“I promise to age,” I said, “but I will never grow up.”
“You’re incorrigible,” she said with a sigh, “but it may be that your way of being is exactly what Tristan needs in his life, especially now, while dealing with this schism.”
“I inject much needed levity into our dire situations,” I said. “Plus, I’m still getting used to all of this.” I waved an arm around. “Mages, runes, and gods aren’t exactly what I would call a normal day…before I met Monty.”
She nodded.
“True, you are still relatively new to this world, barely scratching the surface of the darkness it contains,” TK answered. “It’s not like you’re in service to the most fearsome goddess in creation, who then tasks you with carrying out assassinations in her name, right?”
“You were an assassin?”
“What exactly did you do in Shadow Company?”
“Does everyone know about my past?”
“Everyone who matters, yes.”
“My background was scrubbed, or so I was told.”
“Then humor me, what did you do?” TK asked again. “Were you the designated coffee boy?”
“No,” I said, knowing she knew what I was about to say. “I was a dead-eye in the Shadows. I handled personnel retirements…permanent ones.”
“We all have a past, Simon,” TK said, heading over to the main temple. “The key is to not let the past define you. I worked with Badb Catha. It was equal parts thrilling and horrific. I did it for several lifetimes. I became very good at what I did—so good, in fact, that she allowed me to leave her side…alive. Others were not as fortunate.”
“Understood,” I said with the realization that TK was even more of a badass than I had previously thought, and sat in a different dimension of fearsome than I had imagined. “That would explain her presence at Monty’s reckoning.”
“Yes, among other things,” TK said. “If I had fallen at the reckoning, she would have made sure it was the last time I fell.”
I shook my head and shuddered at the memory of Badb Catha.
“Nothing like having a homicidal support system in place.”
“It’s complicated,” TK said. “In many ways she and I are still entwined. In certain respects, I still represent her. A failing on my part reflects poorly on her. Badb doesn’t do well with failure.”
“Or bad PR, it seems.”
“She has her pride, brutally earned over millennia.”
“Any chance we can call her to deal with Evers?”
“Of course,” TK said calmly, which should have clued me in immediately to what a bad idea it was. “Unlike the Morrigan, she will require some years of service from you for her assistance.”
“How long?” I asked. “I mean, hypothetically speaking, suppose I agree to her help?”
“Nothing too extensive, just one or two cycles.”
“Cycles? What’s that? Years, decades?”
“Centuries,” TK said, her voice grim. “One or two centuries serving a living nightmare. Do you want that, or do you want to take your chance with Evers?”
“I’ll take my chances with Evers, thanks.”
“Good choice, because you will be the one facing her.”
“Excuse…excuse me?” I asked in mild shock. “I could’ve sworn I heard you say that I was facing Evers. What will you be doing? Cheering me on?”
She gave me a glare and I dialed it back immediately. Skating on thin ice is only fun until the ice breaks. Then you’re drowning in the dark frozen water. That look was the ice cracking.
“I’m a creative mage,” TK answered. “What is Talin?”
“He’s a negomancer…Oh. That makes sense. Me facing Evers doesn’t make any kind of sense though, unless it’s nonsense.”
“Evers is a chronomancer, and you’re an immortal,” TK pointed out. “She will try to kill you how?”
“With extreme prejudice?”
For a brief second, I could sense she wanted to thwack me. I saw her take a slow breath and let it out.
“What method will she use?”
“Chronomancy? I’m guessing?”
“Her chronomancy works by accelerating the age of anything it impacts.”
For a moment, I wanted to ask her how she knew all of this, and then I remembered who I was speaking to. She probably had files on every serious mage on the planet.
“Roxanne said under no circumstances should I get hit by Evers’ orbs of death.”
“Normally, she would be right. Evers casts instances of frozen time, and then accelerates whatever is caught in the instance.”
“I’m guessing that this isn’t a normal situation?”
“You aren’t facing her the same way you did on the skywalk,” TK clarified. “Kali marked you and corrected your tangled mess of bonds. More importantly, it looks like she made some changes I can’t figure out right now. In addition, you have that”—she pointed at the ring on my hand—“and you’re going to need it. You have one use left.”
“One? I only used it against Monty,” I said, glancing down at the softly glowing ring. “Kali told me I had three uses.”
“Dex informed me you fired a blast of pure energy at him.”
“Yes, he was trying to kill me; or at least I thought so at the time.”
“Do you find yourself firing blasts of pure energy often?”
“No, I’ve never fired a blast like that one.”
“One use left,” TK said. “Save it for Evers.”
“So, I’m immune to her ability?”
“Did I say you were?”
“No, but…”
“I said she will try and kill you with chronomancy,” TK said. “You can still be hurt by other methods. I don’t know what will happen if she decapitates you. Can you survive something that catastrophic? I don’t know. Do you?”
“Can we not find out?”
“What I want you to understand is that she will try and use her ability on you,” TK continued. “Once she sees it’s ineffective, she will resort to other, less magical methods of dispatching you. She’s dangerous and deadly, but we will try and even the battlefield, if possible.”
“You have an army of mages hiding around here somewhere?” I asked, looking around the columns inside the temple. “Because that would totally make things even.”
“There are nullifying runes in here, runes you can activate, but only as a
