able to last much longer.
He had lost everything. He slid his hand under his long coat and gripped the hilt of his dagger. There was nothing left for him to live for. He took a deep, shuddering breath.
Tonya, he whispered, remembering her lying in their bed with a small, sexy smile on her lips, her eyes warm and sleepy. My love.
He turned the dagger in his hand so that the blade was pointed at his chest. The pain was too reminiscent of the time when he had held her in his arms after Bleu shot her—only this was magnified a million times because he knew there was no hope of ever seeing her again. There was no Magna to slow down time this time.
“Ashure, no!” Orion called out.
Ashure opened his eyes as a new thought occurred to him, and he parted his lips with the first stirring of hope. “Time—we need to change the time,” he whispered.
“Ashure, don’t let Tonya’s death be in vain,” Orion urgently said, gripping his arm.
Ashure’s eyes met Orion’s, and he slowly nodded. “Time, Orion. There is another way,” he said, his voice growing stronger and louder.
“What?” Orion asked with a confused expression.
Ashure waved the dagger in the air at the encampment. “Time, Orion. Drago’s Time-Space hoop! The magic—that is why this doesn’t make sense. We never made it to the Mystic Mountains to help Nali. That is why this is happening. We need Drago’s hoop. We need to go back into the past,” he exclaimed with growing excitement.
Ariness frowned. “You have a Time-Space hoop?” he repeated in disbelief.
“Yes!” Ashure said triumphantly.
“Where is it?” Ariness asked with growing excitement.
Ashure looked at Orion again. Ashure turned and looked back the way they had come. They had left it back in the village—forgotten during the attack.
“We don’t know how to work it,” Orion pointed out.
Ariness grimly nodded. “You may not, but I do,” he said.
“It won’t do us any good if we can’t get to it,” Ashure said.
“Where is it?” Mike asked this time.
“In the village,” Ashure replied with a grimace.
Chapter 21
Isle of the Monsters
Asahi jumped out of the boat with the bow rope when he heard the hull scraping the lake’s rocky bottom. He waded ashore and secured the rope around a large boulder. Nali looked around before gazing up at the steep cliff ahead of them. The sheer stone wall rose thousands of feet into the air. From this vantage point, clouds shielded most of the mountain from view.
She walked over to the boat’s starboard side and flipped a rope ladder over the gunwale for Asahi to climb back into the boat. He gave her a wry grin of thanks. She stepped back when he pulled himself over the side.
“This looks like a dead end. I assume this is the mountain the mirror showed us,” he said.
She nodded. “Yes.”
He tilted his head back and looked up as far as he could. The skeptical expression on his face made her smile. She wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him.
“It’s a long way to the top. You should ask Ashure about that one day,” she teased.
He looked down at her in surprise. “Ashure? He climbed to the top?” he asked.
She chuckled and nodded. “When he was nine. He almost died on his little adventure,” she said.
He looked up at the cloud-shrouded peak again. “Nine! Incredible,” he repeated.
She laughed and shook her head. “I think you mean incredibly lucky. The mountain only allows those who are true of heart to ascend it,” she said.
“True of heart? You mentioned that before. What exactly does that mean?” he asked with a frown.
“Those that seek nothing in return. Legends passed down from one Empress to another say that after the Goddess created the Isle of the Monsters, she stood upon the highest mountain and marveled at the beauty and diversity of the creatures here. She didn’t see them as ugly or something to fear, but unique and precious in their own way. To help protect them, she gave them three things,” she explained, facing him.
“An Empress to protect them,” he guessed.
She smiled and tilted her head. “Yes.”
“The Goddess’s Mirror to help her do so,” he added.
She nodded. “And….”
He frowned and looked up at the mountain again. She loved the way he became still as he processed information.
“And a way to communicate with her in times of great need,” he finally said, looking down at her.
“Yes, though I don’t know if there has ever been a time greater than now,” she