“After we rekindle the flame, Ulvarth won’t matter.” Taavin started in. He went to the shelf on his wall, lifting something from his watchmaking supplies. “Here, I made a new watch, you’ll need to hold it.”
Vi held out both her hands to accept the small token. When Taavin’s fingers vanished, she stared at something nearly identical to the watch she’d carried across the world. The links were uncannily similar. The face was the same. The only difference was this one was shiny, new, so pristine that Vi could see her face reflected in it.
Whereas the one she’d been gifted, the one Vi had received from Fritz, showed its age in every scratch, dent, and smear of tarnish.
“What do we need to do?” Vi whispered. “Why do I need a new watch?”
Her mind was jumbled. She’d packed it so full of information and plans that it was now about to explode. This would be the final straw.
“Listen to me, there’s little time to explain now, but I will soon. After you are settled, summon me as you once did. I can explain it all then.”
“Tell me now?” she asked, wishing her voice was stronger.
Taavin lifted the watch from her numb fingers, fastening it around her neck as he spoke. “When the War of Light ended, Yargen fractured her power to keep Raspian at bay.”
“One third to the tomb, one third to her Champion in a spear, and one third here in Risen as a living flame,” Vi recited. “And we have a piece of that staff in the scythe.”
“But the scythe alone… it isn’t enough.” He stepped away, starting for the open doors. The flame cast him in silhouette. “The scythe with the power of the flame, your watch, my power—it’s not enough. We need all the crystal weapons to stand against him. We need the full power of Yargen.”
“The full power of Yargen is gone,” Vi needlessly reminded him. “The caverns, destroyed. The other crystal weapons—”
“Destroyed,” he finished for her, glancing over his shoulder, the light of the flame illuminating his profile. “I know it all. Thanks to your word, I now know every step this world has taken for hundreds of years, time and again.”
“So then how do we rekindle the flame?” Vi asked, taking a small step toward him. “If that power is gone, if the crystal weapons were destroyed, along with the other third of Yargen’s power held in the Crystal Caverns… What do we do to reignite the crystals so we can bring her power back to the flame? What do we do to bring her power back so she can fight off Raspian?”
“It’s not a what, Vi. It’s awhen.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
When.
When.
Her mind sputtered and came to a halt on the word. Vi stood, swaying slightly. There was magic in the world. Powers great and small. Powers to heal and destroy.
But there was no power that granted one the hold over time itself.
To have that… one would have to be a… a… a goddess.
“Vi.” Taavin summoned her from her haze. Vi looked up, startled. She hadn’t realized he’d crossed over to her. Now, he towered above her with every inch of his height. “You cannot lose yourself now. I need you here with me mentally. If we dally too long, we’re met with a great deal of hardship. Ulvarth comes and… Well, what happens then doesn’t matter because we’re not dallying.”
Taavin rounded behind her, pushing her to motion. He pushed her toward the flame and Vi’s body only obliged because it was that or collapse in place. Luckily, her physical form moved on instinct, even when her mind refused.
“I’m going to say some words,” Taavin was saying. Vi barely heard him.
None of this was real. None of this was happening. It couldn’t be. He was speaking insanity. And yet her other option if she didn’t go along with it was walking back down into a hornet’s nest of Ulvarth’s men who would execute her father by dawn—if dawn even came. If they hadn’t already executed him.
What if Taavin had been lying about that to get her to move? What if they’d killed him in that courtyard and Taavin knew if he told her she would be a grieving mess? Could she trust him to tell her the truth?
Right now, the answer was a resounding no, and Vi felt as though she would be sick.
Taavin stopped pushing her and rounded in front of her. His hand cupped her cheek, but Vi could barely feel it. The motion was too familiar, too caring, for the strange man in front of her now. Madman or traitor—she didn’t know who he was.
“This is the only way forward. This is the only way to save your family. Repeat what I say, Vi. And I will be there to guide you in the new world, I promise. This is my destiny as much as it is yours.” He turned, his back to her, and knelt.
Destiny. She hated the word.
Vi was living a nightmare that ended with the world’s destruction. For the third time in three short days, she was overcome by a sensation of déjà vu. She’d had a vision of this very moment and she knew where it led. She knew what was about to happen.
