Grabbing the cup of hot chocolate, flinging it at Maggie, all before she could shoot.
She barely flinched.
But Duncan’s hand reached forward, across the gap, his wrist catching the very edge of the barrel, pushing the gun to one side.
He turned it into a grip, grabbing Maggie by the wrist and waistband and heaving her into the air. Before she had her bearings, he was flinging her, hurling her into the armchair.
The armchair titled, and he was reaching for his gun.
I closed my eyes.
Stepped on his hand, walking, the position of things fixed in my mind.
I kicked the gun further out of reach, sending it skittering along hardwood
My balance was gone in the next moment as I was tackled at the knees. I fell hard.
Duncan hit me, two clean hits to the face before I could bring my arms up. Then he was on top of me.
I had a moment to wonder if Conquest had passed on that tidbit. The weakness, the fear.
Fight or flight kicked in at full force, and it was all the wrong instincts at the wrong moments. Freezing up, recoiling when I should be attacking. He was bigger, stronger.
“Duncan!” Maggie shouted.
Duncan whirled, and he hauled me around to serve as a human shield.
I fought, rather ineffectually.
“Blake! Stop squirming! I can hit him if you stop!”
I couldn’t, not really.
An awful lot of bad memories, inarticulate.
I did go limp, so Duncan had to fight to keep me upright and serving as a shield.
I could see Laird outside the window, looking in. The golden pocketwatch raised…
Evan fluttered past me a heartbeat later, followed by a blast of cold air.
The scene had changed. The main window at the front of the house had been shattered. Two monsters advanced on Laird. The tallowman and the black oil strangler.
Duncan wasn’t holding me. He was a step away, pistol in hand. Maggie was on the ground, disarmed, holding one both hands to her face.
I felt a surge of victory.
I’d been right.
Perception.
The Behaims didn’t alter time itself. That would be insane. It would require more power than they could feasibly manipulate, to alter reality on a fundamental, core level.
They manipulated other people’s perceptions of time.
The coffee shop, I hadn’t been frozen. I’d considered it odd, had wondered why the staff hadn’t noticed me. But they’d been included in the midst of it too. Bending perceptions, tweaking details, so I could sit there in a kind of unwitting stasis, completely tuned out.
The circle around the house, it was a trick, a vast, complex trick. I’d seen two very different images when viewing it in the real world and with my Sight.
The way Duncan had turned back time at the station… I’d sat there in my cell, thinking I was waiting for events to play out, for rescue from the Knights to come, but I was really just revising memories to experience the morning all over again, while catching up to the real present day.
Had he turned back time once more, I might have done the same thing, or something close to it, not taking any action until the mid- or late afternoon.
A third time? Maybe not until the late evening. I would have run out of time, passed my midnight deadline without any attempts at capturing the eraser demon.
I had little doubt they could really manipulate time, but it was undoubtedly expensive, a real investment.
Shutting my eyes and being oblivious helped against the little tricks.
Against the big ones? Laird’s use of the golden pocketwatch? Keeping Evan out of the way, ready to break the spell with his natural inclination to freedom and escape, Rose prepared to break the window and let my favorite bird in the world in.
Laird was fending off the Others, falling back and preparing something while the dolls stepped forward.
Duncan had his back to me.
I drew June.
I struck him in the hip, hard, with June reversed, so I was striking with the blunt end.
He screamed.
I struck his hand, knocking the gun free.
He stopped struggling when I moved the hatchet blade to his throat.
Maggie, still holding her face, blood seeping through the segments of the gauntlet, struggled to her feet.
“Grab the gun,” I said, my voice low.
Her head was bowed, and I saw a glimpse of something inhuman in her expression when she changed hands, shaking the blood free of her gauntlet.
She was possessed? Was that what was going on with her?
She’d let something in?
A moment later, she had the Hyena in hand. She held the point to Duncan’s throat.
“Or I’ll take the gun,” I said. “That works too.”
I grabbed the gun from the floor.
Laird saw me.
Golden pocketwatch raised…
Theatrics, show. Rose and I had drawn those conclusions at the start.
I lowered my eyes, closing them. I heard Evan fly past me. I’d lost no more than three seconds. Laird had moved.
I heard Evan pass by twice in close succession.
I knew it was costing Laird more than it was costing Evan and me.
I moved, putting my back to the wall by the window.
“Rose,” I said, hoping there was a large enough pane of glass for her to speak through.
“Yeah?”
“We should wrap this up. Where’s Corvidae?”
“I told him to stop Duncan.”
“Did you tell him how?”
“No.”
I thought for a second. “Go upstairs, now. Stop him.”
I heard a faint footstep from Rose.
The wind whistled into the house through the open window.
“Are you okay, Maggie?” I asked.
“He hit me. He pistolwhipped me.”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, all things considered.”
“Good,” I said. “Stay alert. Time to end this. Laird!”
My holler carried.
“Thorburn!” he answered.
“I’m under the impression that Rose is upstairs with Duncan Behaim’s wife-to-be and a particular Other. I didn’t want this, but it’s happening! Stop fighting!”
There was only silence. Everything had gone still.
Had Rose’s Others listened to me?
Handy.
“What Other?” Laird asked.
“I don’t think you’d know him,” I said. “Let me reduce this to a very simple question. What are your priorities!?”
“Priorities?”
“If this goes any further, people will get hurt. Duncan Behaim might lose someone precious to him!”
I heard a sound from Duncan.
“Shh,” Maggie said.
“Not death,” I said. “Something worse. She’ll be lost to him forever, in a particularly twisted way. The Other that does this… it’s been mistaken for a demon from time to time.”
“Corvidae,” Laird said.
I felt a chill.
Well, he had access to the same books.
“Yeah,” I said. “Your call. Do you want to carry out this favor for Conquest and watch your nephew lose everything precious to him, or do you want to worm out of it, do me one favor, and let all this end?”
“One doesn’t disappoint Lords,” Laird said. “I think you’re framing that in a pretty skewed way.”
“What does it come down to, Laird? A grab at power, or family? Your kid, nieces and nephew are here. Are you going to tell them that when the chips are down, you’re going to choose-”
Evan fluttered by.
I’d barely lost a half-second there. I couldn’t see the watch, and the trick was losing cachet. I grinned.