NOVA: The Time Bender Series Book 1

by Isabelle Champion

  Combined with blood dripping from my nose and into my mouth, my hair had flown out in every direction, I must have looked like I’d escaped an asylum… on dress-up day… or Halloween.

  I looked to the sky trusting his Totem, hoping he was still here and close. When I caught the glimpse of black wings I took off, only taking me two minutes before I ended up in the direction I’d run from.

  Typical. I swear I was usually better than this.

  I heard the sound of voices. The two men began meandering their way towards me and I only had a moment of panic before I fell to the ground with a squeal.

  Who knew what gave it away: the sound of the leaves I landed in, my bright blue dress, or the squeal. I know what you’re thinking: I thought she was an assassin? Well in my defence I was completely out of my element.

  “Marion?” Beardy shouted, also appearing through the trees. The men paused and the guy with the large beer belly pointed his finger in my direction.

  I sprung up instantly, preparing to fight instead of run. That’s what I usually did, but this dress made both options impossible.

  I opted for running. I was fast so at least I’d be able to lose the large one. I think it took a while for them to comprehend what was happening before they suddenly came after me. I spared a look over my shoulder at the bigger guy and wheezed - shoot. Learn from my mistakes. Never underestimate anyone. He had charged his way through undergrowth and was closing in on me. My eyes widened and I flung myself forward, barrelling through trees.

  I felt like Cinderella to be honest or some other kind of runaway princess. My cloak flew through the air; curly hair fell from its braid as I whipped past trees. A blue firefly flew beside me and a Raven cawed in the distance. I knew I was never going to get to the Raven in time. But I could be so close. I poured every ounce of my training into Marion’s body - willing her legs to be stronger until it felt like I was flying through the forest.

  The most responsible thing for me to do was follow my Totem out of there and hope to meet the Raven another time.

  But looking back and not seeing either of the men I realised I could continue… that was of course until I ran into a branch. I know, please save me the ‘Of course, how predictable’. I was just having a really bad week. I swear I was usually a badass ninja. This whole getting sucked into 1661 had thrown me off my game big time.

  Everything after running into the undergrowth because I’d heard voices seemed to be a blur (mainly because blood was dripping into my eye from a gash across my forehead). But the hand slamming onto my mouth and being dragged further into the undergrowth was as clear as day.

  “Shh,” an unfamiliar deep voice murmured into my ear. I did as he said. I knew better than crying out when the people I was running from were standing no more than 10 feet away.

  But they weren’t the guys I was running from, nope. These guys were dressed in red coats and held guns. These guys were the goddamn British army and clearly, some fugitive scum had his hand on my mouth.

  And yet still, I didn’t move. I obeyed and listened to the heavy breathing of the man. My head rested uncomfortably between his shoulder and neck and I could smell the scent of pine and smoke.

  It felt like hours we were sat there, twigs poking in my cheek and blood coating my face and his hand. After a while, he took his hand away from my mouth and I hissed at him. “Who are you?”

  “Who are you?” he repeated with a deep voice. I was ashamed to admit it made my stomach flip.

  “I asked first. Were they looking for you?” We both froze as a figure emerged a few metres away from us. Beardy was running a hand through his scruffy beard.

  I held my breath as he turned towards the bush we were hiding in. His eyes focused for a moment and I wondered if he’d realised - if he’d seen me. But then he turned around acting as though he hadn’t? When the other man appeared he shook his head. “She must have been heading South, back to the estate.”

  “Why-”

  “She’s confused,” Beardy replied sternly, leading him away from the bush. Before he became out of sight he turned his head back in our direction and I released my breath.

  Thank you. I said silently.

  “Okay, let’s get out of here. Your elbow is digging into my side and you’re bleeding a lot.”

  “Oh... sorry.” I shuffled out of the branches, my head was pounding by now and I couldn’t see very well. The man followed shortly and then turned to face me.

  My heart quite literally stopped, he was here - flesh and blood. Standing no more than an arms distance away from me although his black hair was a lot longer and greasier actually. He looked at least ten years older and somehow more attractive. I’d never pictured him wearing a grey cloak and leather boots but it suited him.

  I’d blame it on the fact I was bleeding from my forehead and being in my worst nightmare that I felt compelled to leap onto him.

  “Ace,” I sobbed embarrassingly, with my arms wrapped around his neck and his own arms presumably reaching for a weapon. Fortunately, before I had to work my way out of that one I blacked out.

  I woke to the sound of running water and something stabbing my forehead. Ace was bent over, biting his lip like he always did when concentrating.

  “For the love of God don’t move,” he mumbled. The voice threw me off and I realised this wasn’t my Ace. This Ace hadn’t lived nearly half of the lives Ace had. If anything, this could have been Ace’s first.

  Besides, Ace wasn’t here to magically rescue me and nor were the other Time Benders. I needed to find my Totem now. Forget the Raven. I didn’t care how close I could have been to him. I only had a few hours left for sure.

  “This is my first time doing this, so sorry if it’s not up to your standard.” He smiled, dimples and all. My heart melted, this Ace wasn’t a douche... couldn’t he come back with me?

  He wiped my forehead with his thumb, helped me sit up and then handed me a leather canister of water which turned out not to be water but some nasty tasting alcohol or something.

  “It will help with the pain,” he laughed, noticing my disgusted face. “I’ve been through worse pain.” I rolled my eyes to which he raised an eyebrow. To him I looked like a runaway brat, prettily dressed with a pixie-like face.

  “So what’s your name?”

  “No- Marion.”

  “Okay No-Marion then.” He broke a branch with his hands and threw it into a small crackling fire. He was apparently not going to tell me his name.

  “Yours?”

  He looked hesitant for a moment and continued adding wood to the fire. “Tobias. So Marion, let me guess.” He leant away from the fire and pulled out some bread from a bag.

  “Family issues?”

  “Wow, congratulations that was fast.” I smiled, accepting a chunk of bread he held out for me and welcoming the stale tastelessness of it.

  He cocked his head to the side. “The Montgomery house?”

  So that’s what it was called.

  “Yes,” I reply, eagerly chewing on the bread like a starved person. He hummed to himself and leant back on to his elbows. I watched him closely as his eyes fluttered shut. Although this Ace was older and a lot smellier, present Ace was only going to get more attractive.

  “I can feel your eyes on me. What?” he grumbled and tilted his head towards me, his eyes falling open.

  “Why were those men after you?”

  “I’m a wanted criminal for a crime I didn’t commit,” he replied after a moment’s pause.

  “What crime?”

  “Murder.”

  “Oh.” Well, I really hope this was just a simple misunderstanding and he hadn’t really killed someone.

  “You can trust me,” he said, gathering twigs into a pile to add to the roaring fire.

  “I know,” I said almost instantly, except I couldn’t really trust this man. He was a stranger, he wasn’t the same guy who’d been flirting with me the moment he joined the Time Benders. He wasn’t my friend. He was just a
kind stranger for all I knew. He could very well be a murderer - a wanted criminal.

  But I was an assassin.

  (Way cooler if you ask me).

  “So where were you planning on going?”

  I looked up into the deep green trees towering over us as though we were nothing more than ants amongst blades of grass, and I felt that way. I felt completely hopeless, hanging onto a small raft across wild, unfamiliar seas. I was out of my element and the Raven had beaten me completely and I hadn’t even gotten a chance to fight him.

  “Home,” I replied. I caught my breath and allowed my eyes to close, to search for anything - a sign of a blue light in the future but his voice pulled me back to reality.

  “I’m sure you’re missed.” His voice was soft, like the silky strands of darkness I missed so much. My time was up. It was time to go home - defeated but alive.

  You’ve had your adventure, the freedom of a lifetime. But it wasn’t enough. It was time to go home.

  Gently my eyes fluttered shut - the thought of home a warm promise that I yearned for desperately. Then, it was like being sucked through time. Well, it was like that every time, but somehow this was different. I was in the balance of time except something was off. It wasn’t balanced. Strands of loose time and darkness consumed me and when I opened my eyes I saw everything.

  The beginning of my timeline to the present.

  My first life was the beginning of time. I was among the first human species to develop - the first to climb that hill, the first to be engulfed in the purest water none had ever touched, and the first to walk there. It was real.

  I had a lot more than 200 lives I began to realise, watching the numerous lives unfold before me, living them within only a second.

  I’d met extraordinary people… I had been extraordinary people. I was everywhere, my timeline was endless and growing with every second and every breath I took. I could see everything and yet I could feel nothing.

  I couldn’t feel the sensation of being held in my mother’s arms but I could remember the experience of taking my first steps. I could see but I couldn’t live.

  Then in a flash, I caught a glimpse of my father in this life and then a tall stranger, dark wavy hair, and then a man. The Count. It was over; I was onto the next life.

  The extent of what I was seeing overwhelmed me to the point of breaking. Soon I was watching the terror of my lives - the horrors of human history and I was defeated.

  Something inside me snapped - like the breaking off a rope that tied me to the present. The rope was my Totem and it had gone.

  And now it was cold, the darkness didn’t relax me and lull me in. It restricted my breathing. I suddenly felt how unfriendly and isolating it was and I felt like I was floating through space: A timeless space with no way home.

  I’d lost my Totem.

  CHAPTER 13

  Time: 17th June 1661

  Location: England (probably)

  I was numb all over. So numb I couldn’t comprehend what was happening to me as I was carried through the rain and dumped into a muddy puddle.

  As I opened my eyes I was aware I was lying on a gravel path and my dress had been torn to shreds. I felt my throat tighten.

  I was still here.

  “Oh good, you’re awake.” Tobias looked over me - water running over his forehead, black strands of hair hanging in front of me. A sob rose to my chest and I smothered it with a growl of frustration.

  “What are you doing?” I choked. “Where are you taking me?”

  “I’m returning you home, a beautiful young virgin such as yourself would fetch me a handsome price with your father.” His eyes were cold, his voice cruel and sharp. Someone had clearly turned sour.

  I snarled in the back of my throat. “My father would gladly hand you over to those soldiers.”

  “Your father?” he scoffed. “Lord Montgomery won’t believe a word that comes out of your mouth.”

  My head swam with hot frustration and I felt the need to kill him - how I usually felt - but I couldn’t feel my arms and legs. My hair hung in wet strands and I felt the blood rush to my head when he picked me up again and dropped me over his shoulder like a rag doll. Had he drugged me?

  I remember cursing him several times, staring at the puddles and listening to the sound of his feet squelching through mud, the sound of drops of rain as they fell onto leaves and then down the back of my neck.

  When we came further away from the woods and onto the pathway leading up to the house I began screaming, hitting his back hysterically for whatever reason. I was mad, not specifically at him - well yes I was also mad because of him. But I was mad at the universe, for not being able to go home. I was mad at the Raven who had gotten me stuck here and I was tired. I was tired of fighting and Time Bending and I was close to giving up.

  Except there was no way in hell I was going to let him walk me through those gates without putting up a fight. There would be no containing Nova.

  I screamed foul words they’d probably never heard before. I pounded at his back with my fists with the little strength I had as he strolled up to the courtyard and dropped me on to the floor.

  I lay face down in the gravel, my fists curled around the tiny wet stones and when I snapped my head up I flung the stones into his face. He let out a cry and clutched his eyes, whilst I made an attempt to run out of the gates I’d only just left that morning. However, he caught me around the waist and lifted me up, trapping my arms. He shoved me in front of him as he guided me up the double steps where servants stood with wide eyes, whispering to one another.

  “Oh!” cried Abigail. Well, I thought it was Abigail. I couldn’t see very well out of my wet hair and I didn’t really want to see anything but his blood on my hands.

  I must have looked insane to every eye peeking from every paned window as people stopped working. Those who were on their way to the stables paused in their tracks and gathered towards the screaming girl.

  Soon I was forced from one brute to the other, screaming my head off and kicking my legs. As I was carried into the house I caught the glimpse of my father’s furious expression as he stepped out onto the stairs and Tobias dropped to his knees breathing heavily.

  “Don’t trust him!” I began screaming over and over until the large oak doors slammed shut and the hall was engulfed in darkness.

  I continued to fight whoever was holding me until one more door was thrown open and I was shoved inside. I stared at the shocked and solemn faces of Abigail and a servant, then they clicked the door shut behind me. The turning of a key proved I was now a prisoner in my own home.

  Home. This wasn’t my home.

  This was a Time Benders worst nightmare. And what was worse was that I was here alone.

  I ran to the bed and pulled the covers over my head to block out light from the candles. I didn’t care that I was covered in mud and dripping wet. I held the feathered cushions to my ears and engulfed myself in darkness but that was all there was: cold unforgiving darkness with no comforting blue glow.

  The protocol didn’t work this far in the past, there was no way for Vix to track where I was and if they couldn’t see my Totem this far back then I was stuck here forever. And with what happened to Landon...

  The Raven has successfully trapped me in the past.

  Instincts told me to jump from the window - my common sense told me in the state I was in I wouldn’t nearly survive, then I began to think.

  I could jump. I’d die and wake up back in my body. Right?

  But was it worth the risk? Whenever I killed myself in a past life it could mess things up further down the timeline. It would disrupt the path and besides I wouldn’t be able to find my way back to the present if I didn’t have my Totem.

  So that was out of the question.

  Now what?

  No Totem, no way back and no Raven. I needed to find a way back but first I needed a plan.

  There was no use running away when I didn’t know the land, anybody, or any
thing about this period. Either I sat back and waited for help from the future or I...

  That’s all I could think of. I would have suggested speaking to Tobias and hope Ace remembered this life. If he did remember this life then all he would remember was me as Marion acting peculiar and him betraying me. Surely he would remember me calling him Ace? That was all I had to rely on right now. Except even if he did, Ace in the future had also lost his Totem and what could they really do to help me get back? Nothing. I had to get back on my own.

  So all I could and had to do was act like Marion and get her life on track, whatever that may have been: the Count probably.

  It couldn’t be that bad, I’d get to wear a pretty dress and cross my fingers that they’d find me before I had to sleep with him. Or rather - I had to find a way to find my Totem again before then.

  Two options.

  I’d meditate like Ace - and wait for them - just in case one of them did have a life here. Maybe there was a way they could pull me out from the future, who knew?

  And now I was calm, I could sit back and listen to my lies: wait for the others to do the hard work.

  It was then I remembered Landon and the feeling of cold realisation crept up my back. What if this was what had happened to Landon? He too could have lost his Totem and had no way of getting back… And that combined with the effects of Time Bending I’d been getting. What if my current body had gone brain dead and they thought there was no hope for me? What if they didn’t bother trying to find me? I was here, alive still.

  It wasn’t like I could do anything to stop them from killing me. But then again, I wasn’t stuck in my mind. I was just stuck in the past.

  They didn’t know that though.

  As the fear of my friends pulling the cord on me whilst I was still alive began to build, I tried to reassure myself. Fynn wouldn’t let them, and Ace would probably be so stubborn that nobody would even be allowed to touch me whilst I was away. I was more important than Landon. That was the horrible truth.