Chapter 49: 49-Shamelessness saving the day

The smell of fox essence, beast blood, and dust lingered terrifyingly in the air. Sheana looked at the scene and felt torn.

"If there truly existed a device that can turn back time, why didn’t you go back to the day Nytherael betrayed his lovers and stopped the world from breaking?" She questioned, feeling too scared to agree with Aenyra.

"That’s not how it works," Aenyra said with a heavy heart.

If the hourglass could go back that far into the past, she would have used it again ago and turned the hand of time and Nytherael’s decision. It would stop her brother’s marriage from breaking and would save his life.

However, the hourglass can only turn back time an hour at most, and the caster needs to be in the scene of the event they want to alter. So even if the hourglass could go back to the past, she couldn’t fix anything as she wasn’t present when Nytherael invoked for a divorce from her brother and brother-in-law.

"If I could... I wouldn’t be so helpless... my brother wouldn’t be dyi..."

Sheana’s walls let out at Aenyra’s broken voice. She had come to know from unintentionally overhearing Sseraphis and Aeltharion’s conversation that the dragon sovereign was dying. It was a truth that Aenyra wouldn’t talk about, like avoiding putting it to words could change it.

"How did you even come about this hourglass."

"I was looking for ways to save my brother. There’s isn’t a solution I won’t explore, no line I won’t cross... to save him."

Princess Sheana slowly let go of her fears and approached. She still had lingering concerns, but none of them were strong enough for her to turn her back on Aenyra’s emotional state.

"It really can’t go that far back?"

Aenyra shoon her head. It couldn’t. Goodness knows she tried to force it to. Just to go back in time to catch a glimpse of what made her brother sick, knowing the cause could aid in finding a solution, but her efforts never bore any fruits.

"We can’t change that tragedy, but we can stop Nytherael. So, what do you need me to do?" She gave in.

Aenyra explained, and Sheana listened carefully. "Once reality snaps back to that moment, you have to get Nytherael to snap out of his trance and stop him from losing control. It’s important that we don’t let him drown in whatever thoughts he had that triggered this attack."

"That should be easy enough. I’m a perfect distraction and with me around... he won’t be able to daze off again," Princess Sheana winked, brushing her hair with self pride.

Aenyra’s tip lip raised in contempt. The sedictresses’ ability to pump herself herself up and find pride in such an undignified quality was astounding to her.

"Ready?"

"Sure."

Princess Sheana swallowed the lump in her throat. Despite her outward confidence, her insides had melted to goo. Time travelling and changing fate wasn’t exactly her area of expertise or familiar waters to her.

However, Aenyra had full faith that she could do it, and that made her delulu brain agree to the task.

"Here we go," Aenyra intertwined their fingers. Princess Sheana looked down, her eyes drawn to the golden palm on her, the softness of the palm, and how well her hand fit in Aenyra’s.

Her heart picked up a beat again. The drumming against her ribs was so hard that she feared her ribs might be damaged after.

She failed to notice as Aenyra twisted the hourglass upside down and the black sand started descending to the empty side of the glass.

Broken blocks of the arena, the beasts, Nytherael, and time itself came to a stop before everything started reversing.

The arena building rebuilt itself, the injured beast’s wounds healed and the forced thar flew them away reversed and they were drawn back to the arena, to their seats in the same state they had been in before the attack.

Even Rhysandor and Nerezza, who’d flown out of town, were brought back and seated perfectly to their seats.

The dark force of the hourglass rewrote the last breaths until the scene returned to the previous state and glory.

Aenyra and Sheana were the only ones unaffected by the hourglass. "It’s time," she said.

She flew them down to the arena and glanced at Sheana. Only then did she discover that Sheana was staring at their hands and hadn’t heard her.

"Are you listening to me?"

"Uh..huh," Sheana nodded, but her mind was far away. It wondered to dark places she’d never indeed herself before.

"There’s that hungry gaze again. Are you that starving?"

Since her right hand held the hourglass and her left was interwined with Sheana’s to keep her from being affected by the power of the hourglass and forgetting the attack like the others, she had no way to wake Sheana from her trance.

So, she inched her face to hers and bit her cheek. Hard.

"Aah," Sheana moaned, her mind returning from the deepest depths of her delusions. "Did you just bite me?"

"Can you focus on the task?" Aenyra scolded, ignoring the hurt look in Sheana’s eyes. "Wake Nytherael from his daze, or we will relieve the attack again. And since we’ve messed with time, if he loses control again, it might be lethal and kill every beast here," she warned.

"Oh, right. Priorities."

"When I let go of your hand, get straight to work."

"Alright. Got it," she said confidently, her insides knotted uncomfortably.

The pressure of the expectation Aenyra placed on her shoulders didn’t sit well with her. She didn’t want to fail and disappoint Aenyra, but she didn’t know if she had it in her to succeed either.

"We are counting on you," Aenyra said, realising her hand and stopping the hourglass.

The minute the hourglass stopped, time started moving normally again. The beasts were yanked awake to the new timeline.

Liodnir! Liodnir!

Cheers for the handsome hunter echoed in every corner of the arena. Sheans turned her attention to Nytherael.

"Hey, where has my sweet and charming fox gone to?" She asked, running her finger down the line of his well sculptured face.

Nytherael shivered at the sexy voice that entered his ears and the unconsented touch upon his face. His mind stopped processing his case in his brain and drew back hesitantly.

"How can you get lost in your thoughts in the presence of a beauty such as myself?" She asked, going as far as to sit on Nytherael’s lap before wrapping her arms around his neck. "I’m hurt," she pouted.

Theren, Samahita, Rhysandor, and Nerezza gagged. They were disgusted by her sudden seductive act.

Nytherael trembled. His blinked, coming back to present and narrowing his eyes at her. "Did your love for the hunt break your brain?"

Sheana just chuckled and kissed his cheek. "You could say that," she summed.

Every beast in the booth was stunned at her brazen behaviour. They had no idea that her shamelessness not only saved the hunt but their lives, too.