If Valathame hadn’t sent me that message I would’ve convinced myself I had more time, that I could still be of use here and could wait. But her message had come. I was in no place to question the mother of our species. The mother of magic. A literal angel born in Heaven. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths to try and summon the courage to do what I had to.

Come on, Frankie. You can do this. She chose you. There’s a reason for it.

One line of the prophecy ran through my mind. When in doubt head back to him. I rolled over and stared at my soulmate’s face as he slept. The him was him. It had to be. He was over a thousand years old. He was older than Sweyn and Avolire. If I had to return to Avolire in a point in the past, surely he was going to be there.

Maybe that’s why he’s been so secretive?

I brushed my fingertips over his cheek. “I have to go now.”

He did not wake. Perhaps that was for the better. It was hard enough climbing out of his arms it would be worse to look him in the eye as I did. I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his quickly then pulled back before I gave myself a new reason to stay. With my heart pounding in my chest, I forced myself out of bed. Tegan had talked to me about time travel and what to expect. We had no idea which time period I was going to, but she’d given me a white peasant gown with long bell sleeves and a modest scooped neckline—-both to cover my soulmate mark if it came out and to hide my Coven Mark. Tegan insisted this gown would allow me to blend in enough anywhere I came out in history until I could adjust my clothing. To which, she’d given me a spell to recite to change my clothes.

She’d given me quite the cheat sheet of spells, actually. Written in a tiny little leather-bound notebook that could also blend in with history. She said she tried to think of everything I might need, including filling my bag with a couple wands, a pendulum, a chalice, and several weapons. The weapons excited me, the others terrified me. But I would take anything she thought to give me. ‘If you need something, just stick your hand in the bag and think about it. If it’s there, it’ll come to you,’ she’d said. Prior to this moment I’d been rather excited about having a real-life Hermione bag of tricks. Now that I was about to use it, I felt the need to vomit.