“I will find you … I will make you scream …”

Then the tattoo faded from Kree’s forehead, his skin reverting to a time before the symbol had been tattooed on, breaking its link with the Skull King. Kree’s eyes grew wide as he slammed back into his own body. His gaze found Jake’s, full of dismay and terror. He screamed, covering his face, as his limbs grew shorter, his features smaller. In seconds, he swam within his own robe, paddling like someone drowning.

And maybe he was: drowning in a river of time.

His boyish cry gave way to a baby’s wail.

Jake lifted his stone from the floor and stood up.

More wails joined Kree in a chorus. All across the floor, mewling naked babies rested in beds of black robes.

Jake turned, fearing for Marika and Bach’uuk. But as he had planned, both of his friends had their hands locked atop their respective crystals. Earlier, the emerald had protected him from the ruby’s spell, and the stones had done the same now for his friends.

Overhead, the giant crystal sphere continued to crackle with lightning and churn wildly. The three spheres looked close to breaking apart and shattering into the room.

Jake didn’t have much time.

He rushed to the triangle, dropped to both knees, and shoved the fist-sized sapphire timestone into the third and final cup. It took a huge effort. The three friends fought together. Their combined will and strength slowly wore down the force resisting them. Millimeter by millimeter, each of their stones sank toward the bronze receptacles.

Then finally, the resistance gave out, as if the force surrendered. Jake’s crystal snapped from his fingers and clanged into place, echoed twice more from the other two corners of the triangles.

But a fourth was still to come.

A deafening clang, like a hammer shattering a crystal gong, coming from above, shook the room. Jake’s hair whooshed straight up, dancing on end. The same fate befell Marika and Bach’uuk.

Jake sat back, looking up—as crackles of blue fire poured from the crystal heart and filled the dome above.

“Get out!” he yelled, and began crab-crawling away, still staring up.

But he was too slow.

The fire swirled across the roof and got sucked back into the crystal. The sphere now shone like a sun, so bright that Jake had to shield his eyes. But even such a huge stone could not hold that much power. The energy seeped down into the archway, turning the metal into a mirror again. Images flashed across its surface, too swift for the eye to hold. The metal began to tremble as energy continued to pour into it.

Jake felt a pressure building in his chest, sensing that pent-up power was going to blow.

“Get down!” he screamed, and waved everyone to lie flat.

As he turned away, an image froze for a fraction of a second in the mirror. It was his own face swelled large—except that his eyes blazed with black fire. Then the image was gone. He glanced to Marika and Bach’uuk. With their faces to the floor, they hadn’t seen it.