Chapter 5 The Woman Who Couldn't Die

The air smelled of scorched parchment and steel. Smoke coiled upward from burning flags-some bearing empires Elara had never studied, others that hadn't been born yet. The sky was cracked like porcelain, stitched together by threads of golden light.

And Arabella Vale stood in the middle of it all, calm as a queen at the end of the world.

She wasn't what Elara expected.

Arabella looked young-no older than thirty-with dark hair swept back into a braid, and a silver coat that shimmered like mercury. But her eyes... her eyes held *centuries*. Rage. Regret. And something even more dangerous: purpose.

"Elara Quinn," Arabella said, tilting her head. "The granddaughter of a traitor. The daughter of a wasted bloodline."

Elara squared her shoulders. "You must be Arabella Vale. The walking paradox with a god complex."

Arabella's lips twitched. "Elias taught you sarcasm. He was always good at hiding fear behind a joke."

Elias stepped forward, shielding Elara. "She's not like Eliza."

"I *know* she's not," Arabella said, her smile fading. "Eliza had conviction. But this one..." She turned her gaze on Elara like she was inspecting a broken watch. "Still undecided."

"Try underestimated," Elara snapped.

Arabella's blade swung into her palm with impossible grace.

"I don't want to kill you," she said. "Not yet. Not before you see what they've done. What they've hidden."

"You mean how you've twisted time until it screams?"

Arabella pointed the blade at Elias. "Ask him what happened in Vienna. Ask him what he buried."

Elias flinched.

Elara noticed.

"What is she talking about?"

Arabella stepped closer. "He didn't tell you about the Concord Collapse, did he? About the moment time tore. He was there. He made the call. Eliza *warned* him-"

"That's enough!" Elias shouted.

Arabella smiled, cruel and sad. "The truth always is."

Before Elara could react, the battlefield shifted.

A pulse rang out from the Chrono Needle Arabella carried at her hip. Time bent sideways.

The world folded like pages in a book-then snapped shut.

Elara hit the ground in a different time.

A ballroom.

Chandeliers glistened above her. Men in waistcoats. Women in gowns. Laughter rippling through the air.

She stumbled to her feet. "What the hell-?"

"Elara."

Elias stood across the room, but he looked *younger*. No stubble. Eyes brighter. Clothes more polished.

He froze when he saw her. Dropped his champagne glass.

"Eliza?" he whispered.

"No," Elara said softly. "I'm not her."

But he didn't hear her.

And then, from behind a column, a figure appeared.

Her grandmother-*Eliza Quinn*-in her prime. Radiant. Alive.

And walking straight toward Elias.

Elara couldn't move.

Couldn't breathe.

She watched as Eliza slipped her arm into Elias's. Watched them smile. Lean close. Whisper.

Watched as they kissed-right there, in the middle of time.

Elara's heart clenched. Not from jealousy.

From *knowing*.

This was the moment everything changed.

Arabella's voice echoed from nowhere and everywhere.

> "Now you see it. What they stole. What they chose."

Elara looked around.

The ballroom began to *rot*. Chandeliers crumbled. Gowns turned to dust. People screamed.

Elias and Eliza froze in a golden snapshot as the room disintegrated.

Arabella stepped through the memory like it was smoke.

"You were never meant to exist," she told Elara. "They broke the timeline for love. And love, little Quinn, always demands a price."

Elara clenched her fists. "Then I'll pay it."

Arabella blinked. "What?"

"I'll pay it. Whatever it takes. I'm not afraid of the past. Or you."

Arabella tilted her head. "Brave. But bravery is a kind of ignorance."

And then she vanished.

Elara jolted awake on a floor of obsidian glass.

The stars above were spinning backward.

Elias was beside her-bleeding, breathing.

"Elara," he rasped. "You saw it."

She didn't answer.

She pulled him upright.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

He looked away. "Because the truth doesn't change the war. Only the choices we make next."

She helped him stand.

"We're not done," she said. "Arabella has the Needle."

"And we have a ticking clock," Elias replied, grim.

"No," Elara said, pulling the coin from her pocket. "We have something better."

She held up the coin-and the hourglass pulsed once.

A doorway opened in the void.

A new timeline.

A new path.

Elias stared at it. "That leads to the Bastion of Echoes. The one place Arabella can't reach you."

"Then let's get there before she finds another way."

They stepped through the light-and vanished into time once more.