Beyond The Shadows (Shadows Saga bk3) ON HOLD

Chapter 12-Deja Vu

As soon as the scene formed around her, and Mara's eyes landed on her aunt, she wasn't sure she could do it. It hadn't been that long since she'd watched it happen once, could she really watch her aunt die again?

As Natalie's words floated around the room, Mara realized she didn't have much longer to figure out if she could or not. She was already there though, and she wasn't sure how to break the spell.

Time winded down and Natalie's speech wore toward the end. Anxiety piled up like a lead ball in Mara's stomach and she knew the time was fast approaching. She used the time to look around the hall.

All eyes were trained on her aunt, listening to the speech she was giving. Some eyes shifted toward Mara, the Mara who was sitting at the table. Little did that Mara know that her life was about to be flipped upside down once more.

Tearing her eyes away from her aunt, Mara looked around for any sign of an attacker. She tried to find the slightest sight of a gun, anything that would give away the position of the shooter. She knew they had been from the front, the entry wounds both proved as much.

Everyone seemed completely oblivious to what was about to happen. No one checked times, no one was fidgeting, they were all completely captured by what was going on up front.

The shot rang through the hall, Mara's hands flew out and time froze.

Her heart pounded loudly in her ears, a ringing still there from the loud sound that had ricocheted off the walls.

When Mara looked up, the bullet was just a couple inches from tearing through Natalie's chest. She couldn't help herself, Mara went over to her and tried to tear the bullet away, but it was no use.

It wasn't that you couldn't interfere with the events because it would have dire consequences in this spell. It was actually impossible to do. Mara's hand passed through the bullet as if she were a ghost. There was nothing she could do to stop it, that bullet would go through her aunt's chest and she would die. Mara would never see her again unless it was locked in a past event.

Mara focused on the small silver bullet, seeing another one glinting a ways away. That bullet was a bit further back from its target, and she could already see that Marx was in mid turn.

Looking at the frozen scene now, she realized just how thankful she was for the quick reflexes and overall speed werewolves had. In that moment Mara saw just how close she was to losing not just one, but two people she cared about deeply.

She ignored the surging feeling of how it had only happened because of her, and decided to focus instead on where the bullets had come from.

She could see the angle they were at and traced them back toward the back of the room, high up.

It had been where they'd suspected the shots came from, however the entire balcony had been searched thoroughly. If anyone had been up there, they had left no trace. Even as Mara looked, she saw nothing up there. No sign of a person or weapon.

She wanted to get a different view, but she had no way to break out of the spell. The only thing she could do was play it out.

Mara looked back to her aunt one last time, her eyes closed from the loud sound that had caught the entire room off guard.

As she looked out over the crowd again, everyone seemed truly surprised by the sound. Arms were in the middle of flying up to cover heads, some glasses had knocked over on the tables. No one looked like they had suspected the shot.

Just because she didn't know another way out of the scene, it didn't mean she had to watch the outcome. She couldn't do that again.

Mara turned her back and expelled a burst of magic that started it back up. She heard the screams resume, picking out the sound of her own voice above the others and her eyes shut tightly.