And what comes after.
“I know you’re nervous,” Kai continued. “You don’t have to be. But if you don’t want to do this, I’m with you. We’ll head to Harebell Cove, try to go through this time rift Luce spoke of. We’ll find another way. But Baz? I know you can do this.”
Baz wanted to cry.Lie,a voice in his head said.Tell him anything that will stop him from going through that door.
Tell him the truth.
It’s what Kai would do.
“Don’t freak out,” Baz said slowly, “but I’ve seen this all happen before. Because I’m… I’m from the future.”
Kai gave him an odd look. “Yeah, you and me both.”
“No, I mean, I’m not the same Baz who came here with you.” He took a deep breath. “In a few minutes, Baz is—Iam going to walk in here, and I’m going to tell you that Cordie’s coming with us tonight. And then we’re all going to go unpick the Vault’s wards, and I need you to listen to me, because something really terrible is going to happen.”
“You’re freaking me out here, Brysden.”
“I know, but—just listen, please.”
And Kai did. He listened without interrupting as Baz told him everything that would happen, how they would get separated by the Hourglass, how Baz would later find out everything Clover and Thames had done, the murders, the Tidecaller synth. How Baz would pen their favorite book and be transported to the very center of the sleepscape, where he would meet the god of balance and learn of the grim fate that awaited Kai and Luce.
Kai was quiet for a while after, making Baz think maybe he’d broken his brain. Was there a rule the god forgot to tell him against divulging someone’s future?
“I know it’s a lot to take in,” Baz said. “I know you probably don’t believe me, but—”
“I believe you.”
He met Kai’s eyes, so stark and bright with trust.
“You do?”
A muscle feathered in Kai’s jaw. “I swear, if that piece of shit Clover thinks he’s getting away with this…”
“Kai?”
Baz’s voice drifted toward them—past-Baz’s voice. He was back.
Panic seized present-Baz. He gripped Kai’s hands. “No matterwhat you do, promise me you won’t go through the door. Please, I can’t lose you.”
Before Kai could reply, before his own past self could see them together, Baz turned the dial on the pocket watch, the symbols on its surface coming alive to make him invisible. Kai frowned at the space where he disappeared, then at Baz’s invisible hand as it squeezed Kai’s arm. His eyes fluttered shut.
“I promise,” Kai whispered.
For the first time, Baz thought there might actually be a chance to change both past and future—and save the boy he loved.
5KAI
KAI SALONGA HELD ON TOanger the way most people kept once-treasured souvenirs long after they’d lost any meaning. It was a permanent bitterness in his mouth, a taste he could never wash out. Whatever fleeting peace he had experienced at Baz’s side during their time at Aldryn—both in the past they’d been pulled into and the present they’d left behind—had only been that: brief delusions of sweetness he would never get back.
If Kai weren’t so angry at the world, he might have been able to appreciate the enchantment of the Wychwood. Even with the rot that had started to spread, the beauty of the woods persisted, and the witches, for their part, remained absurdly optimistic and steadfastly rooted in community spirit despite the so-called netherdemon possessions that had become all too common among them.
Tonight the witch twins’ estate gardens were all aglow with candlelight and music and the sound of merry laughter. A celebration thrown in honor of Oleander and Asphodel, the twin sisterswho ruled the coven—and Clover, who’d made himself into their white knight. The would-be savior of the Wychwood.
This story they were living out had all the makings of a fairy tale, but Kai knew better than to be fooled by pretty facades. And though this wasreality—at least, Kai assumed it was, but who could say nowadays?—darkness seeped into him as if it were the sleepscape and he were pulling all the shadows from a nightmare.
It clung to him now, that darkness, as he sat alone in a shaded corner of the garden. Two older witches walked by him murmuring behind their hands and throwing wary glances his way.
Kai glowered at them.“What?”he snapped.
