Chapter 50 Baz
BAZ WOKE TO THE STEADY sound of rain and the feel of a body pressed close to his.
Everything was faintly blurry without his glasses, but Kai’s face was close enough to his own that it stood out in stark relief.
Kai hadn’t opened his eyes yet, his features peaceful in sleep.
Baz studied him openly, every line of him familiar yet tinged with a newness seen this close.
Baz breathed him in, the smell of his freshly washed hair and that midnight scent wrapping around him like a blanket.
The actual blanket they shared was tangled around their intertwined limbs.
Heat crept up Baz’s neck as he suddenly recalled, in vivid detail, the kissing that had led to such entanglement.
Slow and languorous. Making up for lost time before sleep inevitably won.
And while that was all they’d done—sleep—the intimacy of it still struck Baz.
They were sharing a bed—had been for days now.
Sleeping in each other’s arms, something he had feared they would never get to do.
After they’d returned to the safe house a few days ago, carried here on the back of a dragon named Gwenhael—an actual dragon!
—their group had spent hours going over what the plan was to rescue their friends from the Institute.
By the time they’d all gone to bed, exhausted from what felt like a never-ending night, it was well into the morning hours.
Baz had led Kai to his room, and alone at last, they lay in the dark, talking until there was nothing left to say, then kissing if only to keep sleep at bay, to bask in each other’s presence a while longer.
They had done the same every night since.
Gently, Baz brushed a dark strand of hair from Kai’s brow.
He wished they could stay here forever, but he could hear voices downstairs, the clang of activity, and a thrum of nervous energy he could feel creeping along the floorboards and invading the safe bubble that had enveloped this room for a moment.
The world was falling apart at the seams, and here he was contemplating the merits of stopping time so he could exist with Kai outside of it.
“It’s way too early for whatever you’re worrying about.”
Kai kept his eyes closed as he sleepily muttered the words.
Baz’s heart hitched, his fingers freezing where they’d still been toying with that supple strand of hair.
Kai angled his mouth to press a kiss on the inside of Baz’s palm, sending a delighted shiver up his spine as his eyes finally opened, dark and heavy with sleep.
“Hi,” Baz whispered.
“Hi.”
“You know it’s actually well past noon, right?”
Kai grumbled in response, nestling in closer to Baz. “I don’t care.”
Baz couldn’t say he cared very much either as Kai kissed his neck.
But the voices downstairs grew suddenly louder, pulling them both out of their haze.
There was a jailbreak to keep planning, and with Kai’s recent sleepscape encounter with Romie—the thought of her fighting against Atheia’s hold brought Baz so much hope—they were closer than ever.
Kai heaved a sigh and sat up in bed, pressing his palms against his eyes. “All right,” he said. “What’s on your mind?”
Baz stayed quiet awhile, not wanting to let the peace of this moment come to an end.
“I keep coming back to what Equilibris said about Emory not being strong enough to stop Clover,” he said at last. “His exact words were, ‘Your Tidecaller will never have the kind of power Clover imbibed.’ Meaning the keys, right?”
“Or the gods,” Kai said. “Hell, maybe even the souls of the dead.”
“Maybe. But it all started with Clover imbibing the keys. It’s like he shed a piece of his humanity with each one he consumed.
If we forced his humanity back onto him, so to speak, it might allow us to take away his godhood, his monstrosity.
And if he were just a man again, we could defeat him for good. ”
“What are you saying, Brysden?”
“You heard Equilibris. As the last Tidecaller, Emory is the only thing stopping him from resetting the worlds. But if she can defeat Clover, then there would be no need to reset anything. All this madness would end, and everything would go back to normal. But she needs the kind of power that could rival Clover’s.
I think that power lies with the original keys. ”
“But they’re dead. I saw the bastard kill one of them right in front of me.” Realization seemed to dawn on Kai’s face as his eyes landed on the pocket watch sitting on the bedside table. “You want to turn back time.”
“Yes.”
“And what, bring them all back to life just so Emory can kill them, too?”
“No, of course not!” Baz exclaimed. “That’s not—I don’t think that would be necessary. And you know I won’t mess with death. Ever.”
“You pulled me out of hell.”
“You weren’t dead.”
“Technically speaking.”
“Look,” Baz said with a sigh, reaching for the pocket watch.
He ran his fingers over the familiar grooves of its surface.
“I’ve tried to change the past before, and it did absolutely nothing.
Then I broke fate so the worlds wouldn’t have to be reset, just for Equilibris to keep threatening to do just that. ”
“Asshole,” muttered Kai.
“That, he is,” Baz agreed. But at least Equilibris was unmoored, he thought.
As adrift as everyone else now that fate was shattered.
The worlds being reset didn’t have to be the fate they were barreling toward; Baz could feel it, the sheer possibility in the air, all the different outcomes that could now become reality.
“Ever since I broke fate,” Baz said, “my power has grown. Almost like it’s not bound by the same constraints as before.
I think I can travel to the past and breathe life into the keys again, so to speak.
Not keys as in people—but the pieces of them that held magic. The bone and the heart and the soul.”
“No blood?”
“Clover never imbibed the blood, did he? Luce is at the Institute. Which means that maybe Clover’s at a disadvantage.
He never completely absorbed Atheia’s power, never made himself as limitless as he wanted to.
But if Emory were to wield all four of these pieces—make herself master of keys, in a way—then I think she might stand a fighting chance against him. ”
He could tell Kai was skeptical about it; knew how wild a theory it was. But his gut had told him to break the hourglass. His gut had him swiping the pocket watch from the god’s workshop. And his gut was telling him this was the path he needed to take now.
It wasn’t just the god’s offhand comment about Emory.
When Baz thought of it, it was almost like Equilibris had been leaving crumbs for him to follow.
The sketch of fate’s core he’d let Baz see.
The teacup he’d shattered, which had then given Baz the idea to break the hourglass of fate.
Impossible that this was on purpose, given where Equilibris stood in all of this.
Unless he never thought Baz would pick up on these crumbs to begin with.
A god who never imagined he might be outsmarted by a human.
Or a god who knew exactly what he was doing, for a purpose Baz couldn’t yet see.
Regardless, it was a risk he had to take.
After all, he was the lungs, able to breathe in time and breathe out stories—and stories were a form of life, weren’t they?
They were creation. So he would breathe life into these keys again.
Gather them all to him and pray they would serve Emory well when it mattered most.
A stab of guilt went through him at the thought that he wouldn’t play a part in Emory’s rescue. But if there was anyone he trusted to break her and everyone else out of the Institute, it was Kai.
As if reading his thoughts, Kai said, “You plan on doing this now.”
“Yes.”
“Why not wait until we come back from the Institute? None of this will matter if we don’t get Emory out.”
“I don’t know how long it’s going to take me, and, ironically, given my powers, we don’t really have the luxury of time, do we?”
Kai’s throat moved as he swallowed, as if fighting to find the right words. “I don’t want to lose you again,” he whispered at last.
“You won’t.” Baz cupped his cheek. “Besides, I think what we’ve gone through proves we’ll always find each other, don’t you think? Nothing can keep us apart, not hell, not time, not gods.”
“I’m going to hold you to that promise, Brysden.”
“Good.”
They sealed it with a kiss.
When Baz told a select few people of his decision—namely his parents, Professor Selandyn, and Jae—the latter, who’d been wearing the same clothes they’d slept in, disappeared for a moment before coming back fully dressed and carrying a bag full of books and journals.
“What?” Jae said at the quizzical looks they all shot them. “If you’re going back in time to live through the events of Song of the Drowned Gods and find the original keys, I’m obviously coming with you. Call it academic research.”
“What about the Institute?”
So much of the plan hinged on Jae’s Illusion magic. But Jae only waved Baz’s concern off. “Rusli is more than able to handle that. Besides, you’re hilarious if you think any of us will let you go alone.”
“Jae’s right, Basil,” Theodore said. “It’s not that we don’t trust you, but with so much uncertainty, it’s best to have help.”
“I would offer to come with,” Selandyn said from where she sat, fiddling with her cane, “but I’m an old woman with unforgiving bones who wouldn’t want to slow you down.”
“Beatrix,” Jae said, “you can’t be serious. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. A scholar’s dream!”
“Those books have always been your dream. Besides, someone needs to document what’s going on here.
This combining of worlds… the potential to converse with people from all over, write their stories down…
That’s my calling. I am, after all, an Omnilinguist.” She winked at Baz.
“Take note of everything you see for me, though, will you?”
For a second, Baz was transported back to Aldryn, to simpler days where he helped Professor Selandyn with her research. He’d come a long way from running mundane errands for her; it felt like she was finally letting her fledgling soar on his own.
Jae rubbed their hands together excitedly. “So how about it?”
Baz couldn’t help but smile at Jae’s enthusiasm. He felt the same way, excitement thrumming at his fingertips at the thought of what they were about to do.
“Whenever you’re ready,” Baz said, holding out the pocket watch that would take them to the location and time of their choosing—which Baz hoped extended to any world.
“Oh, I’m ready. I’ve been ready since the moment I first opened that book.” Jae clasped Baz’s shoulder. “Let’s reclaim this adventure and make the story our own.”