“Idiots! You could have been killed!” Caelan snarled.
“Your Majesty, I’m sorry. I panicked,” Rayne choked out. Eno wrapped an arm around Rayne’s waist, squeezing him while Caelan continued to cling to both of them.
“Shove it, Rayne,” the king snapped.
“Cael,” the advisor whispered a little brokenly, and Eno could feel Caelan relax.
“You need to be more careful,” Caelan admonished. He lifted his head and took a moment to glare at each of them. “It’s enough that Drayce needs saving from his impulsiveness. I can’t handle needing to save you too. Not right now. Maybe in Ilon, okay?”
“Okay. We’ll stay out of trouble until Ilon,” Eno easily agreed, earning himself a snort from Caelan.
“Izumi? Did you find Izumi?” Mio asked.
Eno released Caelan and turned toward the woman who was being restrained by Adrian near the front door. Her face was pale and streaked with tears. There was a weight to her voice, as if she already knew what Eno was going to say.
“I’m sorry, Mio. It looks like Izumi’s house was hit first. They were all dead when we went in.”
She nodded stiffly and stepped away from Adrian, returning to the interior of the house. The other guard crossed to where they were standing in the middle of the burned yard, glowering at the corpse in the street.
“What did you do to the dragon?” Adrian inquired before Eno had the chance.
Caelan stepped forward and then stopped to stare at his hand. There was no mark left behind by the magic, he’d performed but there was something lost about his gaze. “I made a bargain with the God of Time. I stole all of the dragon’s time.” Caelan lifted his eyes to the body and sighed. “He was young. He had a lot of time ahead of him, but now it belongs to Nyx…and me.”
A chill ran through Eno, reaching straight down to the marrow of his bones. He watched the young man he thought he’d known, unable to comprehend what he’d heard. Caelan could steal time now? He could take a life that easily. Almost in the blink of an eye.
Exactly how powerful had Caelan Talos become?
THIRTEEN
Caelan Talos
The world was a blur for the next few hours as officials from the Chasm as well as the various clans marched around the neighborhood and through Mio’s house. They asked questions and collected the dead body of the would-be assassin from Mio’s bedroom. Caelan remained locked up in his bedroom, watching the people hurrying from one place to the next as the sun peeked above the mountains, announcing the start of another day.
Mio, Eno, and Rayne ran interference, making sure no one was allowed access to Caelan, while Adrian sat on the floor with his back to the door, blocking anyone who attempted to enter the bedroom. The guard alternated between staring off into space and dozing.
Exhaustion nibbled at Caelan’s brain, but his body was far too wired with nervous energy to consider resting. Not that the God of Time would have allowed him to rest. Hours later, Nyx was still crowing his triumph.
He couldn’t help reliving every second in vivid detail. Every time Caelan closed his eyes, he could see the sapphire dragon landing heavily in the street and targeting the house with his fire. The shield had stopped him with ease, but Caelan had prayed to all the gods that Eno and Rayne would remain inside Izumi’s house and out of sight.
But they hadn’t.
He could almost hear Tula snickering at him. He’d stopped her from controlling Rayne’s mind in Zastrad, and the goddess was still looking for ways to punish him.
Rayne and Eno had drawn the attention of the dragon, becoming easy prey for the beast.
Then time had slowed until he could step between the seconds and push them apart, holding time suspended indefinitely.
The dragon’s mouth hung open, the fire building. Rayne and Eno stood in the middle of the yard, clinging to each other as they waited for death. He was going to lose two more people he loved, two people he saw as his family.
You have only one shot at saving them, Nyx purred in his ear. Take it. Take all the dragon’s time.
Caelan’s eyes darted over to the dragon to see its massive form wrapped over and over in a gold chain, stretching from neck to tail. The dragon had centuries of time ahead of it.
Leave it alive and it’ll kill your friends. It will keep on killing, taking scores of innocent lives. It will never stop.
Caelan didn’t know if Nyx was lying to him. The God of Time could be manipulating him to merely get what he wanted at last. Caelan had stopped listening after he’d mentioned the death of his friends.
Digging deep, he tapped straight into the power of the God of Time and sent it screaming across the distance to wrap in the gold chains, coating them in a misty black smoke. He reached out with both hands, grabbed at the chains, and wrenched his hands apart. The golden links broke and bounced, turning purple as they hit the ground.