Anger pulsed through Kai with such ferocity, a voice in his mind telling him to end it all right here, to stop Clover before it was too late. Before he could give in to that violence, he was blasted back by a surge of white-hot light emanating from Clover. Kai hit the ground painfully. Stars danced in his eyes as he tried to push up on his elbows, a sharp pain in his side. Luce was suddenly crouching over him, helping him into a sitting position. He wiped at the trickle of blood running down his chin, glowering up at Clover.
“I’m not going to break the worlds.” Clover’s hands glowed bright, his eyes flashing an unnatural shade of turquoise. He looked almost holy. “I’m going to rebuild them anew. Make them better.”
Kai laughed darkly, wincing at the pain. Had he cracked a rib? “You’re a fucking liar.”
“Kai,” Luce said in a placating tone.
“Come on, Luce. You have to see him for what he is. He means to kill those he swore to protect, all to make himself into a god. Your vision—it was never Emory who was going to plunge the worlds into oblivion. It’s him. It was always going to be him.”
Luce frowned at Clover, still shining with that unnatural light. Something shifted in her eyes, as if she were finally starting to see the truth of him. Clover stepped toward her, her name slipping from his mouth like a plea, but she moved out of his reach. Clover flinched as if she’d slapped him.
“Is it true?” Luce breathed.
“You don’t understand,” Clover started. “What I did—”
“You killed her like it was nothing!” Kai shouted, gesturing toward the empty pile of clothes. “How the hell do you justify that?”
Clover’s face darkened into a scowl, his mask dropping at last. “Someone has to bear the weight of this task. I said I’d do what was needed of me even if it broke me. This is what I have to do for the greater good.”
It was all but an admission to what he’d become. A monster with no remorse who would do it all over again.
“Now come.” Clover extended a hand to Luce. “We have another world to get to.”
Kai half expected Luce to accept this explanation, to side with Clover even after seeing what he did to Asphodel, too enticed by Clover’s lies and the promise of saving her daughter. But she had heard the admission as plainly as Kai, and it was betrayal that shone in her eyes as she stared at Clover.
“I trusted you to help me save my daughter from her fate,” she said in a tremulous voice. “We were supposed to be heroes, meant to stand by your side as you led us to asolution.”
“And that is exactly what I’m doing. There are different ways to be heroes, dear Luce, and this sacrifice was Asphodel’s one act of heroism. A small piece fitted into a larger pattern.”
Luce shook her head, tears falling down her cheeks. “You’re a monster.” Her chin wobbled, but she lifted it in defiance. “Are you going to take all our power until there’s nothing left of us, too? Are you going to bleed me to death—your own kin?”
This at last seemed to get through to Clover, this reminder that Luce was a distant descendant of his. The light around him vanished. For a second, he seemed to reconsider, todoubthimself—something he never did. He looked at Luce as if seeing someone else in her features, another girl who shared his blood, one who had stayed behind in their world. Someone, Kai realized, whocould very much keep the Clover bloodline going should her brother never return.
“I would never hurt you, Luce,” Clover said, and though it was her name he spoke, it was Cordelia’s that echoed in the softness of his voice. That mask of his went back up as he looked to the darkness beyond the door. “What I did to Asphodel… the same won’t be needed from you two. I need you both with me. And I’d much rather we keep going the way we’ve been, as a united front working toward a common goal, rather than with me forcing you.”
Kai spat blood on the ground between them. “Screw you.”
Again there was a chip in Clover’s mask, something waning behind his eyes. “So be it, then,” he said with a brokenness he couldn’t quite hide.
A flick of his hand had power tugging on Kai’s limbs, forcing him to stand. It was the same for Luce, who gasped as she lurched to her feet. Clover turned toward the door, forcing them to follow him against their will.
“You’re going to the Deep for this, Cornelius Clover,” Luce said, and it was spoken like a curse. If she hadn’t been a Dreamer, Kai might have thought she was a Wordsmith, speaking these words into existence.
“Perhaps.” Clover didn’t look back at them before he disappeared through the door, so sure was he that they would follow. “But at least I’ll go there knowing I fixed our worlds and left behind a better place.”
He truly believed it. That he was doing everyone a favor by going to these lengths. That he was going to make the worlds a better place, even if it required bloody murder, three times over.
Kai felt utterly defeated. Like for once, he knew all the fight he had inside him would be for nothing, so what was the point of even trying? Clover could Glamour them without speaking a single word, make him and Luce do whatever he needed them to.If either of them rose a finger against him, he would have already seen them coming. Would stop them as if it were child’s play. If this were a game of chess, Clover would be a grand master, and they were nothing but amateurs. No matter what move they made, he would know fifteen different ways to counter them or use them to his own advantage.
They were stuck with him, no matter what they tried. Because heneededthem.
Yet Kai couldn’t stand idly by while Clover did this same thing to the warrior and guardian next. Couldn’t watch as Clover manipulated them, gaining their trust, giving them empty promises of bravery and heroism before plunging a knife through their backs, erasing all that they were to make himself into this monstrous semblance of a god.
He met Luce’s gaze as they walked through the door after him and knew she thought the same.
He thought about shoving Clover off the path of stars. Imagined the dark nothingness beyond swallowing Clover up, dragging him into oblivion. Maybe, if he opened himself up to the dark tug of his magic, he could call the umbrae somehow, use them against Clover…
Clover slowed to keep pace with Kai, and for a second, Kai feared he’d heard all his murderous thoughts. But he seemed oblivious to them as he said, “I need you to know I didn’t do what I did lightly.”
