I glance back at Niklaus who can’t wipe that stupid look of revulsion from his face.
“I’ve never heard of that one before. You’re not here to harm us?”
She shakes her head with a chuff. “No harm. Helped you escape, ’member?”
I stare blankly, remembering the black puff of cosmic smoke that came soaring from that hole that sucked us out of Vexamen. Was that her?
“Been sent to help you, Sapphy!”
Me? I stare at her with a furrowed brow. This is a fever dream—it must be, right? I’m at home, sick and near death, probably. None of the recent events are logical. Nothing makes sense.
“Why?”
Dellilian tilts her head. “Need Sapphy’s help one day. Here to help Sapphy on time journey!”
Niklaus leans forward. “Timejourney?”
Oh, fuck.
Sinisterly, Niklaus slides his glare to land on me, jabbing into the side of my face like a hot fire poker. “Time?” he repeats himself slowly.
I swallow down the nauseated saliva building in my mouth.
“Dellilian…are we”—I clear my throat—“are we not in our own time anymore?”
Niklaus doesn’t take his hateful eyes off of me as she answers.
“Sapphy moves time. Time moves Sapphy.” Her human-like eyes shoot over to the fire Niklaus stands in front of. “Rabbit is yum.”
My mind goes blank, then explodes into chaos. “Oh, shit! How? Why? How?!”
I rise to my feet, hands in hair, pacing in front of her.
“Because you have a fucked-up head like your parents,” Niklaus seethes, though he doesn’t seem surprised by this revelation.
I don’t even have it in me to snap at the comment. Maybe he’s right? My mother can supposedly go into the void and peer back at old memories as if she’s actually there. My father had the inner world with his many alters, I’m told. And those alters were split to suffer in different ways, bear different forms of trauma.
Could my DNA have been altered because of them?
“Fallen Saint. Patient Thirteen.” Dellilian nods her head, still fixated on that cooked rabbit.
“Fuck,” I breathe.
Dellilian blinks up at me casually, then narrows her focus on the rabbit again.
“Send. Us. Back.”
I turn to face Niklaus with my mouth still hanging open. Everything that’s happened since those Vexamen Breed soldiers attacked us on the street hasn’t made any sense. Waking up on Vexamen soil with blood still wet on my body. The Meat Carnivals active again. Waking up in the snow a moment later. This is truly the only explanation!
Niklaus takes a predatory step in my direction. “Now.”
Bewilderment lines the acidic bubbling in my stomach.
“Are you fucking deaf?”
“I don’t know how!” I say in exasperation.
“Bullshit!”
