The air smelled like burnt gasoline and wet conc
rete.
Lena stepped through the rift, her boots crunchi
ng over broken glass. The other side of the worl
d was always louder.
"This is the 1940s again, right?" she
muttered,
pulling her cloak tighter.
"Try 1962," a voice said from the shadows.
She turned fast, magic crackling at her fingerti
ps.
A man stepped into the light. Sharp suit. Dark e
yes. A scar down his jaw. He held a cigarette li
ke he didn’t need it.
"You're not supposed to be here,"
she said.
"Neither are you."
He flicked ash, watching her like she was a ches
s move he hadn't planned for.
"I'm closing the rift," she said.
"Your world ca
n't take another war."
His lips curled. "You mean my war."
She didn’t answer.
The sky rumbled. In the distance, missiles glowe
d like fireflies.
"I run the NFL," he said. "Own
half the East Coa
st. I know war when I see it."
She raised a brow. "You don’t look like a genera
l."
He smiled, cold and sharp. "I never said I
was."
A siren wailed.
He stepped closer. "That rift isn’t just a tear
in time. It’s a door. And something else is comi
ng through."
She felt it too. A pull, like gravity gone wrong
.
"Why do you care?" she asked.
He looked away. "I’ve seen what happens when you
lose someone to the other side."
She hesitated. That tone. That look.
"You’ve crossed before."
He didn’t answer.
A blast hit the ground nearby. Dust and fire exp
loded around them.
"Move!" she shouted, grabbing his arm.
They rolled behind a broken wall.
"You’re fast for a witch," he said.
"You’re calm for a billionaire."
He smirked. "I’ve had worse dates."
She blinked. "Are you flirting?"
"In the middle of an apocalypse? Why not?"
She rolled her eyes but didn’t let go of his han
d.
Another blast. This time, the rift pulsed.
They both looked up.
Something was coming.
Tall. Black. Not human.
"Tell me you can stop that," he said.
She swallowed. "I can try."
He pulled a gun from his coat.
"Not with magic?"
He fired a round. The creature staggered.
"Call it a backup plan."
She muttered an incantation under her breath. Th
e wind shifted.
Lightning cracked.
The creature screamed.
Then it spoke.
"You were meant to rule, Lena."
She froze.
"What did it say?" he asked.
She didn’t answer.
The creature lunged.
He fired again. She threw a spell. Together, the
y sent it back through the rift.
It vanished with a scream that echoed across tim
e.
Silence followed.
"You knew that thing," he said.
She looked away.
"It called you its queen."
She turned to him. "That’s not what I am."
He studied her. "What are you?"
She met his eyes. "Someone who’s tired of fighti
ng wars that aren’t hers."
He holstered his gun. "Join the club."
She almost smiled.
Then the sky split again.
A new rift opened.
Different time. Different war.
She looked at him. "This isn’t over."
He nodded. "Didn’t think it was."
She stepped through the rift.
And he followed.
Behind them, the world burned.
But in that moment, they weren’t witch and billi
onaire.
They were fated mates.
And they had a war to end.
