Time's Daughter by Anya Breton Page A

hear
you.”
    My stomach flipped at the thought of them hearing
me. “They haven’t exactly been hospitable. Anyone who kidnaps a
girl, demands an accounting of her parentage and then shoves her
bound into solitary confinement is getting nothing but disdain from
me.”
    “ Again, if you’d—”
    “ Yes, yes,” I’d have gestured
dismissively if I could have moved my arms. “It’s all my fault.
Look, did you get the answers you came in here for or
what?”
    “ I guess,” he grumbled. “I’d hoped
you’d be more cooperative.”
    “ I’ve told you literally everything
I know. There is nothing left to tell.” I slowed the words down so
he’d be certain to grasp them all. “I. Know. Nothing.”
    He exhaled once more then turned for the door.
    After I’d been left in the darkness again I found it
nearly impossible to ignore the pain in my tongue. It was such a
minor discomfort compared to the prospect of death and yet I
couldn’t seem to get past it.
    An argument broke out again further in their house.
This time snarls and growls were easy to pick out through the door.
An inhuman screech shook the walls. I scrambled into a corner.
Silence followed it.
    Minutes later the door opened and light poured in.
No silhouette blocked it this time. I craned my neck to see who was
waiting out there but saw nothing.
    Huddled within the corner I remained. I wasn’t
foolish enough to fall for this trap again.
    “ You can come out now.” Alex
appearing around a corner. He held a downturned knife in his right
hand. “You have to come out if you want me to cut the
rope.”
    I didn’t know why I trusted him enough to listen but
I did. Into the light I crept and stopped in front of him with a
deep breath. I knew Alex could have hurt me with the knife in the
dark if he’d wanted to.
    A swift movement freed from the bind. He stepped
around me and gestured forward. We walked across the cut stone
floor into the broad room they’d first dropped me.
    The leader stood with a hand to his chin and another
wrapped around his middle. There were decidedly fewer people in the
room now. The older male remained in his position directly beside
the leader along with the younger male and one of the women. The
room was empty of all others.
    “ I apologize for the rough handling,
Miss Still.” The leader bowed his head to me. “The most important
thing to me is the protection of my family. I had to know we were
safe.” His arms dropped and curled behind him. “Clan Chattan would
like to extend the olive branch to you.”
    Something told me Clan Chattan didn’t want to but
the few people in the room did.
    The leader adopted a grave tone. “But we think it is
important that you know of the danger you wield. My father would
like to say a few words.”
    The older man nodded once then began in a gravelly
voice. “Should you learn the art of Time travel you need to take
care not to alter anything in the past. As you’ve no doubt seen in
popular culture, it can have major ramifications on the
present.”
    My stomach flipped sickly at the thought of time
travel. I didn’t want to go to the past or the future. The present
was frightening enough.
    “ Additionally, each time you freeze
Time, you send a shockwave across the world,” the older man added.
“Those shockwaves can be felt by anyone who is immune to the
affects. They can also be traced.”
    The leader took over from there. “We came here to be
free from witches and have no wish to bring them to our door. You
must curtail your power. In exchange, we offer you protection.”
    I eyed him warily. First they’d kidnapped me and now
they wanted to help me? All I had to do was not use the power I’d
barely realized I’d had all this time. It seemed too good to be
true…which meant it was.
    “ What do I need to be protected
from?”
    “ Rogue witches, vampires who would
enthrall you—”
    “ Vampires? They’re real?”
    The leader’s dusky pink lips turned down in a