Page 87 of Centaur Bolt

“Riley! Are thee all right?”

I pushed myself to a sitting position, shoving the napkin and its contents back into my pocket. “I’m okay.”

“Where did you go? One second you were there, and the next—I couldn’t feel you anywhere. Then I sensed the surge here.” She spoke as she shifted back to human, growing her silvery hair as clothing. If shifting hurt her as much as it had me, she hid it well. She crouched beside me, folded a warm hand on my arm, and I welcomed the pulse of energy.

“How long ago was the academy building constructed?” I asked.

She stiffened. “Ten years? Maybe less. The records are a bit sketchy.” The Watcher took a deep breath. “You went back in time?”

“I was standing on the shore, but there was no castle. Only trees.”

I wasn’t sure what her thoughts were on the topic, but I thought she was fighting to hide her alarm. “How did that happen?”

I swallowed. “I was staring at the opposite shore, and envisioned it with trees.” I rubbed my face with a shaking hand. “I’m wiped right out.”

“We have got to stop this from happening. We don’t know what impact existing in two places at the same time, even if they are in different realms, could have. But I doubt it’s good.” She shook her head. “We need to get some food into you, and then you’re going to rest for at least the morning. I’m pulling you from both runs, fight class, and tonight’s Night Games.”

She wasn’t getting any argument from me. At the moment, walking seemed enough of a challenge.

I hadn’t considered that I would have been in another place at the same time as I’d appeared by the lake. It messed with my already swirling head.

Cara’s form shimmered again, and the Unicorn re-emerged. Definitely not a painful thing for her.

“Can thee ride?” she asked, kneeling for me to mount.

Memories of another equine form doing the same thing constricted my chest and made it hard to breathe. I’d gone back almost ten years. Could I go back to when Marcus was taken by Isobel? But I’d need visual references…

“Rileey,” Cara said. “Get thee on.”

I crawled to her and managed to pull myself onto her back. She was much smaller than Marcus, and therefore easier to balance upon. My legs actually hung down her sides.

But as she carried me back to the academy, all I could think about was my Centaur. How was I going to rescue him?

I kept discovering new talents, but none of them brought me any closer to my goal.

* * *

Once she’d plunked me down at her kitchen table, Cara bustled around, digging things out of her fridge.

The crystal dust had steadied me, but I still felt weak. I rested my head on my arms…

Lips trailed down my neck, while hands slid around from behind me to cradle my breasts. His long, nimble fingers pinched gently at my nipples and sent electric zings through to my core. I moaned and arched my hips back into him.

“You are so beautiful,” he murmured, his breath hot against my skin.

I reached a hand back and sank it into thick hair that seemed longer than it should be—just as he pulled me closer to a body not heavily muscled, but lean, like a dancer’s. The hair between my fingers was a rainbow of earth tones that sparkled as though sprinkled with stardust.

Not Marcus.

Rafael?

A gentle hand on my arm shook me awake. The last vestiges of the dream faded as I looked up into a pair of troubled blue eyes.

“Were you dreaming?” she asked.

I nodded, nearly overcome with the sudden urge to cry. Two men, both trapped by a woman so evil… while I sat here, safe and sound.

“Marcus?” she guessed.

---