I don’t recognize her.
But she belongs to someone on this island, and now she is here. Bile rises in my throat at her sightless, shining eye. One is a deep, shining purple, the same shade as Esme’s. But what looks like the inner workings of a clock stare out from the other.
I was so gods-damned blind.So wrapped up in what I was doing that I didn’t bother to look any closer. Assumed Petyr was wrapped up in himself, rather than planningthis.
“I didn’t want it to be like this, you know.” My brother frowns as he leans over me, and my eyes slide to him. He rubs a hand over his face. “Not so soon, at least. But you pushed me into it, Callan.”
The anger gathers in my throat, forcing its way out around the gag.
Petyr points. “Take those gags off.”
I breathe a little easier as the gag is pulled away. Selene’s gasps fill the air.
Petyr sits on the edge of the bench I’m strapped to, looking between us. “Really and truly, this is your own fault. Both of you.”
I fight for breath. “Whatever you’re doing here is unnatural, Petyr. Those creatures—what are they?”
He scratches at his neck. “We cannot stay here, Cal. Asteria is dying.”
“Well aware.” My voice croaks. “If you want Selene to fix it, you might be disappointed after this.”
Beside me, she laughs. But there’s no amusement in the cracked sound.
He clicks his tongue. “But I don’t care about fixing the Never, you see. This place can rot as far as I’m concerned. I only care aboutcrossingit.”
At our silence, he sighs. “Father had great ambitions, you know. We discussed it often, he and I, while you were busy with your little friends. First, it would be Asteria. Then Terrosa. Further afield, even. We don’t even know what’s beyond that. The possibilities are endless. There is so much to discover, Cal, andwewould have been the ones to do it, you and I.”
“There is nothing beyond that,” Selene coughs. “This is what was given to us, you fool. Was the Shift not enough of a message for you?”
“Silence,” he snaps. “Or I’ll gag you again. Father died, and we ended up trapped on this gods-forsaken island. Our people would have starved. Theyarestarving. The Caelumnai were fragile, Cal. Fragile, and weak, so I came up with a solution. An army stronger than any seen before. An army to rival any whims of the gods.”
He waves at the creature that used to be a Caelumnai female. “They require no food. No water. No rest, even. They just keep going. And there’s none of that messy emotion left inside them to care about anything beyond following orders. More metal than anything else. They are the Metallurgist’s life work, and mine. I call them theunda.”
Selene’s lips move. Murmuring, pleading to gods that I’m certain can’t hear us here.
I have never noticed how manic his grin could be before. Fervor glitters in my brother’s hazel gaze. “Thisis what we needed, Callan. Human armies are messy, easily broken, but the unda are perfect. So we started building an army. Piece bypiece. Unfortunately, we had a few problems we couldn’t quite resolve.”
He studies his hands. “The alloy the Metallurgist created to bond with the Caelumnai doesn’t seem to settle within higher-tiered maegis. Causes issues in anyone above a tier five. Death, mainly. Very inconvenient. And particularly unfortunate, since I needyouto transport my army across that void. All of them. A wave that will sweep over the lands of Terrosa and build something new.”
I stiffen. “You know that will never happen. I couldn’t, even if I wanted to.”
The pretium would kill me long before I could manage it. And all I feel at that thought is relief.
“Ah, but youcan.” He claps his hands. I stare at him. “I knew you would never agree, and we could never force it on you. Not without killing you, and I wasn’t foolish enough to cut off our only access to Terrosa before we could work out how to turn you into what we needed.”
His smile turns my lungs to ice. “We just needed the perfect set of circumstances. It took us several years of work, but we found a solution in the end. Did you know that the faeytes kept their own records? Very detailed. Impressive, really. And incredibly useful. Led us straight to what we needed.”
“You took them,” Selene says quietly. “From the Sanctum.”
“That drab little room? Whatever it’s called.” He shrugs, dismissive. “But yes. And in them we found an answer to our issue. Untested, of course. But all things must be tested at some point.”
“And what is this answer?”
“Selene,” he says softly. “We needed a faeyte. brother. And—far more challenging—we needed a faeyte who would be fool enough to fall in love with you. We actually had a few on hand—the Metallurgist was eager to learn as much as he could, of course—but far too broken to be of any use.”
Selene’s sisters.
He shifts, leaning over Selene. She stares straight past him, up at the linen ceiling, and I strain against the leather holding me in place. “Get away from her. You know Hala stripped them of that ability, Petyr. This plan will not work.”
