“How do I get my horse out of the hourglass?”
Conquest huffs out a cold laugh. “If I knew, my horse wouldn’t be in the same position.”
“Why were you determined to destroy my world?” I ask. “You act like they’re the bad ones, yet you’ve done the same.”
“Aemon’s good at promising things… at making things feel ideal. He excels at tearing you apart and making you promises that I’m not sure he can even keep.”
“What did he promise you?”
“That he could bring you back… and here you already are. Perfectly fine and working against me,” he says then smirks at me.
I hesitate when I hear his words and wonder if they’re true. Is he simply telling me shit just to drag me along, to get me on his side? But if he is, he hasn’t quite clarified what he wants out of me.
“How do we convince Famine to stop?” I ask.
“I think it’s too late for Famine.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s already setting things into motion; you likely just don’t know it yet.”
“But if we can stop her…” I trail off.
“I was not at my full strength when we fought, Brother. It’s why Aemon could manipulate me the way he did into believing his lies. Famine is. I don’t want you to die again. But this time, if you do, I’ll find you.”
I stare at him, unsure what to say. “What did I want? Why did I join him?”
“I don’t know what your plan was; only you knew that. You have always been rational. You were kindhearted. But it was almost like he’d done something to you. You were determined to destroy him but in doing so, you destroyed yourself. There was so much darkness in you, it was like I no longer recognized you.But you told me again and again that you risked it all to stop him. Yet the world fell and he gained his first sacrifice.”
“Why did Aemon then wait nearly two hundred years before starting again?”
“He was just… gone. The instant that world collapsed, he disappeared. I thought he was gone for good… I thought that you’d accomplished what you’d set out to do until he returned a few years ago. I’ve since wondered if you did something to him that he had to recover from, but I don’t suppose you remember.”
“If I did something to him?” I ask uncertainly.
“‘The collapse of a world can bring about the end of another,’” Mickey mumbles. “I assumed it spoke of the collapse of the second world… What if…” He stops speaking, and it’s so abrupt that Kit loses concentration on the bowl and looks at him as he grabs his chest with a gasp. He pushes off the couch and falls to the ground where he begins to convulse.
Without thought, I jerk away from the bowl, destroying my connection. I rush toward Mickey while Vero rolls him so he’s not lying on his face and is on his side instead.
“Mickey!” I call, but it looks like he’s having a seizure. Something is obviously very wrong, and I knew that this morning, but I thought it was just a reaction to missing his magic. I press my hand against him and discover that he’s burning up.
“What the fuck is going on?” I ask.
“Famine has already sunk her claws into him,” Conquest says through the bowl since Raya is maintaining the connection. “Aemon, the god behind this, is coming. You’d better withdraw?—”
“I need to stop him but to do that, I need more information!”
“You know more than I do! You told me you were going to stop him,” Conquest barks.
“Instead, I destroyed Torin’s world and died for it,” I say before the connection snaps closed. “Fuck.”
Mickey’s seizure seems to have stopped, but he’s not coherent as I kneel next to him, my mind racing.
“Torin, what should I do? Should I take him to a hospital here? Or do you think they’ll know how to fix it over in Obsian?”
“I don’t know. Onyx might have answers on how to reverse what the bullet did to him, and we need to see what Famine is doing and stop her,” Torin says as he scoops Mickey up and hurries for the Door.
“Thank you for your help, Raya. I will likely need it again,” I admit while I grab the bow and sling it over my shoulder.
