Eclipse: Time Thief (Romantasy)

62. Finality

I opened my eyes after trying to travel to the eclipse and found myself lying on a white floor, suffocated by plain white walls with my arms tied behind my back.

Flare's face blinked in and out of view.

"Flare...?" Her hair was a few inches longer than it had been.

"There you are." She tilted her head. "I thought it would be harder to bring you here, but you weren't responsive. It feels even worse when you don't fight back."

"I slipped to this time. I must have been unconscious."

She pushed my hair back. "You're burning up. Did you really just slip? Or are you toying with time?" She chuckled softly. "In your last life when you tried to learn to control it, you failed miserably. At least you're making some kind of progress."

"Why are we in the white room?"

"I took back control, just recently, actually. You must have been drawn to this event."

I squeezed my eyes shut. "How did you get control back?"

"I'm not going to explain myself to you. You showed me the error of such mercy. We should say goodbye for good this time, dear girl. You've caused too many problems. It's too dangerous to wait as you grow stronger."

I couldn't let her suspect I'd traveled here on purpose or she might figure out my plan. "Don't do this."

"Be a good girl and sleep this time."

"Don't hurt anyone else. Please. Be satisfied with me."

Flare tilted her head, the smoldering of her eyes bright against the all-white room. "You knew this would happen. Why did you never stop fighting me? The Prophet is waiting. The eclipse is waiting." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "The after-life is not. I can't release you, not yet. You may not believe me, but I am sorry. I've never been more sorry for anything."

Flare rose and faded into the image of Dr. Henderson.

She smiled sadly. "Sweet dreams, Max. I'll send you and the Prophet to an eclipse that happened long ago. Like I did in your other lives. Only this time, you won't come back."

"Dr. Henderson." I strained against my bonds. "Dr. Henderson!"

She slid her hand over my eyes and then I opened them to countless snarling faces in a crowd. Screaming and cursing.

Ropes bit into my skin.

This was it.

I stared into the inky black eyes that had haunted me as long as I could remember. I was on the stage, bound to a tall post, like I had been so many times before, but this time, I wouldn't slip back to reality. This was my reality.

Above me, the moon had nearly consumed the sun. A crowd spilled into the courtyard in front of me. And surrounding me stood ten figures wearing Prophet cloaks.

There would be no escaping if I changed my mind. Flare had convinced them all to join forces and kill me.

I focused on my arms to break my bonds anyway. Couldn't help it. I hated being unable to move. But my wrists only tugged uselessly at them. Power came at me from all angles. They were holding me down.

Fear sliced through me. It didn't matter that I'd chosen this. I couldn't shake it.

What kind of deal had Flare made?

"Kill her!" A woman shrieked and threw her shoe at the stage. "Kill the demon! Kill the bitch!"

The Prophet hypnotized the people with a speech so full of lies it made me sick.