Page 51 of The Devouring Time

He’s irritated with us, but I can’t bring myself to care, my mind drowning in terrible knowledge. The hypnosis, as brief as it was, has given me answers far worse than anything I’d ever imagined.

Maybe North is right, maybe it wasn’t real. I don’t want it to be real; I want to be an ordinary madman. But no. It happened.

God, I wish it had only been simple amnesia after all.

North leaves us with the receptionist, who phones for a taxi to collect us. We don’t say anything the entire wait, nor during the ride, until the taxi deposits us in front of a hotel near the train station. We secure a room, and as soon as we’re within its walls, Adrian locks the door and turns to embrace me.

The hug catches me off guard, but I relax into it gratefully. He smells of lilacs and warm skin, and I breathe deep. His arms around me are strong but gentle, and he whispers in my ear, “Are you all right?”

My throat tightens and I blink rapidly. “I don’t think I am. What…what did I say while I was hypnotized?”

He steps back, though his hands linger on my elbows. The room is small but neat, furnished with twin beds separated by a night table, a chifforobe, and a writing desk with chair. The clatter of a train filters in through the window, then fades away.

“You spoke of Hart and Myers drugging you, of falling for a great distance, then waking up in the body of something inhuman.”

“The Swarm.” The name fills me with a sense of dread, as though more memories linger that I can’t access except through emotional impressions.

“Yes. They took you to a room to be looked after by your own species—other humans in Swarm bodies, I think? Judging by what Bianca Giuliani told you.”

“They project themselves through time, she said. Swap places with us.” I sink down onto the bed and cover my face in my hands. “With me.”

Adrian gives my shoulder a squeeze, then the chair at the writing desk scrapes across the floor. I look up to see he’s taken out the piece of paper where we listed our facts and questions that day in Cleo’s apartment. “Things are starting to make sense.”

“You believe me?” I ask, then, “They are?”

“Yes and yes.” He studies the list.

Buoyed by the air of determination surrounding him, I cross the room and stand at his shoulder. “I’m afraid you’re going to have explain it to me, then.”

“Let’s start with the premise that everything you just remembered is one-hundred percent true, and not a fabrication of your mind. Considering we both saw Irvin transform into a monster, that isn’t as much of a stretch as it might have been otherwise.”

“True.”

“So: there is a species of creature called the Swarm. They are capable of projecting their essences through time to swap places with human beings. Why they’d do such a thing, we have no idea at the moment.” He adds the information to our list. “There’s a cult that calls itself the Timekeepers, which seems to be in cahoots with them. Hart lured you to his mansion…no, wait, he meant to lure James.”

James. I grip the back of Adrian’s chair as the strength drains from my legs. “James was the one with the contacts, the one who knew collectors personally.”

“They wanted him so they could more easily get their hands on things like the Key of Mithras or the Lettere Segrete or whatever else they were looking for. Why the Swarm and the Timekeepers would even want these things to begin with, I have no idea.”

I shake my head. “Neither do I. It all has something to do with cyclical time, but what?”

Adrian writes that down, ending with a large question mark. “When you showed up instead, Hart and Myers made do with the bookman they had, rather than the one they wanted. Any idea why they drugged you?”

I consider for a moment. “My thoughts felt sluggish, as if I couldn’t fight back. Maybe it made it easier for the-the swap to occur?”

“That seems possible.” A dark shadow passes over his face. “And the Timekeepers are making and distributing batches of Chrono-Flav. Which the pharmacist, Davis, also referred to as Chrysalis.”

“It renders people passive. Unable to fight back, so they can be more easily taken over.” My blood turns to ice in my veins. “Oh. I don’t like that.”

“Neither do I.” Adrian’s mouth thins, then he shakes himself and returns his attention to our list. “When we encountered Davis, he mistakenly thought you were still…someone else.”

“Something else,” I say. Something that had taken me over, that…

No. If I let myself think about it too long, I’ll have a breakdown.

“Then there’s another group, which seems opposed to the Timekeepers and has been trying to kill you,” Adrian goes on. “They also seem to be under the impression that you’re not you. Of course, that didn’t stop Irvin when he learned the truth.”

What had Irvin said, before he’d spoken the prayer that would turn him into a fiend? “…this will be an easier end than what’s coming for you.”