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“Are you threatening me?”
“I’m telling you the truth. Isn’t that what you so desperately want?”
I shake my head in disbelief. It didn’t take long, but here he is, threatening and playing with my emotions. Yeah, it’s dangerous on the streets. I could walk into someone’s dream. A nightmare can attack. Who knows what else is out there? But to use that sense of danger to keep me in line is a low blow.
“I don’t just want the truth,” I murmur. “I want no more secrets.”
“Fine. I’ll tell you what you want to know.” He grinds his teeth and glances around, checking to see if we’re watched. Then his skull flashes beneath his skin. I don’t know where his wraith form went, but it’s not here. Probably keeping watch. “The truth is,” he says, “the others chose you as our Shadow because it takes a mortal to break into Titania’s Cabinet of Curiosities.”
“Okay . . .”
That doesn’t seem so bad. But his demeanor is still tense, still looking at me as though I’m going to bite his head off.
“What is it?” I hug myself. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“Styx has been turned to stone. If we can’t release him by the end of the Interlude, he could be that way permanently.”
“Dead?”
“Trapped.”
“I’m sorry. That must be hard on you all.”
“Don’t feel sorry for us.” A pained look enters his eyes. “Not when they planned for you to take Styx’s place.”
I blink rapidly, trying to process his words because it sounded like he wants me to be a statue instead of Styx.
“They’ve forgotten you,” he says, reaching for me, but I sidestep, and his hand drops. “I’m trying everything I can to find another way. But Titania’s damn binding seal keeps fucking with their minds.”
The ground seems to shift beneath my feet. “I can’t believe I almost... almost changed my mind about you.”
“I’ll never let it get that far. The tournament is months away.”
Shaking my head, I stumble away from him. My world is spinning again. “I have to go.”
“I’ll take you home,” he offers, his skull flickering as his wraith returns to his body.
I look at him directly and say, “I’d rather be stuck in someone else’s dreamscape than with you.”
He jolts as though hit by an arrow, then turns away. It shouldn’t hurt this much to see his pain over my rejection. His back heaves with breath. Once. Twice. Three lungfuls of air. Then he turns his head, giving me his profile. “At least we can agree on one thing—reality is a disappointment.”
His visage flickers, I blink, and he’s gone.
A short, sharp, incredulous laugh bursts out of me. I grab Tinger’s pendant to reassure myself.
“He just left,” I tell my friend. “It’s exactly what I expect from him. From all of them.”
I kick the muddy dirt and growl. How could I be so stupid?
It takes me a moment to gather my composure. My body wants me to break down and cry, but I’ve survived too muchtrauma to let another bump in the road take me down now. I’ll figure something out. I always do.
Hugging my cape, I start walking. I’ll head to the Nexus and find Alfie. That’s what I’ll do. Midnight is an hour away. I might arrive before he heads out to wherever this secret meeting place is.
But after a few minutes, I realize this isn’t our route to the restaurant. Instead of elegant multi-level architecture blended into the trees, the buildings now have only one story. Branches above bend and groan under the wind, looming like predators. Shadows shift in the dark.
I’m sure there was a flow line up there a moment ago.
A woman’s wail drifts in on a breeze, and I quicken my pace. I’ll end up at the Nexus if I keep in the same direction. But after half an hour of walking, the taller trees make way for smaller ones. It becomes less of a city and more like a forest, whispering warnings to turn back. I must have taken a wrong turn. No signs of the upper walkways anymore. No carriages or Dandelion Drifts. The streets are trodden paths, and the occasional person I glimpse is less interested in keeping up with pristine appearances. When they see me coming, dressed in finery, they hastily fix their clothes and hair as if expecting a reprimand and then disappear. Afraid.
