Just as before, a tall, muscled man stood in the middle of the road, and Nola’s dad swerved to miss him. The next thing she knew, she had a severe case of vertigo as the car flipped.

Those scuffed leather boots approached the crumpled vehicle...their owner bent down, his golden skin coming into view first, followed by his golden hair and his golden eyes.

As her mother pleaded for mercy and begged for Nola’s life, he cast his gaze through the car, exuding satisfaction when he spotted the toddler.

Real Nola bristled, remembering the way he’d reached inside and yanked out her mother.

Her mother met baby Nola’s gaze briefly, then focused fully on the man. “There is no baby in the car. You do not hear her. You do not see her.”

That hadn’t happened last time. Of course, she’d only seen the highlights then. But other little details had changed as well. Had Nola affected the past, and the timing of events?

“Save yourself, Momma,” Nola begged. To the man, she snarled, “Don’t you dare touch her!”

He gave no indication that he’d heard her as he rubbed his finger over one of his man rings. A bright light suddenly glinted off the pieces of broken glass in the road.

As Nola cried out, she missed bits of a conversation the man was having with...someone.

She forced herself to quiet, to listen.

“Is she the one?” he asked someone Nola couldn’t see.

“Yes,” a woman hissed. Unfamiliar voice.

Nola frowned. No one stood next to the Adwaewethian, or near the car, yet the woman’s volume suggested she stood nearby.

“Remove her heart and her head, then kill the child,” the woman commanded, almost gleeful now.

“There is no child,” he responded.

Nola gasped. He’d obeyed her mother. Her mother had been a royal, too, able to command beasts. She might not have known, but instincts had led her on this day. If only she’d told the man to walk away.

Fighting tears, Nola dove into the front of the vehicle. The warrior reached through Nola to grab her mother by the neck, and yanked her onto the street, pulling her through the shattered windowpane.

With a screech, Nola scrambled out the same way. “Let her go!”

“Calm down, little dove.” Bane’s deep baritone penetrated her awareness. “Please, calm down. Thrashing about isn’t good for your injuries.”

Injuries? She felt fine...kind of. As she blinked, the past waned and her golden god came into view. He was running through the forest, maneuvering around trees, clutching her close to his chest. Two packs were anchored to his shoulders, even the injured one, and they thumped his back with every step.