His eyes prickled with tears, but he kept his hand steady on the steering apparatus.

“My nephew is next, you know, and I won’t have any of your nonsense affecting him,” Delphine had said to him, scolding and condescending to her last second.

By “next” she had meant heir. Hypnos forced himself to joke and grin.

“And?”

“And he’s a saint,” said Delphine. “So be nice to him.”

Hypnos had mustered all his strength not to cry. At the very least, he could make her laugh …

“Oh good, I like saints,” he said, even as his voice trembled. “They’re used to being on their knees.”

Delphine had smacked him in the arm, and he interpreted this as a hug, for she merely leaned toward him when he kissed her on both cheeks.

“You are terrible,” she said lovingly.

“Je t’aime aussi.”

Hypnos thought of this now, his heart sinking. He wanted to be there when Enrique and Zofia woke up. He wanted to be there for Laila, who was probably waiting for him now that she’d read the Mnemo butterfly and understood what Séverin had done. But he would have to wait for the right moment to make his move and breach the small circle of water in the ice grotto. He closed his eyes, thinking of his last moments with Séverin.

“I still want to come with you,” he’d said.

Séverin had refused.

“But why—” Hypnos had started to say, when Séverin had grabbed hold of his hands in an iron grip.

“Because I protect you,” he said. “Do you understand?”

Hypnos felt the words move through him, like answered prayer. Yes, he thought. Yes, he understood. He pressed his hand to his jacket pocket. There lay the coordinates to the temple … the place that could lift the Babel Fragments out of the earth and change the world as they knew it. He thought he could feel the weight of this knowledge like something slowly stirring awake, the mere consequence of knowing it already sending rippling effects through the universe.

Soon, he would be with them. Soon, they would race across the world.

But for the next two minutes, Hypnos had no choice but to wait.