awake, and you’ll be of no use to anyone if you die.”
“At least I’ll die fighting,” he shot back, anger making the blue in his eyes brighter.
“You will do no such thing!” I cried out. “I love you, and I’m not going to lose you. Do you hear me?”
He shook his head, his pained expression breaking my heart. “Esme, it’s not just about us anymore. She’s coming, and she won’t stop until she takes my brothers back. I can’t let her poison their minds again. I just can’t.”
“Please, listen to me,” I said, hugging him tightly. “We’ve got this covered. The city is safe for now, and I am keeping a close eye on the boys. Petra is never going to take them away from you, I promise. But Ansel, Tudyk, Moore… they need you. They need their big brother, and if you die before we can save you—it’s not right, Kalon. It’s not fair.”
“Esme, my love, they’re my only family right now. I must protect them.”
He pulled away from me, trying to get up. The Black Fever had begun to weaken him, and he had a hard time pushing himself to his knees. I tried to hold him down, but we were both struggling. Tears streamed down my cheeks. I hated having to do this, but there wasn’t a better choice available. As if summoned, Time reappeared in the corner, sullenly walking toward us.
“Please, Kalon. Don’t make this any harder than it has to be,” I said, but my beloved wouldn’t listen. “You’ll only make it worse for yourself, and you’ll put your brothers at risk of infection, too!”
Kalon stilled, reason finally kicking in. Time reached him and placed a hand on top of his head. Kalon’s eyes rolled back, and he collapsed into a deep sleep. I cried hard for the better part of a minute as I stared at him, wondering whether we’d actually manage to save him. With Petra actively looking for Kalon and his brothers, the stakes were higher than ever. My nerves were crumbling, and I wasn’t sure I’d last until the very end.
“I’m sorry, Esme. I did warn you.”
“Yes, you did. But I needed to see him,” I murmured. “I’m not sorry.”
“I have to take him back.”
Time scooped Kalon up in his arms as the protective spell wrapped itself around his body like before, layer upon layer of translucent glass. What little light there was in the room reflected across the surface, fractured in thousands of colored flakes. Moments later, he was delivered back to the darkness inside the interdimensional pocket, and I felt empty and alone once more.
“There’s nothing more you can do for him,” Time said.
I got up, my knees weak. He gripped my shoulder, beckoning me to look up at him. He smiled gently, and I found sympathy in his galaxy eyes. Normally, one’s gaze spoke volumes, but it was much harder to read a Reaper’s emotions. Time, however, seemed to have found a way—or so I thought, anyway. Maybe I was imagining it. Maybe everything was finally getting to me, and I’d begun to hallucinate, to see things that weren’t really there.
“How long do you think he has?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” Time replied. “It could be several weeks, provided he stays under my temporal spell. In a natural environment—”
“Maybe less, considering the intensity of his exposure to Black Fever,” I muttered. “I know the odds out here. I just wanted to know his odds in there.”
“The more you think about it, the worse it’ll be.”
I tried to keep myself together, but the longer Time looked at me, the more I began to unravel. Unable to control the grief, I started crying again. The Reaper sighed and took me in his arms while I let it all out. Hiding my face in his coat, I sobbed and screamed and released all the angst, all the pain that had plagued me from the moment I’d watched Kalon fall under the Black Fever’s influence. My heart was broken a million times over, and I could see no way out of this mess. Time held me tight, allowing me to release every emotion I’d bottled up over the past couple of weeks.
It felt good. Peaceful even, until I noticed something odd. There was no sound. Not a peep. Nestled in Time’s arms, it was eerily quiet, as if nothing functioned anymore. As if the world had stopped spinning altogether. Time, real time, stood still.
Sniffing, I pulled my head back to look at