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It was only a split second of darkness, but as her dagger came down to complete its swing, she felt the solid thud of stone as her body went hurtling straight into a wall.

Sound came crashing in as time restarted.

Shelves splintered, tins and boxes of old junk and scrap raining down. The dagger stuck, and Taly held fast, using it to keep herself upright as bits of metal and glass ripped her dress and sliced open her skin.

She blinked. Then whipped her head around to where Skye and the man still stood behind the counter.

They were over there now, yet somehow she was… over here?

All the way across the room.

She hadn’t phased, so…how?

The man laughed. “Sun and Moon, Time and Shadow… but I’ll admit, this part of the story is always fun. For me, at least.”

Then Aneirin’s grip tightened, fingers digging into flesh. Skye gritted his teeth as pain blazed down the bond so hard and fast that Taly’s entire world tilted with the impact.

Just a fraction of what Skye was feeling, but she gasped, clawing at the nearest solid object for balance.

Suddenly there was no air in the room. She could feel the warmth draining out of her body, feel her cellsdyingas a chill colder than death swept through her.

It tingled and cracked in her veins. Made her bloodburnlike solid ice.

Her legs gave way, and her back hit the wall as her body slumped—

Then it stopped. Like a switch had been flipped, the agony cut off.

Taly managed to suck in a breath.

On the other side of the shop, she found Skye watching her, eyes wild with pain. He’d shut the door between their minds—shut himself on the other side where he was still drowning.

The corpse chuckled softly. “Well, look at that. You’ve got some substance to you, boy. No wonder Tenebros has been salivating.” Skye choked, and Taly cried out. “You’ll forgive me if I enjoy this. I always did like breaking his toys.”

The corpse’s skin stretched taut around his knuckles as his thumb dug in deeper. Skye tried to stifle a groan, only half-succeeding.

“Shh, don’t fight it,” Aneirin crooned. “Just let go and embrace the inevitable.”

The air thickened as a stagnant wave of magic rippled through the room. Taly didn’t know what kind, only that it made her skin crawl and the firelamps sputter, the crystals inside dimming as if the power had cut out.

Skye gave a strangled cry. And then slowly, painfully, dropped to one knee.

There was no injury that she could see, no blood. But his lips were taking on a bluish cast, and the bond was stretching thin. That spot in the back of her head that now belonged to him was getting so unbearably cold, and he was shaking, trying to fight it but shaking so horribly—

The other knee gave way as a second wave of that horrible magic rolled through the shop. Taly braced herself against it—against the cold, the sheerwrongnessof it—her teeth clenched so hard her jaw ached.

Calm as ever, Aneirin stooped and pried the box from Skye’s nerveless fingers.

One more steady push was all it took to force him to the ground.

Aneirin lurched back a step, the movement clumsy—as if the corpse was stiffening. “This story doesn’t have to end the same, time mage. Just because a thing is doesn’t mean that it always was or has to be.” The shop bell jangled as he opened the door, saying over his shoulder, “Consider my offer. The clock is ticking, and it’s more than she’ll ever give you, no matter her promises.”

Then he was gone.

And with him, that stagnant cloud of magic that had sucked every drop of aether from the air lifted as the firelamps flickered back on.

Taly tasted bile. Grasping the wall of broken shelves behind her, she clawed her way back to her feet.

She could hear murmuring outside the shop. Footsteps shuffling.