I wiped blood from my nose, trying to focus my vision. The Void Eater was advancing again, moving with deliberate purpose now that the shield was gone.
"I'm okay," I lied again. My head was pounding, and I could feel my connection to the pocket dimension's energy weakening. "But we're out of time. Horrace, please tell me you have something!"
Horrace made a series of urgent musical notes, his form glowing brightly as he wrapped tentacles around both Winter and me.
Somehow I could tell what he needed.
"Winter," I turned to her, "Horrace has an idea, but he needs more power. He needs to borrow your prophetic energy directly."
Winter didn't hesitate. "How do I do that?"
"Just let go. The way you did in the farmers market when you almost tore reality apart. But this time, channel it into Horrace instead of outward."
She closed her eyes, her face a mask of concentration. The blue markings on her arm flared to life, glowing so brightly they illuminated the entire kitchen. Horrace's form began to pulse in rhythm with the markings, his own glow intensifying until it was painful to look at directly.
The Void Eater paused in its advance, seemingly wary of this new development. It shifted its form again, becoming more compact, more focused, as if gathering itself for a final assault.
"Whatever you're going to do," I told Winter and Horrace, "do it now!"
Winter's eyes snapped open, glowing with the same blue light as her markings. "Horrace, take what you need!"
Horrace made a sound unlike anything I'd heard before, a perfect, crystalline note that resonated through the pocket dimension. His form expanded, engulfing both Winter and me in a cocoon of blue light.
The entity lunged forward just as Horrace's power peaked. There was a sensation of being stretched, compressed, and then suddenly snapped back into place, like a rubber band pulled to its limit and then released.
We fell.
Not through void or chaos this time, but through normal space, landing hard on the kitchen floor of Winter's actual apartment. The impact knocked the wind out of me, and for a moment, all I could do was lie there, gasping.
When I finally managed to sit up, I saw Winter and Horrace beside me, both looking dazed but intact. The kitchen was normal, gravity working as it should, appliances in their proper places, no sign of the rift or the Void Eater.
"We... we made it," I coughed, tasting blood. "Horrace, you did it! Great job, buddy!"
Horrace made a weak trilling sound, his form dim and slightly unstable. He'd used a tremendous amount of energy to get us back.
Winter was already moving to my side, her face tight with worry. "Milo, your nose is still bleeding. And your eyes..."
I touched my face, feeling the warm wetness under my nose and, alarmingly, at the corners of my eyes as well. "Just a side effect of channeling too much unfamiliar energy," I tried to reassure her. "I'll be fine."
She didn't look convinced. "Let me get something to clean you up."
As she moved to get a towel, I slumped back against the cabinet, suddenly exhausted. The encounter with the Void Eater had taken more out of me than I wanted to admit. My head was pounding, my vision blurry at the edges, and I could still feel echoes of those false memories it had tried to implant.
But we were alive. We'd escaped. That was what mattered.
Winter returned with a damp cloth, kneeling beside me and gently wiping the blood from my face. Her touch was careful, tender in a way that made my heart do a little flip in my chest.
"You were amazing back there," her voice soft. "I've never seen you like that before. So serious, so powerful."
I laughed, wincing as the movement sent a spike of pain through my head. "I'm always amazing. Just usually in a more fun, skeleton-dance-party kind of way."
She smiled, but her eyes remained concerned as she continued cleaning my face. "You could have been killed, Milo.That thing, it was feeding on you, wasn't it? On your memories, your essence."
I couldn't deny it. "That's what Void Eaters do. They consume anomalies, paradoxes, things that shouldn't exist or be in places they don't belong. Like three inter-dimensional travelers in a pocket dimension created by a prophetic sneeze."
"Why did you put yourself between it and us?" Her voice was even more quiet now, her hand pausing in its gentle ministrations. "You could have tried to escape with us right away."
"Because that's my job," the answer simple. "To protect you. Both of you."
