“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 murmured.
She slid her hands up his muscular arms until they rested on his shoulders. He gripped her waist. The warmth of his hands through the thin material of her blouse sent a shiver of awareness through her. She gazed up at him, her heart filled with emotion.
“I’m falling in love with you, Asahi Tanaka,” she said as she ran her fingers through his hair.
He turned his head and pressed a kiss on her palm. “Then I am the luckiest man alive. From the moment I saw you land in the forest, there was never a doubt in my mind that you were the woman for me,” he confessed.
She met his lips halfway. This is what pure magic feels like, she thought when he tightened his hold on her.
Her heart hammered when he slid his hands over her hips. Their kiss changed from passionate to almost desperate. The turmoil of the last few days and the fear of what the future held intensified the depth of their emotions. Nali never wanted their kiss to end.
He traced her bottom lip with his tongue and trailed soft kisses across her cheek to her neck. She instinctively tilted her head to give him free access to the slender column of her throat. All the while, she pulled at his neatly tucked shirt.
She groaned when she slipped her hands under the loose shirt and touched his warm skin. Pure pleasure coursed through her as she caressed his flesh. It would be so easy to forget where they were and the danger bearing down on them.
“One day—” she breathed.
She closed her eyes and sent out a fervent wish for them to have a future together. He paused, his lips still pressed against her neck as if he heard her unspoken request. He hugged her tighter. A sigh of regret slipped from her. She should have kept her worries to herself.
She looked deep into his eyes when he tenderly cupped her cheek. A sense of calm settled over her. She pressed her cheek against his hand when he caressed it with his thumb.
“That day will come soon,” he vowed.
Nali nodded, her throat closed with a foreign emotion. She gave him a fierce hug
