Page 130 of Time's Fool

Louis-Cesare started forward, not appearing to like the sly grin on the creature’s face. But Mircea put out a hand, restraining him. “Let him finish,” he said, and turned back to the demon. “What happened after the witch’s ghost found you?”

“My life, which I had thought was over, began a new chapter. She was recently dead and full of energy. She gave me a little, despite my being too weak to take it by force, and promised more.

“She could hunt, you see? Go out and cannibalize other spirits and bring their energy back to share with me. I was so far gone that I barely realized what was happening at first. And when I began to be able to focus again, I asked her a single question: why?

“She said that she would assist me to regain my strength and eventually set me free. In return, I was to help her achieve a longed-for ambition.”

“Revenge,” I said. “Over those who had killed her.”

But the demon shook its head. “No. That is what I expected, too, but she’d had much time to think by then, as my recovery was slow. Hunting takes energy, for the spirits she encountered fought her viciously, and she only won if she was stronger. Thus, much of what strength she gained she needed for herself.

“By the time I was able to question her, she had decided that she wanted something better than revenge: a chance to rewrite history.”

“Rewrite it how?” Mircea said. But there was something in his tone, as if he already knew.

Maybe he was getting a bit from the creature, after all.

“She couldn’t perform magic in her current state,” the demon said. “And did not trust me to do so. She wished me to help her steal a body, and its magic, which she would then use to cast her spells.”

“Time spells,” Mircea said.

“Yes. They were deemed too dangerous for most people to risk, but as a spirit, she wouldn’t be risking anything. If they backfired, she would just choose another body. And another and another . . .

“But she did not have to. The first one worked, perhaps because she wasn’t trying to take back a physical body, just the two of us. Just spirits.”

“You said that she cannot do magic when outside of a body,” Louis-Cesare said harshly. “Were you lying then, or are you lying now?”

The demon hissed at him, but I intervened. “Neither. She didn’t need to take a body back, when she could just steal another in the past to do her bidding.”

The creature inclined its head.

“And you helped. You lent her the power to enthrall a magical being.”

“I did not have a choice,” it said. “She threatened to leave me in my wretched state, bound to the same prison that my old master had used if I thwarted her. And I couldn’t go back there. You have no idea what it is, to slowly die over the course of centuries, desperately hoping that someone will come to save you and yet knowing that no one will.

“My casket sat on a shelf in an old woman’s bedroom—for fifty years. And when she died, her daughter took it, and then her daughter after her. None of them were magical. None of them could see me, although I cried to them daily, begging for help. But slowly, the cries dried up. I started to accept my fate. I became resigned to it, ready for it.

“And yet still it did not come! There was no release, only torment—”

“So, she forced you to pledge yourself to her,” Mircea said, cutting the creature off. “And became your new master.”

It swallowed. “Yes.”

“And thus, she became a time-traveling ghost,” I said, still not quite able to believe it, although I’d guessed as much.

But Louis-Cesare wasn’t convinced. He had been watching the creature’s performance with a sneer, which had gradually transformed into a full scowl. And now he exploded.

“He lies! If the witch had such authority, she could order him to fight her battles for her. All this nonsense about possessing people wouldn’t be necessary. If she wanted revenge, she could order him to take it!”

“She doesn’t want revenge,” the demon said. “I told you as much—”

“Then what does she want?” I asked. “Exactly.”

“Her plan had to do with the Armada. There was a great confluence of power on the night that the storm was called, both from the Circle and the covens. But mostly the latter, as calling the elements is a fey trick.

“The Circle’s plan focused on attacking the invaders once they landed. But after the Great Mothers prevented that, they had plenty of unused power to strike the covens and eliminate their threat. But my master—”

“Intended to use the Circle’s power against them,” I guessed, but the demon shook its head.

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