“Among others.” I couldn’t manage much more without choking on my words.
“Do you know where she is?”
Yes. In Hell. Lost. Suffering. Dead.
“Please, if you won’t tell me anything else, at least tell me that.”
I turned to my future self, my stomach plummeting. Tear streaks glistened on her cheeks. Still, she shook her head, knowing we both wished we could tell our naïve past what the future held.
But we couldn’t.
“Elora.”
“Where’s Elora? Where am I?”
“Not Elora.”
“Helpful.”
Heavenly Hell.
“I don’t want to help you. But I don’t have much choice. You’ll find your answers once you get out of your cage. Escape and remember the names Oliver and Magda. Ask Oliver about Elora, then?—”
Find Michael. Kill him. Rip his fucking heart out.
“Magda for everything else,” I finished.
“And I’ll find my mom that way?”
A numbness entered our toes. Combining Intraverso and Praetervado drained our powers faster than I’d anticipated. Or it was the block I still held on my mind.
My future self grabbed my hand.
It was time to go.
“You’ll find your answers. But Magda’s answers come at a price.”
“Wait, but who’s Oliver? And how am I supposed to escape? The room is locked!” she yelled.
I clutched my head, resisting the urge to wrap my arms around my stomach like future Lucy was. I wasn’t sure if all three of us were meant to be in one time. Cato would probably keel over and die if he knew. After he swatted me with his book, of course.
“Use your powe?—”
Numbness spread up our legs, and my future self ripped us out of the past and back into my present mind.
“I understand why we had to do that. But not why you think that was the start of our journey.” If that’s what we wanted to call it. “The start was when Ronen saved us from Nerium poison.”
Future Lucy only smiled. No explanation. No words.
Then she left me.
Chapter
Fifty-Two
Lucille
The gates of Hell creaked with a whipping warm wind, foreboding and wrong. My Infernus whispered in my ear as I stared at the tall black bars. Their music was one. Their songs a nudge. I approached, and my music grew louder, the itch under my skin overwhelming.
