“That the gods you tried to take power from are out here right now, gathering their strength so they can come after you. I might have a bone to pick with the bastards for abandoning me in the abyss, but I’ll gladly cheer them on when they end you.”
“They won’t,” Clover said with a confidence that might have sounded forced. He glared at the disparate pieces of worlds laid out before him. “I’ll hunt them down myself and absorb whatever’s left of their power so that I can fully embody the four worlds of the living. Then everything will be as it should be.” Clover studied Kai. “I am glad, you know, to see that you survived. Losing you and Luce was… Well. I never thought I’d see either of you again.”
“We had your boyfriend to thank for that.”
Baz’s head snapped to Kai, wondering who he meant.
“I wonder if you’ll recognize him when the gods come for you wearing his face,” Kai continued, voice taunting. “He might not look like Thames anymore, but I can assure you, his reincarnation remembers what you did to him just fine. I hope he gets the revenge he deser—”
In a flash of anger, Clover was on Kai faster than Baz could call on his magic to stop him. But his magic, it turned out, wasn’t needed. No sooner had Clover wrapped his hands around Kai’s neck than he let go with a cry of surprise, pain flashing across his face. As if he’d been burned by the tattoos on Kai’s collarbones, which had come to life in a faint silver light.
There was a second of complete surprise where all three of them remained still, too stunned to react. And then Kai pulled back his fist and swung at Clover.
Before his punch could land, Clover disappeared in a cloud of billowing dust.
45KAI
“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?”Baz screeched.
Kai stared down at his tattoos, which had already faded back to their normal black lines as soon as Clover disappeared.
“I have no idea,” he breathed.
And yet he had a sneaking suspicion. This had happened in the abyss, too, when one of the gods had grabbed him. The four gods had stared at the tattoos as if they could sense a power there. Because surely that’s what it was: some kind of protection against gods, perhaps. Though why that was or how it worked was beyond Kai. It wasn’t as if he were the one controlling it, nor had it ever happened before, but then again, he’d never had the displeasure of meeting a god until recently.
He would have loved to have never met a single one of them.
Before either he or Baz could say another word, two figures wobbled their way from the rubble of the Eclipse commons. Kai recognized Theodore at once, as well as Rusli, whom he’d briefly met before going through Dovermere. Theodore was leaningheavily on Rusli, one of his legs a complete bloody mess.
Baz ran toward them. “What happened?”
“He got caught in the wreckage,” Rusli panted as he set Theodore down on the floor. “I managed to pull him out with a little help.”
At this, he gave a nod of thanks to a young boy who’d appeared behind them. The boy flushed. He was lanky and still growing into his teens, with green eyes and strawberry-blond curls. The rust-colored surcoat he wore was similar to the strange clothing of the other people running around, bearing a faded crest as though this were an old hand-me-down that had seen better days.
Baz fussed over his father, who tried to swat him away. “I’m fine,” Theodore said with false bravado. “Really, it’s—”
His leg healed before their eyes. The blood disappeared, and his shredded pants leg was whole again.
They all stared at Baz, who hadn’t even blinked as he pulled back the threads of time.
“Well,” Theodore mused, “that’s a handy trick.” He turned to Kai then, his face splitting into a smile. “I see they managed to pull you out of hell.”
“Glad that part of our plan was successful, at least,” Rusli said.
A swell of emotion rushed through Kai. He was hit with the realization that it wasn’t just Baz and Emory who’d fought to get him out of the abyss, but a whole group of people who actually gave a shit about him.
“Where is everyone?” Baz asked, eyeing the rubble of the commons with worry. “Professor Selandyn…?”
“She’s fine,” his father answered. “We managed to get everyone down to the beach after… whatever it is that’s appeared here eviscerated Obscura Hall.” He glanced at the strange boy. “What did you call this place of yours again?”
“The Chasm,” the boy answered. “The seat of the Fellowship of the Light. The Golden Helm were in the process of raiding it when there was this big shift like the world was exploding. And all of a sudden, here we were.”
Nothing he said made any sense to Kai, but the names must have sparked recognition in Baz and the others, because they all shared a knowing glance.
“You’re from the Wastes—the Heartland, I mean?” Baz asked.
The boy nodded.
