He’s not harmless! He’s trying to destroy the city.
Oh. Right. I forgot.
Kill him! Melt his brain!
Okay. Whatever you want, Lia.
Primus narrowed his eyes on Jacob. Then, deciding the Ward wasn’t worth poking, he focused on Ragnor.
“Another Bard. Funny. Sister . . . were you aware you didn’t marry the heir?”
Last clenched her jaw. “No.”
Primus smiled.
Behind him, the horror quaked and screamed. I covered my ears. It was a thousand screams at once, and it dug into my bones. The pressure of the scream clamped onto my brain, and it felt as if tiny capillaries were bursting in my eyes.
Then the giant cocoon of larvae at the center of the horror exploded.
The gray, sluglike creatures shot out and slapped against us. I ducked, turning away.
When I turned back, I gasped.
The giant cocoon hadn’t been empty. There’d been someone trapped inside.
Finn.
No.
That wasn’t right.
Not Finn, but two Finns.
And they were fighting each other.
93
There’s often this idea that in fights, battles, and wars, the most important moments happen in milliseconds. A life is saved. A life is lost. A fight is won. A soul is lost.
Once, Rou had told me the most important moment in her life—the greatest, most monumental, most meaningful moment—was tucked into a space barely big enough to hold a breath.
An event carrying the emotional heft of the universe was tucked into the tick of a second hand.
I’d never understood.
Not really.
But then I saw Finn, eyes ablaze, fire swords flashing, spinning in a fiery dance against . . . himself. One Finn fought with swords. The other threw firebolts.
They looked the same. They moved the same. They were the same.
Except not.
Because one of those Finns was good, and the other was corrupt.
Do you remember what you once told me?
It was one of the nights when I couldn’t sleep. You made me tea and stroked my back. I had a heavy, anguished weight in my chest. I knew there was good in the world—you, always you—but I was terrified that good wasn’t enough. That I’d already sunk into hell and I wasn’t redeemable. That nothing could save me from what I’d done and what I was bound to do. I was terrified there were some things I couldn’t be saved from.
