertainty. Their only chance lies in biding their time within the confines of the past, avoiding any interference that could irrevocably alter the future. But as they navigate this unfamiliar era, the temptation to intervene grows stronger, challenging their resolve in ways they never expected.
Life as a Mage of the Nightshade Guild is never a dull one.
Chapter
One
Isla came to a screaming stop in the center of a road. Headlights blurred past her as horns honked loudly in her ears. Her arm was yanked to the side, pulling her out of the path of the speeding cars. The smell of burned rubber stung her nose.
Killian held her shoulders while he gasped for breath, his eyes darting back and forth. “What the hell is going on? Where’s the cave? Where are the others? Do you have Brayan?”
She reached up to her neck where he usually hid and found it empty. “Brayan!”
A chitter from behind them had them spinning around. Brayan was sitting against a rock, looking dazed.
Isla scooped him up. “You’re okay. I’ve got you.” She looked around. “What’s the last thing you remember?”
“The time scythe exploded and took Sidrith with it. Everyone was hugging and celebrating, then there was a whooshing noise. I was thrown around and landed here where I saw you almost get run over.”
Tears welled in her eyes. “Aye, and we lost poor Finn too. I saw him shove Stetson out of the way at the last minute and told him to take care of Nic.”
She held her arm out and rubbed the small Nightshade Guild mark on her inner wrist. She growled a few seconds later. “I can’t reach anyone. Why aren’t they answering?”
Killian was frozen, staring past her. “There’s either a classic car show nearby or we are on the set of a Grease sequel. Are they drag racing?”
She spun around and gasped. Hugging the tree line, she walked closer to the crowd at the end of the road. Teenagers definitely didn’t dress like that anymore. With leather jackets, flared dresses, and saddle shoes, it was obvious something was very wrong. Shaking her head, she pulled out her cell phone. No service. “Shite. I think we messed with time and it messed back.”
Killian pressed several buttons on his phone. “What does that mean?”
One boy hopped down from the hood of his car as he caught sight of them. They had to blend in or things were going to go bad fast.
Police sirens nearby had the teens scrambling in their cars and taking off. Isla and Killian needed to do the same.
She blew out a breath and pulled on her magic to create new outfits for them.
He glanced down at his jeans, button-down shirt, and blazer. His jaw dropped when he looked up and saw her royal purple dress, complete with a crinoline underskirt and saddle shoes. Her hair was now red and styled into victory rolls, with curls cascading down her back. Killian’s eyes were wide as he took her in from head to toe. “First of all, holy shit, you look hot. Second, what the hell?”
The way he was looking at her made her forget their problems. Because of her fear of being with a human, she’d forced their relationship to a snail's pace. If she was honest with herself, she would admit it was too late. She wouldn’t be able to leave him until the day he died. It was easier to lie to her heart and hope he tired of waiting for her and left.
She reached up and stroked his cheek. “I’m glad you like it. Remember how you are feeling about me right now while I tell you this next part.” She blew out a breath. “I think we were thrown back to the fifties or early sixties. I spent little time in America during that period, so I can’t say for sure.”
“Say what now?” His perplexed look had her giggling. “How can you laugh right now?”
She covered her mouth with her hand. “I’m sorry. You’re right. Come on. Let’s see if we can find something that says where and when we are.”
They passed the teenagers who had been drag racing. Poor Killian, the big bad military veteran, looked terrified.
They walked a little further and found a main road. Every business was dark. She’d forgotten how early everything shut down back then.
Store after store gave no indication of what date it was. Finally, she spotted a newspaper in a trash can. “Shite. Worse than I expected.” She turned the paper to show him the date.
“November 5th, 1952. This can’t be real.” Braylen jumped from her shoulder to Killian’s and hugged his neck to comfort him.
“We’re a day late to vote in the election too. It looks like Dwight D. Eisenhower won by a landslide.” She scanned the paper. “Oh, this is cool. The Mr. Potato Head is a brand new toy flying off store shelves and expected to be the most sought-after toy for the holidays.”
His eyes bulged. “How are you so calm?”
She reached up and stroked his cheek. “I’m not. Inside I’m freaking out, but I’ve been in enough messes to know worrying won’t help anything.” She kissed his lips gently. “Besides, I’ve lived during this time before, and I have my magic back. We’re going to be fine.”
Chapter
Two
They were definitely not going to be fine. The military didn’t prepare him on how to handle time travel. Sure, he had the skills to survive in unknown areas, but in a different decade? His I.D. wasn’t going to be good. Hell, he wasn’t even born yet.
The only good thing was how gorgeous Isla looked. He loved her normal spunky self with teal hair, but he hadn’t expected to be so into this ultra-feminine look, too. If it weren’t for the existential situation they were in, he’d be fighting to keep his hands off her.
Isla rested her hands on her hips as she gazed up and down the street. “Let’s find a quiet spot and I can try a few things with my magic. I don’t think I can time travel, but who knows what that explosion did to us.”
It was pretty easy to find quiet places. Everyone seemed to be home in bed. They found a small park and settled on a bench. The empty playground was another reminder they were in a different time. From the animals on springs, jungle gyms, and ridiculously tall metal slide, it was a reminder of all the toys that were banned in current times because people thought of them as death traps. He remembered a time or two as a kid burning his ass on a slide just like that.
Isla took a deep breath and closed her eyes. He knew by now to be quiet when she was working.
He watched as she mumbled in what sounded like a few different languages. Occasionally, her hands would move into signs and a few of her tattoos lit up, but went dark again.
“Well, Shite.” She hopped up and paced back and forth. “The rules about time are murky at best. We can’t let anyone here know we’re from the future. We have to be very careful with our words and knowledge of history. I’m going to-”
The air around them squeezed against them as magical ropes encircled them and held them still.
A man with a beard down to his waist walked out from the tree line. His hands glowed with green magic.
Isla stopped struggling and laughed. “Chortham, is that you?”
The mage paused, then dropped his hands. “Isla? What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in Spain right now?” She quirked an eyebrow. “Dealing with the Hightooths?”
Killian watched several emotions, including pain, cross Isla’s face before she composed herself and answered. “Right, the peace summit. We’re on a quick break and my friend here wanted to see the area, so we thought we’d pop over.”
Even to Killian, that sounded lame.
Chortham walked closer and whispered to Isla. “Since when do you hang with humans?”
“I don’t get serious with them, but I don’t mind having a good time. They can be a fun distraction.” She shrugged nonchalantly.
Killian narrowed his eyes at her. He knew she used to feel that way, but it still didn’t feel very good to hear.
“Now, drop these binds.” She demanded.
“Oh, sorry.” He waved his hands to free them. “What have you been getting into? I felt some serious magic from miles away. It felt weird. I don’t know how to explain it. You didn’t find another ancient script and testing out unknown spells again, are you?”
Isla rolled her eyes at him. “Cause a few humans to float and everyone gets into a stink about it.”
“Ha! Everyone in Australia started floating in the sky. If you hadn’t summoned us all as quickly as you did, some would have gone too high and died.”
That sounded like a
“Any chance you have some money I can borrow while we’re here? I’ll get it back to you as soon as we’re back in Spain.”
Chortham chuckled as he pulled out his wallet. “You need to find an ancient text that will tell you how to make your creations permanent.”
Isla gave a strained chuckle. “Yeah, having to constantly keep feeding magic to my creations is tough. Maybe one day I’ll figure out how to change the core of creation magic and do something no one else has managed to do.”
Chortham shrugged. “You’re not a part of the Guild because you’re like everyone else. You’ll figure it out one day.” He glanced at Killian before turning back to Isla. “I’ll let you have your fun. Good luck with the summit.”
He disappeared, leaving them alone in the silence. Isla reached out and grabbed his hand. A second later, they were in an unfamiliar area, the sky just starting to light with the sunrise. He held his stomach, waiting for the nausea to go away. “Where or when are we now?”
“Same time as before, but we’re in Spain.”
Killian could hear the pain in her voice. “Talk to me.”
She walked to a nearby bench, sat down, and held her head in her hands for a minute. Finally, she sighed and looked up at him. “In a couple of hours, an entire pack of werewolves is going to be murdered. Fifty-four women and children I let die.”
Killian walked up and kneeled in front of her. “I know that isn’t true. You sacrifice everything to protect the innocent. If Nic or Sunny were going to tell the story, what would they say?”
As predicted, that got Isla to laugh. “You couldn’t have picked two more different mages if you tried. Nic would have a few choice curse words to say I screwed up, but it wasn’t my fault. Sunny would probably shed a tear as she talked about the injustice that was dealt to all of us when the tragedy happened.”
“So what I’m hearing is neither would blame you. So why do you?”
He let her stare off in the silence as long as she needed. His knees were already screaming, but he didn’t want to interrupt her thoughts.
“The Guild sent me here to broker the peace talks between the Hightooths, a vampire clan, and the Graverlys, a werewolf pack. The vampires were in the wrong and they knew it. They’d been turning humans in the nearby village and the wolves wanted them to stop before the humans got suspicious. Over a few months, both sides had gotten into skirmishes with the other. The wolves were following the vamps and trying to stop them when they caught a human. Sometimes the vamp wouldn’t back down. The Guild got involved and got both sides to agree to a meeting. If I couldn’t get the Hightooths to back down, the Guild was going to come in and put them in a hundred-year sleep as punishment.”
Her voice caught as a tear rolled down her face. “I was so blind. The Hightooths said everything we wanted to hear. For two days they kept us busy, talking about their remorse. They were finally ready to concede, so I brought the wolf pack in. The vamps were late and when they breezed in, I instantly knew something was different. They were cocky and condescending. When some of the wolves started doubling over in pain and shifting, we realized what was happening.” Isla’s hands were balled into fists. Killian gently stroked the top of her hands with his thumbs as she finished the story. “The vampires called in favors from surrounding clans until they far outnumbered the wolves. They waited until we were all gathered and then invaded the pack land. As wolves were killed, their mates felt it in their souls as they were ripped apart. Most wolves can’t survive if their mate dies. I sent an SOS to the Guild and had them take care of the vampires while I portaled to the pack land. I left the portal open so the wolves who were able to move could help. There weren't many. It didn’t matter, though.”
She stopped when the first scream echoed through the trees. Killian jumped to his feet, but Isla grabbed his hand to stop him. “It’s started.”
“So open the portal. Let’s go save whoever we can.”
She shook her head as tears ran down her cheeks. “You know we can’t. We can’t change anything about the past. Those wolves have to die.”
Anger flooded him as more screams tore through the air. Every ounce of his training was screaming at him to run toward the danger and help. Isla must have known he was close. She flicked her wrist and bound him to the bench.
“What the fuck? You’re using your magic on me.”
“I’ll beg for your forgiveness later. I know what a good man you are. My words alone aren’t going to stop you, but this is the way it has to be.”
Isla pulled her knees up toward her chest and sobbed into her arms while they listened to the brutality happening nearby.
Killian wasn’t sure if he was going to go mad. He’d seen a lot of shit during his time in the military, but listening to that for almost ten minutes straight was going to haunt him forever.
His tears didn’t stop as silence finally surrounded them. He wanted to be so angry with her. He wanted to yell at her for not helping, but he could see she’d already tortured herself enough.
She flicked her wrist again and dropped the binding. “I’m sorry. We can’t mess with time. You don’t know how many times I wished I could go back and fix this. I even considered having my memory wiped, but if I did, it would be a dishonor to everyone who died that day. I needed to remember them so that I never let anything like that happen again.”
Being a member of the Nightshade Guild had its pros and cons, but this was the first time Killian truly wished Isla wasn’t a part of it. She shouldn’t have to be put in situations like this. One wrong decision and the painful results weighed on her for decades. Why should anyone have that responsibility forced on them?
Chapter
Three
Isla wasn’t sure how long they had sat there. Killian had held her while she mourned. He didn’t rush her or try to convince her she was wrong. If he was still mad at her, she couldn’t tell. He was nothing but supportive. Something she’d never had before.
When it got too dark to see the trees, she sighed and stood up. “Other me is going to be here for a bit. Why don’t we go to my cabin? That will be an easy place to hide out and I always have money around, just in case.” Killian’s stomach growled in answer. “We’ll get some food along the way.”
She opened a portal and stepped through to an open alleyway. “Recognize this place?”
Killian walked to the street edge and looked back and forth. “No. Should I?”
She pointed across the street. “That’s the restaurant we first sat at together when I took off with Ameria and you were our hero protecting us.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “I was a stupid idiot who thought I knew everything. I was a great babysitter, though.” He leaned down and kissed her gently. “And I had the sexiest bodyguard ever.”
Heat rushed to her cheeks. She was too old to feel giddy, but the butterflies in her stomach said otherwise.
He grabbed her hand and crossed the street. The diner had barely changed in all the years it had been open. Several customers eyed them curiously, but she’d gotten their appearances spot on, so it was likely more because it was rare to have strangers in town rather than them being from another time. They were waved to a table in the corner and sat.
Killian scanned the menu. “Geez, they haven’t changed their menu much, have they?”
An older woman walked up and smiled at them. “Evening. What can I get ye?”
“I’ll have water, please.”
They turned to Killian, who simply pointed at the coffee on the menu.
What in the world?
“Are ye ready to order?”
Killian nodded to Isla. “Okay. I’ll have the Chef’s special.”
They turned to Killian, who held up two fingers and nodded.
The waitress didn’t bat an eye. “Two specials coming up.”
When they were alone, Killian blew out a breath and deflated.
Isla was almost afraid to ask. “What was that?”
He leaned close. “You said we had to watch the words we use. I have no idea what I can and can’t say, so I figured it was best to not speak at all.”
