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“What?”I looked at him, feeling betrayed.And confused because he knew damned well that Jonas’s plan wouldn’t work.Not if he sacrificed every mage on the planet!“It’sfifty years—”

“Yes, which means that the Pythian spells are out of the question,” he agreed.“But Jonas hasn’t been using Pythian magic—”

“No, and how many times has that worked for him?”

“You’re not him.”

“What are you saying?”

“That your father was part of the Guild or claimed to be.And his spellworked.We know that, or you wouldn’t be here today.I don’t know whether he found some of the old grimoires or not, but he successfully traveled back in time to meet your mother—”

“What?”Æsubrand said.

“—and hedidchange time.You’re living proof of that.”

“That was him, not me!”I snapped.“I don’t have those books, and even if I did—”

“You are literally a child of time,” Æsubrand said, sounding awed more than angry for a change.“You are perfect for this!”

“—I wouldn’t be any more proficient with that kind of magic than anyone else.He gotlucky—”

“And perhaps you will as well,” Pritkin said grimly.“It is worth at least considering.”

“You agree with Jonas!”

“Yes!”Æsubrand said.“Yes, finally, someone sees sense!”

“Hoss, I’d back off if I were you,” Alphonse told him.

“I don’t agree or disagree,” Pritkin said, a muscle jumping in his jaw.“I merely think it is worth considering.I don’t like this any better than you do, but if Jonas’s plan has a better chance of success—”

“I’ve considered it.The answer’s no.”

“You don’t get to make that decision!”That, of course, was Æsubrand.

“Then you have another idea?”Pritkin asked me.

I glanced around.We had everybody’s full attention, with the whole group poking their heads in the door or already in the room.“I don’t want to discuss this now.”

“I think you damned well better discuss it!”Æsubrand snarled.“This concerns all of us!”

“Seriously, my dude,” Alphonse told him.“Back away.”

“You back away!”

“Your funeral,” the big man shrugged.

I glared at Pritkin because I did not want to do this in a roomful of people.“Mircea,” I said and said no more.

“Ah.”

“And what does that mean?”Æsubrand demanded.

I answered him only because everyone else was going to be asking next.“There’s more than one way to generate power.”

“Therewas,” Pritkin said.“I...am not fully myself at the moment.The bond between the three of us was weakened when I performed Chimera, and my other half broke away.That may be why we can no longer borrow his power or hear him from here.We’re too far away—”

“Then he must still be in the vicinity of Vegas,” I said.“Because it worked there—”