tonight?”
“I didn’t choose tonight. Oliver did. I merely anticipated he would.” Over my shoulder, he looked at his own reflection. “As for why—the end is close and we’re going to need the gargoyles to make the journey. They’re strong. I want them with me on the other side.”
“Other side?”
“Of the gate.”
“What does that mean? What you said to Robin… why is the world lost?”
In the mirror, Matt’s image arched his brow. “Hasn’t Merlin revealed his final secret? What do you think the trilithons mean?”
“He said he was working on it. It has to do with Stonehenge.”
“Kronos’s Circle is the center link, but it is not the whole of it. There is no secret machine that will shield us from the Fury. The trilithons are doorways, as you know. You saw my memories, Ryan. Merlin hasn’t admitted it, but it’s time we all must. We’re not saving the world. We’re evacuating it.” He added the detail I didn’t want to hear. “No, not all of us are going.”
I turned to face him. “Explain.”
“There’s simply not enough time. We can only build so many trilithons. Gates. Since you came out of the Kronos Eye, we’ve been fighting for one thing—control of who goes. Control of the gates.”
The elevator reached the top. The door opened. I didn’t get out.
“Wizards and mermaids,” I answered for him.
“The gargoyles will go too,” he added.
“And everyone else?” I said.
“There was never going to be an everyone else. Why do you think this hasn’t gone public? Why do you think Merlin is working with a select group of people? There’s a short list of who’s taking this journey. A very short list.”
I pictured the prom. Every one of the young faces. The hope in their eyes. The future that lay ahead of them. Ahead of us. The future that was being snatched away. The garden destroyed.
The door tried to close. Doppelganger-Matt held it open.
I moved past him in a daze. I made it halfway down the hall, before the pounding in my ears forced me to stop. Doppelganger-Matt stepped out of the elevator, but didn’t follow me.
I whirled around and demanded, “That’s the best you can do? You and Merlin. The greatest wizards in the world with the power of gods behind you. This is supposed to be our great destiny?”
Vane took a few steps toward me. He pulled out his phone and pulled up the pictures of the paintings from the Boston Library. “Remember these? It is not so much the paintings as it is the story, and the key is to work backwards. There are four items of importance. Three players are at the heart of the quest—two knights and a damsel. One knight holds the spear. One knight holds the cup. Both together hold the divine light. The one proven pure of heart must stand before the altar. Two others must assist him. The one crosses the altar with the help of the believer and reaches for the angel on the other side.”
“What’s on the other side?”
“It doesn’t really matter. The point is that it is away from here. We’re to cross the altar to meet the angel on the other side.” He pointed to the first painting with the red cloth. “Whatever is under the cloth provides sustenance for the journey. Meaning it’s the guide. The apple is the guide. The dove above the angel means two things—the mournful call of a soul passing from earth, and it’s also a symbol of the Lady. The censer marks the angel as one of the apocalypse. Behind the angel, you see another golden halo that could mean the sun. To sum it up, during the apocalypse caused by the sun, use the apple to pass from earth.”
“So that’s it.” I shook my head in disbelief. “You and Merlin want to abandon this planet—our home—like it’s so much trash?”
“We’re trying to save as many as possible! Did you imagine we were going to find a giant shield to stop the sun? Or maybe build several billion umbrellas? This is the only option. And it’s not that certain either,” he said. “It’s going to take everything we have to open all the gates we can build. It’s going to take more to get where the apple will take us. At this point, we only know how to open one. Only know how to go somewhere close.”
“You don’t know even know where you’re going!”
Doppelganger-Matt smiled grimly. “Haven’t you been paying attention? We’re going to Camelot.”
The connections, his memories, all