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It was the eyes that gave him away.

Taly didn’t know the woman, had never seen her before in her life. But the eyes—vacant, hollow, with the gleam of cruelty just beneath the surface, watching her from the inside out.

It was him.

Her spine went rigid. Not from panic—though it knocked once, hard—but from the heat rising in its place. A slow, coiling rage that was done with fear, done with being hunted, and ready to find its mark.

“So, is this it then? Is this you?” She tilted her head. “Forgive me if I don’t cower. The nightgown is a… choice.”

Thin, pale lips tightened into a smile. “This body may be... inelegant, but it is a tool, nothing more.”

“Ah, so we’re still taking the coward’s way out,” Taly drawled. “Still hiding behind false faces?”

Aneirin hacked a laugh. “Says the pureblooded princess masquerading as a human playing the role of our fair Lady Sun. Not that I’m judging, of course.

” He held up hands riddled with marks. “You gave an excellent performance tonight— though , and this is just a small note… the solar flare I knew and loved would’ve taken the poor bastard’s cock.

And his balls,” he added with a slice of a smile.

“Cut both down to the root and then danced naked in the light of her beloved Moon. She was a bloodthirsty little thing, but that part so often gets lost between the pages. Along with all the racy bits.”

Through the noise of his ramblings, one detail stood out.

Skye beat her to it. “You were at the town hall.”

Taly didn’t waste time on shock. Of course, he was there. He was everywhere , haunting every shadow, always watching, always near

Aneirin’s borrowed eyes flicked to Skye, narrowing.

“Of course, it would be a shadow mage playing the protector. Should’ve seen that one coming.

Sun and Moon, Time and Shadow, and it’s always the same tired story.

Two beautiful idiots fucking shit up for the rest of us.

Always expecting someone else to pick up the slack because, big surprise, love doesn’t preclude the necessity of solar cycles.

The same way it doesn’t dissolve the bonds of marriage, but that never gets mentioned, now does it? ”

Aneirin braced himself on the counter, his breath hitching as he tried to straighten.

The marks crawled higher with every strained movement.

“Not that I would expect you, oh fair Lady Sun, to understand personal responsibility. I’ve given you how many weeks now to come to your senses?

Absolutely plumbed the depths of my treasure vaults without so much as a thank you note.

You could’ve already sent these people back to their piddling little lives, but no. What do you do instead? Hmm?”

A fist crashed down, shaking the counter, a spiderweb of cracks splintering the glass beneath it. “You cured my Curse! That’s what you bloody did!”

The woman swayed. “Tell me,” he rasped, black frothing at her lips, “in all your heroing, did you ever stop to consider just how many earth mages I had to interview to find even one with the necessary skills for Curse-weaving?” He waited. “A lot. It was a lot .”

Taly glanced at Skye. His face said what she was already thinking.

The riftway keys—Cori had left them here. Why was anyone’s guess. And while Taly still hadn’t made peace with her future self’s taste in names, she could take a hint.

They needed those keys. Whatever else happened, whatever the cost, Bill couldn’t be allowed to leave with that box.

Placing a hand flat against his back, aether and blood mixed to form shadows in Skye’s palm.

“You’re trying to distract us,” Taly said.

“I’m trying to understand you,” Aneirin countered. “I made you a perfectly reasonable offer. Tried to be amicable. Why do you care if I kill some humans on Earth if you and yours are safe?”

“Because even if I did trust you, wrong is wrong.”

“ There .” Aneirin stabbed a finger at her. “I would almost find it funny if I weren’t so perplexed—I don’t remember your kind being burdened with such a strong moralizing impulse that it completely overshadows common sense.”

His gaze slid to Skye. “Maybe you’ll be more reasonable. You want to keep her alive?” A jerk of his head at Taly. “I can help you with that. In fact, I can guarantee her safety. All you have to do is throw her over your shoulder and come with me now. We could have this mess sorted by morning.”

Skye moved to block the aisle, green eyes simmering.

“I see.” Aneirin shook his head, muttering, “Sun and Moon, Time and Shadow, and never a lick of sense between them.”

He dragged the box off the counter, holding onto the handle as it dropped. The contents rattled. His entire body swayed with the momentum.

“This is not how I imagined this night going.” The shopkeeper’s eyes were almost completely black now.

“Quick, clean, quiet. But I can see that’s not going to happen.

No, this is about to get messy, and I’ll have to do things— kill people— I wouldn’t have otherwise needed to kill.

For all your talk of the sanctity of life, time mage, you exercise very little regard for it. ”

He pointed a damning finger at Taly. “I hope you’ve been counting. I hope you’ve been tallying up every life that could’ve been spared if you’d just come with me that day in the forest. You could’ve been a hero, Taly, but instead, you’ve doomed them. And when the screams start, I hope—”

With a flick of his wrist, Skye sent the shadows surging forward, snapping through the air like a whip of pure darkness.

The box was in Aneirin’s hands. Then it wasn’t.

It ripped free and landed squarely in Skye’s grasp.

Aneirin froze, eyes widening in shock before they narrowed, fury coiling behind them.

Skye met the look head-on, gave the box a little shake, and smirked. “Mine now.”

One second, one flicker of blind animal rage registered on the woman’s features—then she crumpled.

Taly was beside her before Skye could pull her back. She placed two fingers on the woman’s neck just in time to feel her heart stutter through its last beat.

Silence fell inside the shop, broken only by the tick-tock-tick of the clock on the wall.

Taly murmured, “Something doesn’t feel right.” Her eyes flicked back and forth the way they always did when she was looking for premonitions.

“This does feel a little… anticlimactic,” Skye said into the stillness.

The air felt heavy, edged with tension—a quiet waiting for what came next.

They shared a look.

Taly opened her mouth. “I—”

Then a blast of cold air rushed in from the alley outside. Skye registered—exactly half a heartbeat too late—that he hadn’t heard the shop door open.

A hand slid across his shoulder.

“Oh, don’t worry, brother Moon,” hissed the man they’d left dead in the alley. “We’re just getting started.”

And then Skye’s entire world lit up with pain.