“Please,” I beg, resting my forehead against hers as I whisper, “Please don’t . . .”

Fleur clasps my wrist. Her face pales. Her eyes go blank and distant, focused somewhere behind me. It’s the same vacant look she gets when she’s using her magic in her garden or in the jungle around the villa, as if her mind has slipped away someplace else.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” I ask.

“He’s on his way back.”

“How long?”

“Minutes . . . maybe less.”

“Fleur, listen to me,” I say, taking her by the shoulders. She blinks, her pupils narrowing as she reclaims her focus. “You said you’re inside his head? Is he inside yours?”

She thinks for a moment. Shakes her head.

“Can he hear your thoughts? Can he see what you’re thinking?”

“I don’t think so. Not like that.” She frowns. “But his eye . . . he has one like Chronos. It seems like all he can see is the past. Without the crystal, he doesn’t seem able to see much else.”

“Because the Eye of Ananke sees the future.” I remember the chalk drawing Lyon had sketched when he explained how the Staff of Time worked. Michael could look in someone’s eyes and see their memories—critical moments from their past and the choices they made that had led to that moment. But the crystal in the staff projected all the paths ahead of them, revealing a potential road map to every possible future outcome. “Without the crystal, he can’t be certain of his future. Or anyone else’s.”

“That must be why he’s so desperate to find it,” she says. “He keeps the head of the staff covered with a sash. Probably because he doesn’t want anyone to know he has a weakness.”

“A weakness that can be exploited,” I murmur, the rough edges of a plan already beginning to take shape. If I’m right, Lyon hid that crystal to weaken Doug and protect me, to make sure I could get to my smaze and Fleur. He would have hidden the eye someplace he knew I would find it. “I’m going to find it. And then I’m going to use it to draw him out. If Doug wants to see his future that badly, he’s going to have to trade for it.”

“Trade what?”

“You.”

Her brow furrows. “He can’t. I told you, we’re stuck.”