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“Watched it fall all over again?”she asked archly.She looked at me.“Tony did as my mother instructed, and joined Rasputin’s rebellion.I believe that Mage Pritkin is right and that the Pythian power wanted him to survive so that he could be useful now.And the only way to do that was to have him join the dark.

“But while he served them ably, they did not reward him as he expected.I also do not think he anticipated this,” she gestured vaguely at the destruction.“Or how little respect he receives now—”

“I’m a court jester!”Tony interrupted.So much for not saying anything else.“They keep me around to laugh at!No chance at advancement, money, influence, power—no nothing.Just an eternity of this until chicky poo here dies and they don’t need me anymore, then it’ll probably be lights out.Unless I off myself before then ‘cause I can’t take it anymore!”

“Trust me, you won’t make it that long,” Alphonse said.

“And you think I care?”Tony snarled, although he clearly did.“This wasn’t the deal!”

“The gods change the deal as it suits them,” Mircea said.“As you once did to those over whom you had power.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me all this?”I demanded.“Instead of shifting us all with no notice and almost getting us killed?”

“Why, you know that never occurred to me,” he said, sarcastically wide-eyed despite still being on the floor.“Sure, I been risking my ass for nothing, when I shoulda just talked to you.I’m sure you woulda been fine if I just waltzed up at that party the fey were throwing, and we’d had a nice, long conversation—before you blasted me out of existence!I wouldn’t have gotten three words out, and you know it!”

And, okay, couldn’t really argue there.

“Plus, you were hanging around this jackass,” he hiked a thumb at Alphonse, “and then you went missing and—I grabbed you as soon as you showed up and weren’t with him, okay?Only he threw himself at you at the last minute and got caught in the backwash.And I guess your Mom was about outta juice, ‘cause she dropped you in the right year but the wrong place, while I ended up back here.”

“He was supposed to bring you to me, but there were too many people around you when the shift happened, and it drained your mother too badly,” Rhea said.“She is still recovering—”

“So we didn’t know if you made it or not,” Tony added.

“Grabbed us, why?”That was Pritkin, ignoring yet another round ofscream, clunk, augghhhfrom the scholar and the gods, which was almost becoming normal background noise at this point.“Why did you send him back?”he asked Rhea.

“To stop you.”

“From losing the contest?”I asked.

“No.From winning it.”

Chapter Thirty-Nine

What?”I said brilliantly.

“That’s what I have to explain,” Rhea began, only to have Mircea stop her with a gesture.

“Did you see that?”he asked sharply.

“See what?”Pritkin replied because he’d caught the same undertone I had.Not fear exactly, because Mircea didn’t show much of that, even here.But the sudden hypervigilance of a predator who senses a greater one.

And this one was looking out of the door, where the horde of gods had just disappeared again.“The last time they came for us, they were closer,” he said tightly.

After a stunned silence, there was a sudden rush of commentary from almost everyone, all talking over each other.Enid leaped back to her feet, Æsubrand tucked her close and pulled his pike, and the witches’ wands suddenly appeared out of their little knot like a porcupine bristling its quills.Only Rhea seemed calm and unbothered.

“That’s not possible,” she assured him.“This room is on a time loop.”

“Maybe, but I thought the same thing earlier,” I said, a chill running down my spine.“I told myself I was imagining it.”

“You weren’t.”Mircea’s voice was abrupt, the way it never was because he was a diplomat.One who didn’t want to get eaten, presumably, because he pointed at the entrance to the hall, visible a little way beyond the door.“The first time they tried to come in here, they were several yards short of that.The time before this, when I first noticed something wrong, they were feet away.This time, they were past the doorframe.”

“But that’s notpossible!” Rhea said again, suddenly looking panicked.

“It’s possible,” I said.“The gods don’t have our limitations—”

“But they can’ttime travel!”

“Can’t they?We don’t know what abilities they have—”