Stone Cold

Chapter 48

A loud whirring noise fell upon her ringing ears as slowly she felt herself become weightless. Her vision had gone black, turning all other senses of her tenfold as she, once again, found her soul soaring through the sea of time. Wind was hitting her like ruthless whiplashes as if the time itself was punishing her for breaking out of its inflexible clutches. The sensation of her soft skin being prickled and torn at was too strong, almost like a silk cloth stuck in a field of thorns getting ripped to shred in the quest of getting tugged back towards its rightful place. Her soul, too, had become tattered in this game of tug-of-war between past and present events initiated by the witch for whom Faith’s existence had been reduced to nothing but a mere marionette.

She had bitten her tongue in the process of clenching her teeth. The taste gingerly registered in her mind as after what felt like a lifetime, a silence graver than that of pre-dawn fell upon her.

“Ugh…”

A pained sound escaped past her lips as her clammy hands found their way to her throbbing temples.

“So you’re back, Faith… Or should I call you Credința?”

The haze she had been caught in seemed to have broken the moment she heard that familiar voice, making her crack her eyes open.

“You!”

Despite her deteriorated condition, she was successful in identifying the woman sitting in front of her own sprawled figure.

Ruth.

She was sitting in the same place Faith had left her months ago, in front of her messy desk, in her little gypsy haven. The wide-opened box, scattered papers, melting wax from candles, the faint smell of burning essence in the air, everything was just as she had left.

‘It’s almost like I never left.’

Her eyes brimmed with tears she realized what had happened. The spell had brought her back to the exact time she had left, rendering it as if she had never left in the first place.

‘But my connection to Ares... it’s lost. I can’t sense him in my head anymore.’

Digging her nails in the wooden floor, she was able to sit with her knees drawn to her chest. Originally she had wanted to crawl towards the woman perched before her but her limbs seemed unable to support her weight.

“The pain from the spell would soon disappear. You’ll be able to move freely then,”

Ruth’s complacent tone made Faith whip her head towards her voice, regretting it the moment she did it. She had unknowingly induced a headache with her sudden action.

Unaware of her condition, Ruth had continued speaking as her eyes stayed fixated on somewhere near Faith’s neck.

“But I can’t say anything about your wound. You should go to him as soon as you leave here. He must’ve felt the connection breaking. He’s unable to sense your presence now.”

That’s when her attention drew towards the stinging pain in the side of her neck.

‘Ares bit me. He released his venom into me.’

Her eyes widened with panic as her fingers gingerly slid towards her soft belly.

“Your child is unscathed. Your husband made sure of that,”

Her bloodshot eyes slowly lifted up to glare at the woman sitting before her as she uttered her next words with as much strength as she could muster,

“W-Why did you send me in that timeline?!”

She watched as the soft look from the witch’s eyes disappeared, a bitter expression taking its place.