She and the warrior leaned over their timestones. Tears shone from her cheeks, as brightly as Jake’s. “Tell your sister I love her.… I miss her.…”

Her words dissolved into a choked sob.

Jake realized that he’d never had a chance to tell her about Kady, but what could he say that wouldn’t terrify her? Was Kady still a statue? Had the resuscitation spell spread all the way to Ka-Tor? As he struggled to find the words to explain—with his eyes locked upon his mother—the Egyptian swordsman tugged out the emerald crystal, and the mirror went dark.

Jake leaned his forehead against the mirror, his shoulders shaking. “No …”

Marika and Bach’uuk rushed forward, catching him as he slid down the metal surface into a sobbing heap. They held him, Marika’s cheek against his. Even the wisling slithered to gently flick its tongue against his earlobe.

“How touching …” a voice said from behind them.

Jake rolled around, jerking to his feet.

Kree strode into the room, his forehead blazing with fire. Black-robed priests poured in behind him. Only now did Jake realize that the sounds of battle had died outside the pyramid. Confirming this, a final triumphant screech of the Skull King’s mount announced the end of the centuries-old battle.

And Jake and his friends had lost.

32

TIME AND SPACE

Still shaken by seeing his mother, Jake stumbled forward as fury ignited his blood. He snatched the closest crystal, the icy blue sapphire, from its bronze cup, triggering a snapping spark of energy that stung all the way up his arm. The wisling twitched in surprise and leaped from his neck with an irritated hiss—then vanished in midair.

Jake couldn’t blame the wisling. If he could do the same, he would.

Instead he stepped out of the triangle and raised the timestone threateningly. Overhead, a grinding moan rose from the giant crystal sphere.

“Stay back!” he yelled.

The priests of Ka ignored him and came stalking forward, bearing swords.

“Stop!” the thing inside Kree ordered.

As if yanked by a chain, the line of black robes halted. Kree broke through them and strode forth.

Jake waved a hand to his friends. “Reverse the stones,” he hissed under his breath, his fingers clenched around his crystal. “Hurry!”

Marika and Bach’uuk dashed forward. They each grabbed one of the timestones. He heard pops of sizzling energy as the mechanism was dismantled. Above Jake’s head, the massive crystal heart grew dimmer, thickening the shadows in the room—which only made the black flames above Kree’s brows flicker brighter.

“Such foolishness …” the Skull King said, his voice scraping out of Kree.

Behind him, Marika and Bach’uuk shifted their stones to the next corners, moving clockwise. They shoved the crystals toward the cups, but again a force resisted them. Marika let out a gasp, fighting her stone. Bach’uuk grunted in frustration.

Above the archway, the crystal heart responded as if shocked by a defibrillator. It jolted and spat out bolts of lightning. The three layers spun wildly, grating against one another, sounding like fingernails on a chalkboard.