I flinched. My heart beat harder at his reference to Lily.
Terian didn’t seem to notice. He clutched his hair, fear making his eyes wide as he stared at something very far away.
After another pause, he shook his head.
“Something bad, sister. Something very, very bad is here. The door stays closed. All the worlds will scream. Not just ours. Not just his.Allworlds. All of them.”
“Terry,” I said, clicking. “You’re not making sense. What are you talking about?”
Those cat-like eyes shimmered. He raised a hand to his face, pressing his index finger against his lips in a shushing gesture.
“Quiet,” he murmured. “Daddy can’t know.”
“Daddy?” My frown deepened. “Menlim, you mean?”
He nodded, his amber eyes still as glass.
“He wants Revi’.” Terian whispered the words. “He wants him so much. So much it grinds in him, like stones. He wants the child, too.” He shook his head, making negative gestures with both hands. “Youmust not let him,Alyson. He’ll be so angry. So so angry at what you do. He can’t know about the door. Hecan’tknow about that. He’ll do everything he can to close it, to lock it shut. He’ll kill Dragon…”
I frowned, trying to make sense of any of this.
I couldn’t.
“Whatdoor,Terian?” I asked.
But that only seemed to set him off again. He started muttering, but most of what he said was unintelligible, or maybe in a language I didn’t know.
“Terry!” I snapped.
He stopped. He looked at me as if he’d forgotten I was there.
“He can still change, you know,” Terian told me seriously. “Revi’. He can change. Turn, break, fall.” Terian, Feigran, or whoever he was, made a clicking motion with his fingers by his own ear. “Flick the switch,” he whispered. “Make him bad again.”
I shook my head.
“No, Terry. That’s impossible.”
“If you take him away, if you steal him for good, the stars are aligned––”
“What stars? What does any of that mean?”
“The stars! When they fall in the sky…”
His voice faltered. An even more distant expression crossed his face. His jaw grew slack as he gazed upwards at nothing.
I could only stare at him in bewilderment.
“Feigran.” I softened my voice. “Are you trying to warn me about something?”
His eyes clicked into focus.
Looking at me, he nodded. He had converted back to the hyper-serious schoolboy I remembered from when we first found him in Seertown.
“Find me, Allie,” he whispered. “Even beyond the stars, it’s not safe.” He shook his head. “Not safe for you. Not safe for the girl. Careful about Daddy.Careful.Careful, careful. Need to break the link. Need the Four for that. You can fix, but can’treallyfix. Need me for that. Need the Four. Then we can open the door. The big door. The real door. Understand?”
“No.” I frowned, incredulous. “Not in the slightest.”
Even so, I fought to think as I stared at him.