The Messenge (Iva and Nick) novel Chapter 437

< Back in Time~.

Back In Time

+25 Points

The tunnel was collapsing around him, stone cracking overhead as ancient magic tore through the walls, sending fragments of rock crashing onto the narrow path behind him.

Behind him, the ancient voice thundered through the passage, furious and distorted, shaking the very foundations of the underground realm.

“You cannot escape the Hall of Lost Hopes, Caleb Adama! You have defied the trial, rejected the prize, and stolen what does not belong to you!”

Caleb bared his teeth as he ran.

“Then you should have made ‘your rules clearer!”

“Less talking, more running!” Chaos roared inside his mind, his voice roughened by exhaustion. “Unless you have suddenly developed a death wish, in which case, I would like to remind you that I did not agree to die in a hole with you!”

A laugh escaped Caleb, breathless and almost hysterical.

Even now, with death chasing him through a collapsing tunnel in a realm he had never wanted to enter, his wolf had found the strength to complain.

Then Caleb saw it.

The door.

“Caleb,” Chaos said, suddenly serious. “Whatever is on the other side, it is our only chance.”

Caleb tightened his grip around the stone.

He had already gambled everything on a choice no one else would have made. He had refused the Velinthra, defied the genies, and sacrificed the protection of Melisandre’s charm to escape the Hall of Lost Hopes.

He had no idea what the amber stone was capable of, why it had chosen to speak to him, or whether the door was another trick designed to break his spirit.

But behind him, the tunnel was coming apart.

Caleb gathered the last of his strength and launched himself towards the door.

For one terrifying instant, he was suspended between two worlds.

The air vanished from his lungs. The amber stone burned in his palm, and a violent sensation seized his body, as though invisible hands had gripped his soul and dragged it through a narrow opening. He felt himself stretching, breaking apart, becoming something without shape or substance.

Chaos howled.

Then everything went white.

And the world disappeared.

7/5

Back in Time..

+25 Points›

The next moment, Caleb was standing beside a lake.

The transition was se abrupt that his body remained braced for an impact that never came. His boots were planted on soft earth, his shoulders hunched, one arm raised instinctively to shield his head from the falling debris that should have been crashing around him.

But there was no collapsing tunnel.

No ancient voice.

No darkness filled with malicious magic.

There was only the gentle rustling of leaves, the distant call of a bird, and the quiet lapping of water against the shore.

A cool breeze brushed his face.

Caleb blinked.

Once.

Twice.

He slowly lowered his arm.

The lake stretched before him, its surface reflecting the pale sky and the trees that surrounded it. A familiar car stood a short distance away, parked beside the road that wound through the forest.

He knew this place.

His heart gave a violent, painful thud.

He turned his head.

And there she was.

Iva.

She was here.

She was looking at him.

Caleb forgot how to breathe.

For several seconds, he remained utterly motionless, staring at her as though the slightest movement might shatter the impossible scene before him. His eyes widened, and something detonated inside his chest with such force that he almost staggered beneath its weight.

Disbelief.

Hope.

A terrible, overwhelming surge of love.

2/5

< Back in Time.

It all crashed into him at once.

+25 Points>

One moment ago, he had been running for his life through a collapsing tunnel while an ancient genie threatened to imprison him forever. His body had been battered by three magical trials, his wolf was exhausted, and his only certainty had been that he needed to find a way back to Iva before it was too late.

And now-

Now he was standing in front of her.

Not a reflection in a cursed mirror. Not a memory conjured by a malicious spirit. Not a vision of the woman he had lost.

The real Iva.

His mate.

His heart.

His entire world.

“Caleb?”

Chaos’s voice sounded strangely distant.

Then his wolf seemed to recognize her presence fully, and the silence inside Caleb’s mind erupted into a deafening howl.

“IVAAAA!”

The cry reverberated through him, carrying years of love, grief, desperation, and longing. Chaos pressed against the boundaries of Caleb’s consciousness, fighting for control, desperate to reach the woman they had searched for through every nightmare the supernatural world could devise.

“Mate! Our mate! She’s here! She’s alive! Caleb, she’s-”

“I know.”

The words were barely more than a whisper inside his mind.

He knew..

Every part of him knew.

And he couldn’t bear to stand another second away from her.

Caleb moved before he could think better of it.

He crossed the distance between them in three long strides and pulled Iva into his arms.

He held her tightly, almost fiercely, wrapping both arms around her as though the universe might reach down and steal her away again if he loosened his grip. He buried his face against her hair, breathing in her scent, that familiar fragrance that had lived inside his soul long after everything else had been taken from him.

3/5

Back In Time…

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