I didn’t know what it was in that moment – my desire to protect my friends, or maybe it was just my sheer desperation to live without needing to subject myself to the pain of death – but as the wolf leapt at me, and I realised I wouldn’t get my gun up in time, I reached out, but not with my hands.

  Whether it was me or the gem – I saw it for the first time. A thread. A thin, clear-coloured strand marking the path the wolf had taken from the ground, through the banister, and towards me. I put my right arm up in front of me, as the wolf snarled and opened its jaws, its body still in the air, and as it got closer, I channelled…something towards that clear thread. A thin string of turquoise emanated from me and slithered towards the clear-coloured strand.

  I could hear the sound of gunfire on the floor above and the heavy thuds against the door at the end of the hallway, and Kian’s panic as he reloaded his gun. The wolf was upon me, its canines stabbing into the flesh of my arms and as it bit down, I screamed, its teeth digging into my skin, blood spurting from the wounds and I knew it would be able to crush the bone beneath but then it stopped. Its body hung in the air, its brown eyes locked on my face, a third of its upper canine teeth buried within the flesh of my arm, the points of the lower canines tearing into the underside.

  The turquoise thread that had come from me touched the end of the clear-coloured thread that seemed to be anchored towards the middle of the wolf, and as the turquoise thread travelled through the clear one, towards where it had begun, the wolf started reversing in time.

  Its canines pulled themselves out of my arm, as the wolf’s snout opened wider, its body moving backwards at the same speed and along the same path that it had leapt forwards. As the turquoise thread filled the clear thread, the wolf returned towards its starting spot, its lower legs stretched behind it, its front legs stretched towards me, its jaw closing.

  Eventually, the entirety of the clear thread was turquoise, and the wolf’s hind legs touched the floor. The turquoise thread started to disappear from the closest point to me, travelling towards the other end, the first thread returning to a clear colour in its wake. As the turquoise thread continued to drain to the end point, the wolf returned to where it had stood on the ground floor, looking at me through the broken banister. Then the turquoise thread disappeared entirely as the last of it touched the point where the wolf had begun, and immediately, the wolf leapt at me again in exactly the same way.

  “What the fuck was that?” Kian exclaimed.

  “I’ll tell you later – just kill it.”

  This time I had an idea of what to do. As I suspected after the fight with Melkarieth, I had been using the gem wrong. It didn’t just allow me to reset time after I died. It allowed me to control it. Well, to reverse time, at least.

  My arm was still burning from the bite, blood dripping to the floor. I could feel a warmth from my forehead. A loving embrace like ducking under the covers with Carmen on a cold winter’s night. I needed to welcome the gem’s warmth, its embrace. I needed to channel its power.

  Threads of Mana, Kaelyn had called it, and I could see why. There were three aspects to it that I had realised as the wolf had leapt the first time. The first aspect seemed to be tagging the object. It was like a tiny ball near the wolf’s middle, and as it leapt, the second aspect became apparent – the clear thread, a tiny ball at the point where it began and another at the other end, following the movement of the wolf’s middle.

  The third aspect was me, channelling…mana, I guess? It was like a warmth filling me, and emanating as a thin thread of turquoise from my body. It didn’t seem to have a fixed position, but maybe the gem was helping me, the thread moving from my forehead to the tiny ball that was approaching. I willed my thread to move faster, and it did, touching the clear thread as the wolf began to open its mouth.

  Then I let my turquoise thread move at its own speed through the clear one, reversing the wolf in real-time, as I picked up my weapon and unloaded what remained of the mag before. Kian had adjusted well to the absolutely insane image of a wolf leaping backwards, and he followed its movement, using short bursts aimed at the wolf’s centre, so he didn’t waste bullets in case it moved further than he expected.

  This time, when the turquoise thread disappeared, the wolf didn’t even have time to realise what had happened as it collapsed to the floor. I gave it two more bursts before my magazine could shoot no longer.

  “I have a plan,” I said. There wasn’t any time to waste. The gunfire had stopped upstairs but had been replaced by thuds and the scuffling of paws digging at the floor. The door at the end of the hallway we were on was under the same amount of pressure. I released the empty magazine from my gun, grabbed another from the bag near my feet and reloaded the weapon. It wasn’t easy, in truth, with the pain in my right arm. I had to cradle the gun between my elbow and my stomach to jam the new magazine in, before wincing as I took the weight of the rifle in my injured hand. That was stupid on my part, putting my dominant arm in the way, but I guess it’s an automatic response. We always tended to use our stronger half, even when defending.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Kian reloaded also, one foot in the passageway leading to the other stairs, the other in the passageway we were in like he was unsure which way he needed to go.

  “If Kaelyn’s right, we have nine more to kill. There’s probably six or seven either in the house or on the rooves. That leaves one or two on the ground floor, maybe in the conservatory, maybe outside. I say we clear downstairs and flank around them. Worst comes to worst, I can use the mana-stone.”

  Kian cocked his head up as if listening for something upstairs. All that we could hear were thuds and snarls. I figured the girls had barricaded themselves into one of the rooms, and I reckoned Kaelyn would be able to deal with any threats that got close. I hoped so, anyway.

  “You don’t know the cost,” Kian said, looking at me. “You don’t know if it’s siphoning your life the way the reset does.”

  “If it does, it doesn’t seem to be significant. I think it uses mana – whatever that is. Even if it is siphoning my life, last time I couldn’t tell with everything going on, but this time, I’m aware of it already. And you guys are around. We’ll be able to tell if I’m in danger.

  “I think flanking the wolves is better than facing them head on but hurry up and decide. We don’t have a lot of time.”

  “Drop your ammo in my bag, and let’s do this,” Kian said, looking at my bleeding arm. He knew it would be a struggle for me to carry the gun and a bag. He hoisted his ammo bag onto his shoulder. I grabbed mine in my left hand and between us, we tipped the magazines into Kian’s bag. There were probably twenty-three or four mags in there. Using a magazine per wolf most likely wasn’t efficient, but it was effective.

  As we carefully walked down the stairs, Kian with his eyes on the front door, me with mine towards the kitchen, I tagged myself with that tiny little ball. I couldn’t really say how it worked. It’s like I thought it, wanted it, and it appeared. Behind me, I could see the clear thread stretch with me, little ball on the end at the top of the stairs, and the other right beneath my navel.

  Once we reached the bottom, I tried to tag Kian. It worked – at the expense of losing the thread that was tagged to me. That was something I’d need to work on. I didn’t think the power was limited to one object. I thought back to the fight with Melkarieth, and that awful silence before he redirected the hundreds of bullets that had been shot at him. Maybe I wasn’t strong enough yet for multiple targets? Or maybe the size of the object needed to be factored in? No matter. I just needed to be smart with how I used the time reversal for now.

  “I don’t see anything out front,” Kian whispered.

  “Let’s head to the conservatory,” I whispered back. “Get behind the ones there.”

  He followed my lead as we slunk towards the kitchen. No sign of any wolves as we walked past the island and back to the entrance. I peeked around the corner, but still nothing. Except it was dark. No motion detector lights on the patio. Above us, we heard a crash, followed by heavy footsteps. The wolves must have managed to get through the door at the top of the stairs.

  I walked through the mess of a conservatory, Kian following behind. The coffee table was on its side, with broken cups scattered near the sofa. The gardens doors were on the floor, smashed and distorted, shards of glass all over the place. Above us, on the roof, we could hear soft footsteps. We stopped, eyes up. It sounded like the wolf wasn’t trying to get in. Shit, was it acting as a lookout?

  “How much do you trust me?” I whispered to Kian.

  “As far as I can throw you!” he chuckled softly to himself. “What you thinking?”

  It was then that I noticed the thread that I had tagged to Kian only went back as far as halfway into the kitchen and not to the stairs, where I had placed it. I couldn’t see the other end, but I was aware of where it was. Interesting – something else I’d need to figure out. Still, the length was long enough for what I planned, although, I know – using your best friend for an experiment in which he could get killed probably wasn’t the kind of thing others would do. But you know what? Aren’t best friends there to support you in your endeavours?

  “I need you to be bait,” I said.

  He gave me a flat look.

  “Well, it can’t be me, can it? Come on – if things go wrong, I’ll fix it. But we need to clear this house and I don’t know how long the girls can hold out for.”

  That did it. The mention of the girls. Some would call it manipulation. I called it priorities. Stand here and balk at the idea or realise we’re trying to save the people we love. And we did need to clear these wolves, if we had any hope of moving forwards in the USP. It’s not like we could hide out.

  “What d’you want me to do?” Kian said, his expression making it clear he’d be having words with me later.

  “Here’s the plan. I want you to aim at the door, around where you think the wolf will land.”

  He did as I asked and I replaced the tag so it would start here in the conservatory. “Now I just need you to run out there – not too far, maybe as far as the edge of the patio. Get the wolf’s attention and I’ll yoink you back.”

  He gave me a look that made me wonder whether I’d be better off letting the wolves take me. But he did as I asked. He trusted me. And I wouldn’t let him down.

  He ran out as far into the patio as he dared, stopping short of the grass where he shouted and waved his arms overhead at the wolf on the roof, like he was trying to flag a plane down. I channelled the mana thread, that strand of turquoise almost touching the little ball at Kian’s end but not quite. I held it there as I kept my eye on him.

  Then he looked at me and shouted, “Now!”

  And as I channelled the mana into the thread, I heard a low growl to my right. I turned my eyes slowly. There was a wolf in the doorway, mouth slightly open, canines drooling.

  It leapt at me.