It was the witches who had suffered, not the demons. All because, in their fear, the witches had broken the most important rule: first, do no harm.
And so now, we get a story all about the fallout of Demons of Good and Evil…
Nah, just kidding. It’s a time travel story.
I could be home in an hour if all went well.
record scratch
[Announcer voice]: She was not, in fact, home in an hour.
The basic premise is that Rachel needs an Atlantean Mirror in order to undo the curse she more or less accidentally cursed Brad with—besides being the right thing to do, that might just be the one thing that gets the new (and certainly not improved) Coven off her back.
The only problem? They’re all gone.
Now they are.
Honestly, I’m a bit surprised the series has gone as long as it has without introducing time travel. Having read the story—it was fun, but I wish they hadn’t introduced it here either. It’s the nuclear option—now that time travel is known to be possible, why exactly isn’t Rachel using it to solve all of her problems? After all, it may have been a rough ride, but it seems like it’s not actually possible to screw everything up no matter how hard she tries. And it turned out pretty well.
More or less.
Okay, all that being said, lets drop the other shoe (and this one is minor spoilers, but it’s fairly early and kind of a major plot point—plus it’s one of the big drivers for why going into the past was a bad idea).
She meant to go back five years.
Instead, she goes back to the day Kistin was killed. (and see below for an even bigger one)
What would possibly go wrong?
I think the whole thing is handled relatively well. Time actually feels threatened, even if I’m pretty sure this universe is operating in a ‘every that happened always happened that way* model. Rachel might just have learned something and I enjoyed her dynamic with her accidental stowaway.
I did miss Trent and Jenks, with their somewhat limited roles in this. I get why they couldn’t have had more of a contrast with past Trent, but I would have liked more of that.
But overall, an interesting story, and even in the present, that’s going to shake up the dynamics somewhat.
Onward! (And apparently to a different series. This is the last one of these so far, finally!)
Side notes (this isn’t the spoiler):
When… did it become possible to put a magic circle around someone else? I thought the entire point was that they had to be centered on you.
I really thought one of those forget potions was going to be the one that she randomly got used on herself back all those years ago.
We missed a chance to talk to Gwen in the present day. I’m looking forward to that hopefully in the next book.
I loved this line:
“No.” Jenks smiled back, his hand dropping to the hilt of his garden sword. “Where Rache goes, I go. Kind of like a curse or an STD.”
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Okay, this one is actually fairly major spoilers, even after the first time. But I really do enjoy this quote and the full on … oh that it entails, so I’ll leave it here:
“Look at you. Look at how strong you are, sitting with the coven and a demon both. You are my Rachel of the future. Look what you have become without me.”
“I never said…”
He put a gentle hand on my face, stopping my words. “I am gone. I see it in your every breath. And if I had been there, if I had survived, you’d be smaller. I know it.”
I’d wanted to give him comfort, not this, and my agonized smile faded. “No. That’s not why I’m here.”
“You would be smaller,” he said softly, and then my heartache redoubled as he pulled me into a hug, his body relaxing as he sighed against me. “You would be smaller, my love…”
“You don’t know that,” I sniffed into his collar, and we parted.
Eyebrows high, Kisten ran a finger down my neck. Only a faint hint of passion rebounded under his touch—and he knew it.
“I do,” he whispered. “And I’m proud of you,” he added, pulling me into a crushing embrace again. “I want you to go back. Become the mortar between the coven and the demons.” He shifted against me as he considered my scent. “And the elves?” he added, surprised.