Ari didn’t stand on ceremony. She took the handle and went to raise the sword as if it were Excalibur—and it didn’t budge.
The crowd began to roil with disappointment. Ari thought she heard Val cry out. She closed her eyes and cursed, tugging once more with both hands, to no avail. This time when she looked over, Gwen’s eyes were dark with fear.
Terra came forward with such a simpering smile that Ari felt a lash of hatred. This woman might be playing her role differently than the first Administrator, but in the end, they were the same monster. “What a pity. But I do like the neatness of our bargain. Would you like to be hanged, or perhaps the firing squad? Not exactly period appropriate, but who cares.”
All at once, the dozens of Mercer associates surrounding them aimed their weapons. Ari stepped back and into Gwen. Her leg bumped the hilt of the sword, and she could have sworn it moved.
“Wait. A moment to say good-bye,” Ari said with as much confidence as she could muster.
Terra waved permission like a bored emperor.
Ari turned to Gwen, but Gwen beat her to it. “Don’t you dare say good-bye to me.”
“Gwen, what if Kai made the sword for us? For both of us.”
Gwen squinted, and then her eyes grew large. They reached for the sword together, both of their hands fitting around it perfectly.
They drew it high above their heads in one seamless motion. The crowd erupted in screams of delight. Ari couldn’t help beaming at Gwen, who appeared wickedly happy with the sword aloft, cheering along with her people and the thousands of patrons.
When the chaos finally died, Terra had the audacity to look only mildly impressed. She stepped so close that Ari felt the buzz of the chalice. Of what they still needed to do. “Look at that. You’ve bought yourselves a grand, storied exit after all.”
Ari charged, pressing the sword to the Administrator’s throat.
Only, the sword passed through her. As did Ari.
The crowd went viciously silent.
Terra smiled.
“You’re not even here,” Ari sputtered. “You’re a hologram.”
“Is that what you think?” Terra laughed. “Well, Arthur never was that intelligent, so I shouldn’t have hoped you would be. Time to collect on our bargain, I think.” She snapped at the associates and the heat guns around them began to charge with a whining, climbing sound.
“Nin?” Gwen said, horrified. “You’re Nin?”
Terra vanished with a smile, and Gwen ran for Ari.
Ari asked the cosmos for one last piece of hope: that she would reach Gwen before they were murdered by dozens of heat rays. Their arms closed around each other as the shots rang out—a cacophony of extraordinary violence. Thousands of blasts and then… sparks.
Ari felt like she’d been coated by sand. Only not quite. She opened her eyes slowly, finding herself covered in… rainbow glitter? It poured off them, creating a puddle of bright color around their feet.
And standing between Ari and Gwen and the wall of associates was Merlin.
A portal closed behind Merlin with a snap, which was surprising, but even more surprising was his age. He’d gone from seven back to seventeen. Possibly older. His hands were posed toward the associates’ heat guns.
“Holy shit!” he shouted. “You were nearly incinerated!”
“Merlin?” Gwen said as the Mercer weapons began to reload.
Merlin snapped his fingers and every single living thing on the moon, apart from the three of them, froze. “Note to self, the moment they need me is a tad too literal. Next time I’ll try for an hour before the moment they need me. Although, let’s not hope for a next time.”
“Slow down, Merlin,” Ari said. “You’re talking like your robes are on fire.”
“Sorry, sorry,” he blurted without actually putting the brakes on his speech. “It’s just, I’ve been waiting for this meeting for, well, forever. I’ve been living alone in the woods, which isn’t exactly a whetstone for keeping social skills sharp. Oh, wonderful, you got my present!” He pointed to the blue sword in Ari’s fist, looking like a little kid who’d finger-painted a surprise for his mum and was suddenly afraid she wouldn’t like it. “It doesn’t have the same properties as Excalibur, but she’s quite magical and—”
“Merlin!” Gwen said, stopping him. “How did you freeze thousands of people at once?”
Merlin laughed as if she’d told a good joke. “I didn’t freeze them. That would take copious amounts of magic. I stopped time. Think of it like a pause button.” He mimed pushing a button. “Doesn’t require much power, it’s only a little maneuver. I can reverse time, too, but,” Merlin whistled, “that’s a bit trickier.”
“You hit pause on this whole battle?” Ari spoke slowly and blinked hard.
“I think I paused the entire universe, truth be told. That’s, um, the only way Nin wouldn’t butt in. It won’t last forever so we should probably catch up quick.”
“Merlin, where’s my baby?” Gwen asked, shaking rainbow glitter off her body in sheets.
“Oh, I’m… Well, I never did work out how best to explain this.” Merlin looked to Ari, whose understanding was coming in fits and starts, unlike Gwen’s, which was rigidly stuck on her tiny, baby Kairos.
Ari stared at Merlin’s red hair, graying at the edges, or really turning a silver that was reserved for a certain space rat lineage. Like Captain Mom. And Kay.
“You?” Ari asked, carefully. He nodded with such hopeful brown eyes. Gwen’s eyes in color and Kay’s in shape. She turned to Gwen. “Do you remember when you said Kai was special? That our magic time baby might come help us at any moment?” Ari spoke slowly, half confused, half shocked.
Gwen was impatient. “Of course, but—”
“What if he already did? What if we met Kai years ago… and he’s been with us all along?”
Gwen looked at Merlin for half a second and then back at Ari. “What?”
“We have been flying around the cosmos with a backward aging magician like it’s no big deal.”
Gwen put her hands
