The Last Chronomancer (The Chronomancer Chronicles Book 1)

by Reilyn Hardy

“You could tell her —” I started to suggest, but he didn’t say anything. He just followed after her. “Or not,” I mumbled. I began to walk after them, only to stop in my tracks. I looked back at the bodies that were scattered in the woods. This wasn’t right.

  “Leave them,” Rhiannon instructed. “They’re gone.”

  She was right beside me all of a sudden, which startled me. I practically leapt out of my own skin. “But what about Miko?”

  “She’s an elf, Mae.” Jace said, rubbing his neck. “She’s better off without us.”

  “He’s right.”

  Rhiannon raised her eyebrows and tilted her chin down slightly; she turned away from me. Her steps glided right past Jace, who had stopped to look at us, and continued in the direction she had pointed out. His eyes followed her until she passed him completely, but she didn’t turn to look at him at all. He looked at me then, waiting for me to catch up.

  “You guys play a lot of games?” I asked, I wasn’t sure if I was just talking about whatever that was or not. He frowned a little.

  “What?”

  “When I said I had to find her, you started saying ‘Marco’.”

  “Oh, that.” He started to walk and I followed. “When I was younger, we used to say it when we lost each other,” he said. “I know, it’s stupid but I was a kid. I got lost a lot.”

  I didn’t think it was stupid, but I wasn’t going to argue with him. He was still a little pale from the loss of blood, but his wound was mostly healed.

  “Wait —” he jogged to catch up to Rhiannon.

  “Cloak us,” he said.

  I didn’t know what he meant. She avoided his gaze.

  “I can’t,” she responded quietly.

  He inhaled sharply, he was getting annoyed.

  “Now’s not the time to be difficult with me, Rhiannon —”

  She shook her head.

  “No! I mean — it’s not that I don’t want to —” she made herself look up at him. “I can’t cloak you, Jace. Not anymore. You’re an adult now. You’re a werewolf. I can’t protect — it won’t work.”

  I could see his expression falter a little, and I also noticed him trying to hide it.

  “Okay, well — cloak him then, and yourself. We don’t need another run in with an empusa, or something else. And you shouldn’t be seen with me, Rhiannon.”

  “I wasn’t going to for any of us because I can’t for all —”

  “You have to, and you know it.”

  She didn’t say anything to protest, and grabbed hold of my wrist. I felt every inch of my skin start to burn and a very subtle red glow lifted from my body before fading away.

  “What just happened?” I asked, staring at her hand on my wrist.

  “We’re concealed now — from other creatures in here. Some of us vampires have these — extensions. Abilities. This is only scratching the surface when it comes to what I can do.”

  “And Jace?”

  “I can’t — there’s nothing I can —”

  “It’s okay,” he cut in. His gaze fell to Rhiannon’s hand still wrapped around my wrist and he flicked one of the metal charms on her bracelet. “I can’t believe you still wear that piece of junk.”

  She let go of me.

  “It’s...” She crinkled her nose. “I just forgot to take it off. I’ll get rid of it when we get out of here. It’s not important anymore anyway.”

  “Is it from one of your relatives?” I asked. It sort of slipped out. I knew it was a touchy subject considering she didn’t want them anywhere near her, and she reacted accordingly.

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” she snapped.

  She crossed her arms and started walking again. I looked over at Jace and he just rolled his eyes.

  Rhiannon came to a halt when goblins began to cross our path. They walked right past the two of us, but one stopped to eye Jace.

  I started to reach for my dagger but Rhiannon stopped me. She shook her head slowly.

  ‘They aren’t after him,’ she told me as she tapped her nose. ‘The bodies.’

  I looked back at the direction from where we had come. The camp was no longer in sight, and I could no longer smell the blood.

  ‘They’re going to clean up the mess. They don’t want him. He’d be too much of a struggle. Too much work.’

  That was probably supposed to make me feel better, but it didn’t. Tobo wasn’t pleasant, and I’m sure he wasn’t innocent either, but the idea that they were all just leftovers waiting to be cleaned up and disposed of made me uneasy.

  The goblin kept its gaze on Jace as it walked, trailing behind the rest of its short-legged, spherical-bodied crowd. The way it gazed at him with its large, bulging eyes…

  What’s it doing? I asked Rhiannon.

  ‘We should keep going.’

  It finally lost interest and ran to catch up with the rest of them. We waited where we stood until they were no longer visible.

  “Are you okay, Jace?” I asked. He shrugged.

  “Let’s go.”

  I didn’t look back again.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  natural enemies

  It remained dark, whether it was day or night. We’ve been walking for hours. I hadn’t really slept since entering the woods and Rhiannon wouldn’t let us take a break.

  “We have to keep going,” she’d say. It didn’t seem to matter that we were cloaked. I wondered if Jace had anything to do with her urgency.

  He didn’t really seem himself anymore. He kept clenching his hands into fists, clenching his jaw. He didn’t make eye contact with anyone, and just blankly stared forward.

  “Are you okay?” I’d ask.

  “I’m fine,” he’d answer.

  “Are you sure?”

  “I said I’m fine, Mae!” he snapped. He shook his head suddenly, and cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, I’m — I’m just tired.”

  I nodded, I should back off. I flipped open my bag and grabbed the last apple I had. I offered it to him first, but he shook his head at the sight of it.

  “Are you hungry, Rhiannon?” I asked absentmindedly.

  “I don’t eat apples, Mae — besides, I already ate.”

  She didn’t even turn around to see what I was holding and I tried not to think of the blood I saw on her lips. She fed on someone — of course she was fine.

  But I tensed every time she said my name. It was the way she said it. I might have just been paranoid but she was making it obvious that it was a nickname and that I was hiding behind some kind of mask.

  Jace was too distracted to notice.

  Something was wrong with him. I could tell. I knew he wasn’t going to complain and if I did ask, he would just say he was fine. He did have an empusa feeding on him. I wouldn’t have been fine either. I wasn’t, really, after what I saw. But I didn’t get the worst of it.

  I never got the worst of it. Just everyone else around me.

  I took a bite from my apple.

  “Will you stop chewing so loudly?” He snarled at me.

  I nearly choked on the piece of fruit as Rhiannon turned around.

  “What?” I croaked slightly after managing to swallow it.

  “Just shut up!”

  He curled his hands into fists. They were so tightly balled up that he was shaking and his knuckles turned white. He shook his head, just as he had done earlier. He was trying to shake off a thought or something.

  “Sorry,” he apologized again, quickly and quietly. His fists remained the same — shaking and losing color by the second. Both of his arms were tense. He didn’t say another word and instead, just kept walking as if nothing had happened.

  I didn’t follow him. I was stuck where I stood and I didn’t know what to think. I looked at Rhiannon, who had stopped in her tracks also. Even she hadn’t yet resumed walking. We both looked at him before looking at each other.

  One minute he was fine and then the next, he was snapping at me for something else. He looked sick. Malnourished. But he
looked like he was getting better only hours ago. Now, his eyes were sinking in and he walked at such a slow pace, he was practically dragging himself to go on. Forcing it. I frowned. I didn’t know what to do.

  Then it hit me.

  I tossed the apple on the ground and quickly caught up to him. Grabbing his hand, I draped his arm around the back of my neck. I doubted he could manage much farther on his own. He looked up at me and I nodded. He didn’t have to say anything. I managed to practically carry most of his weight in Edgewick and I had less energy then, I could do it now.

  Rhiannon waited till we reached her before she resumed walking. But we only managed a few steps and his arm slipped from around my neck. Before I could grab his hand, he dropped to his knees on the ground beside me. He fell forward and his palms were pressing against the earth. He was having trouble breathing, like there was something stuck in his throat, blocking the passage way.

  He wheezed.

  I crouched down beside him and crossed my arms over my knees to keep the cool wind from trailing up my sleeves and nipping at my skin.

  His eyes were tightly shut and his muscles kept tensing. His whole body was shaking now. Sweat began to form on his forehead and his fingers scraped through the dirt while he slowly curled his hands into fists. His breathing was uneven, sharp and shallow, then jagged and heavy. He kept his body close to the ground, and he didn’t bother looking up. His whole body trembled.

  ‘I knew this was going to happen.’

  Rhiannon’s voice flooded my mind.

  What?

  ‘He’s changing.’

  What do you mean? He already changed a few times, he’s fine. He can control it. I keep insisting it. He’s fine. He can change at will now. He can change at will.

  Deep down, I knew better. I knew something bad was happening. It didn’t matter how much I tried to convince myself of otherwise.

  She shook her head. When she looked at me, it was like she felt sorry for me. I didn’t like it and I turned back to Jace.

  So did she.

  ‘It’ll be like the first time, only much worse. It was that goblin, it had to be. It looked right at him. Goblins, they can get into your head, they change you. You’re overcome with self-hatred. He’s going to try to get himself killed.’

  How?

  “He’s going to change, Mae. I’m a vampire.” She was speaking out loud now.

  “If you could cloak him, would this still have happened?”

  She didn’t say anything. She just looked at Jace.

  “Rhiannon!” I yelled.

  “I don’t know! Besides, it doesn’t matter because I can’t.” Her eyes began to blacken. “We have to get out of here, Artemis. Now.”

  Surprisingly, I didn’t even flinch when she said my name. She was talking so quickly, that I had trouble processing everything she tried to tell me as she said it. She grabbed the material of my shirt, bunching it at the shoulder, and shoved me forward. “Go!”

  I started to run and she was right beside me.

  I wanted to look back — I wanted to see if he was all right but I knew that I really shouldn’t. I knew that I wouldn’t like what I saw so I convinced myself not to. I had to.

  “What — are we — going — to do?” I tried to ask while my lungs strained for air. I was running so hard, I could barely breathe. She flew her hand in the air to shush me.

  “I’m thinking!” She snapped. Her eyes widened then, and she stopped without warning. I tried to force myself to stop too and nearly slipped in the leaves.

  “What are you doing? We have to keep going!”

  She shook her head.

  “You have to trust me.”

  I frowned. “Uh — sure — what —”

  “Don’t make me spell it out for you. If I stay, he’ll leave you alone. If I stay, you’ll at least have a chance. I need to give you that chance to get to Mithlonde.”

  “But I thought you didn’t want me to —”

  “It’s the only way you’ll make it out of here alive.”

  I tried not to show any fear.

  “Jace wouldn’t kill me.”

  “He’s not himself, Mae. You need to go. It’s just that way,” she pointed in front of us. “When you spot the silver bark tree, there will be three. Walk to the center and climb up the middle, right when the Harvest Moon reaches the center of the sky. I’ll take care of him.”

  I didn’t know how to take her words. She would take care of him? What exactly did that mean?

  “Don’t hurt him,” I said finally.

  The corner of her mouth twitched at my words. She didn’t smile. She shook her head, not taking her eyes off of mine. Not breaking eye contact.

  “I wouldn’t dream of it,” she whispered.

  She didn’t wait for me to protest, and ran back in the direction we had come from. It only took her seconds to vanish completely, and I was left alone in the whispering woods.

  Letting her go was the worst decision I could make, not that she gave me much of a choice. She made it clear she wasn’t going to go with me, and she made it even clearer she didn’t think she was going to make it out of here alive.

  I gripped at the knotted strap of my bag and tried to harden my expression. I started to walk, then I didn’t. I stopped in my tracks at the sound that erupted loudly throughout the woods.

  There was a low growl and a vicious bark. A piercing scream soon followed. It lasted, long and drawn out. I closed my eyes and wiped my face with my sleeve.

  I wanted to go back. But I wasn’t ready to use my dagger against him. I had to keep going. Or she would have done this for nothing. What she did, wouldn’t have mattered. I wasn’t prepared to fight my best friend. I wasn’t prepared to fight anybody.

  I heard another growl and I ran.

  The tiredness I felt had faded when it was now me against a werewolf. I was frantic, panic was rising. I kept running. I ran for my life.

  I tried not to look around for him as I ran, but I couldn’t help it. I didn’t want him to take me by surprise but there wasn’t another being in sight. No one to ask for help, though I doubted they’d even help if I asked for it. I was alone.

  What was it that Jace said he called out to Rhiannon?

  “Marco!” I shouted. I tried to yell for her, despite knowing it was pointless. I knew it was useless. I hoped she was okay. Part of me felt like she wasn’t, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to try. The lack of response made me feel worse.

  My pace slowed as my mind jumbled over with thoughts and guilt, and then I heard something rustling behind me.

  I ran faster.

  I struggled to reach for my dagger at my side. I didn’t want to use it against Jace. In fact, he was the last person I wanted to use it against. Not that I would have a choice, unless I let him kill me. When my hand finally found it in the darkness, I gripped the handle tightly and I kept running.

  I ran as fast as I could, careful not to trip over any lumps of roots that were growing above the ground. They popped out of nowhere, purposely trying to trip me and make me dog food. Maybe they were. The way Rhiannon spoke about these woods, they had a mind of their own, and it was somehow connected to the Grim Reaper.

  Maybe he was watching me right now.

  I tried to focus on one thought. Escaping. My mind filled with the worst of vivid nightmares as I tormented myself with possible outcomes, none of which left me alive.

  I remembered Rhiannon telling me to think of something positive and I tried. I just had trouble trying to find something good in all of this.

  Somehow, all of my pleasant memories vanished, and I was left with nothing but the horrific scenes my mind came up with.

  Drowning in my thoughts, I didn’t notice immediately that I ran right past the silver bark trees until it registered as an afterthought. I turned back and they sparkled at the bases as the light of the moon shone above them.

  I couldn’t see the moon through the cluster of trees, but I could see its light.


  I went for the center tree, only to come face to face with the monster my best friend had turned into. Covered in fur, his brown eyes were dark, though not unrecognizable. He transformed into the same monster as he had in Edgewick. No longer man, not quite wolf either.

  I held up my hands in surrender, my thumb holding the base of the dagger against my palm.

  “Jace,” I started — trying to reason with him.

  What was I doing? He was a werewolf.

  He greeted me with a snarl.

  I inhaled deeply, I wasn’t going to show him fear. I tried not to be afraid but the truth was, I reeked of it. I struggled to remember the stories he told me about werewolves when we were kids and it didn’t make me feel better.

  They can smell fear, they’re drawn to it.

  I remembered him barking and scaring the hell out of me. That was just pretend back then. Now it was real and I was close to soiling myself for real too.

  “Jace — I’m not afraid of — y-you,” I attempted. I deepened my voice so that I hoped it sounded at least a little intimidating, but it probably sounded silly since my voice cracked.

  I took a step back. It was a lie. I was lying. A very poor lie. I was terrified as he continued to snarl at me, growling and baring his teeth like a wild animal.

  He was an animal.

  A twig snapped beneath my foot, when I tried taking another step back, and I cringed at the sound. Before I could move any further, he lunged at me.

  I tightened my hold on the handle of the dagger and slashed him across the face. I dropped it. I didn’t have time to pick it back up. I didn’t even think about it. I needed to get up that tree and quickly. I sprinted toward the silver bark tree and started clawing my way up.

  But Jace was too fast.

  His teeth sank into the back of my shirt and he ripped me right out of the tree. I hit the ground, hard. I didn’t move to get up. I didn’t move at all. I stayed close to the ground and I watched him while he eyed me like prey.

  Out of the blue, a musical voice flooded through the quiet of our surroundings.

  “Maaarco.” An entrancing tone echoed through the woods, overlapping the whispers of the trees around us. It was Rhiannon. Thank the Immortal Ones she hadn’t died.