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It was kind of hard to tell as it was looking the worse for wear.

That wasn’t too shocking since the last time I’d seen it, it had been carrying a furious Zeus off on a trip through time, including a visit to every major disaster, metaphysical or otherwise, in the last four centuries.The idea had been to kill him, which hadn’t worked, but it must have been a hell of a ride.When the remains of my library finally came to rest in the Vegas desert, he ran off into Faerie without so much as a peep, instead of coming after me or my court.

Of course, that had been the tiny rump of a god that was the only thing left of the All-Father in my time.Zeus had ripped off part of his soul to possess a demon lord, allowing him to follow her into the Hells on one of her hunting expeditions.He had become suspicious about what she was doing with the power she was taking from all those demon lords, but didn’t want to accuse her until he found evidence, hence the disguise.

And hence his survival when she went on her rampage and killed the rest of him, along with a number of other gods, before banishing those who remained.That small piece had endured, but small or not, it had still been too much for me to overcome.Even with the sacrifice of my library, which had been spelled to move about as the Pythian Court did.

Or it had been.It looked like a burned-out mess now, with the big rotunda where Zeus had been briefly held prisoner now destroyed, its ceiling collapsed, the priceless treasures it had once held unrecognizable trash, and the busted columns and wonky walls looking likely to collapse on us at any moment.But I hoped not, because Rhea was already leading the way across it.

“Hurry!”she said unnecessarily, because it sounded like the gods had just broken through.“In here!”

We ran across the ruined mess and inside one of the oddest features of the library, the series of rooms that were the repositories of each Pythia’s personal papers.There was a main library for general reference, or there had been, but every Pythia also decorated a personal space to hold the records of her reign.And to ensure that said records never decayed, a time loop was placed on each of them, repeating the same short period over and over, forever.

I had been in a handful of them with Rhea once, and they reflected the taste and temperament of their Pythia.Most were quite comfy, with plush places to sit and read, lovely surroundings, and occasionally refreshments.The snacks replenished themselves every time the loop began again, so the tea was always hot, and the pastries were always fresh and unbitten, no matter how many Pythias had been noshing on them through the years.

This was not one of those rooms.

Instead, we ran inside a small, cramped space with rough stone walls, a shelf full of scrolls, and a single oil lamp swinging on a chain overhead.And a scribe from the old temple at Delphi, getting a scroll off a shelf and then turning, his eyes widening in shock as our motley crew muscled in.And then he started to scream bloody murder and to whack people with the rounded wooden end of the scroll, but almost nobody noticed because we were too busy noticing something worse.

Namely, the crew of gods that had just appeared in the doorway on the other side of the atrium.And who immediately started toward us, boiling across the ash-covered floor fast enough to kick up black dust everywhere.Only to almost reach us before we could even react, while Topknot was cursing, Billy was yelling, and Alphonse was trying to pop Tony’s head off, because he was damned if he was going to die first.

And then the furious mass vanished, between one blink and the next, just blipping out of existence.

“What the—”

“Is this a trick?”

“Are they in the Paths again?”

“Will somebody get this oafoff of me?”

That last was Tony, who managed to shove Alphonse away while I was noticing something interesting.The clouds of black soot were no longer billowing, but lying in heaps on the floor as quiet and unbroken as they’d been when we arrived, without even our footprints to disturb them.Likewise, the remains of the once pristine museum cases holding the many valuable gifts given to Pythias over the centuries were not crushed underfoot, but lay in heaps where they’d been when we’d crossed between them.

And then I remembered what was different about this particular room.

“We’re back in time,” I said.

“Whaddya mean, back in time?She said the power don’t work!”Alphonse snarled, looking at Rhea.

“It doesn’t, but the spell on this room does.”

“What spell?”

Rhea started explaining how the room worked, and I realized what she’d done.My God, she’d just bought us all the time in the world.Or all the time until we starved to death, but still.

I’d take it.

“This particular archive had something go wrong with the time loop,” she finished.“No one knows why, but instead of providing several hours for a Pythia or her acolytes to consult the manuscripts as all the others do before looping, this one starts over every few minutes.”

“But the gods weren’t in here.They were outside the room,” Mircea said, his forehead wrinkling.That was unusual for him, as he was normally lightningly quick.But time travel tended to be hard for everybody.

“Yes, and they still are,” I said.“But the time loop on the room started over, taking us along with it.They didn’t move, we did—to the beginning of the loop.And a few minutes ago, they weren’t here yet.”

Rhea nodded.“They’ll show up again near the end, but for now, they are still hunting for you through the hotel.But the loop will almost be finished when they find you.”

“And will then start over again before they can reach us?”Mircea asked a little sharply.

Because yeah, that had been close.