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“If this is truly a memory then Seeyr must know the truth about you, Caemorn, but she’s mentioned nothing,” Christian pointed out.

“And she wouldn’t lie about stuff like that to Daemon and Balthazar!” Julian added.

“You are not wrong about that or her. All shall be explained,” Caemorn said.

“Daemon cannot want this War. Cannot want what my slices intend to do in the end. So…” Kaly let that word hang.

“Everything that is happening now had to happen,” Seeyr replied with a dry smile.

“Maybe Kaly is immune to the idea of death, but I am not! Daemon would not want me to die! He needs me by his side! He loves me!” Eyros shook his head.

“Indeed, he does, Eyros. And you will be by his side once more. Just not as you are now,” Seeyr explained patiently.

Julian thought of how naturally Daemon and Balthazar had become close. Even Balthazar’s thorns had only drawn Daemon closer to him out of sympathy rather than thrusting him away.

“Beyond dying, there is another thing that neither of you will like, but must happen to accomplish Daemon’s favored outcome,” she continued.

Eyros’ silver eyes narrowed. “What?”

“The only way that this works properly in the end is for you two to become friends,” she answered.

There was a beat of silence.

“Then we are doomed,” Kaly stated simply.

“No, for there are others who will help you see the way.” Seeyr turned her head and Julian swore she was looking at him.

“Does she see us?” Julian asked.

Caemorn opened his mouth but then just shrugged. “She sees the future, Julian. We are in the future. She could know that this is happening..”

Seeyr turned back to Eyros and Kaly, who were glancing in the direction she had been, and frowning, likely because they didn’t see anything or sense anyone.

“Kaly, you must explain exactly how this splitting of your soul was accomplished and how to bring yourself back together. Explain it as if you were speaking to your future self right now,” she told them.

Julian’s eyes widened. “She’s having Kaly tell us so we can tell him. Tell Caemorn when we get back.”

“Yes, we have to remember all of this, Julian.” Christian took out his phone and opened the recording app.

“Christian, we are not really here,” Caemorn reminded him. “There is no phone in your hand, let alone one that could record this.”

“Ah, okay, but maybe imagining it will make me remember everything better,” Christian said and hit record anyway.

“You will remember,” Caemorn assured him.

They listened to Kaly’s very precise explanation. Julian and Christian repeated it to one another. The phone recorded. When they reached the end, silence fell again. Eyros, as was his wont, ended it.

“Now what?!” Eyros asked. “Is Kaly just going to take my soul now? Get this Second Death over with?”

“No, I’m afraid not. You will have to go on, Eyros, for some time. The last of us who were still fighting to fall. And,” here, she paused, “you will not even remember this meeting or our future to comfort yourself with. At least… at least, not for some time.”

“The only way I am not going to remember something is if I seal my own memory away from myself and I have no intention to do that–”

“You need to, Eyros. Youmust. For Daemon,” Seeyr interrupted him.

Eyros shook his head and started to pace. “I cannot believe you! To use him against me like this!”

“I’m not using Daemon against you. I am merely telling you thetruth. In order for Daemon’s best future to come into being, you must remove not only your own memory of this meeting and the future, but Kaly’s and mine as well,” she insisted.