BANG!
RUNE GASPED, BOLTING UPRIGHT.Her chest heaved as she gulped down air. She glanced at her chest, pressing her hand to her thundering heart, where she’d felt the dream bullet go in.
There was nothing there. No blood. No pain.
She was fine.
Just… soaking wet.
Glancing around, Rune found herself lying on a smooth, flat stone inside the summoning circle, the other stones towering around her. At some point, a storm had come through and drenched everything, but it was gone now, taking the night with it.
The sun was high in the sky.
Rune’s shoulders sagged with relief.
It was only a dream.
She still saw his face, though. Full of apology. Thebangstill rang in her ears, and a strange heat burned in her chest where the bullet had lodged.
It felt like her vision of Gideon and the three children. Like a glimpse into the future.
Rune shivered.
Aurelia walked across the circle toward her. Only the hem of her skirt was wet; the rest of her was dry. From the sleepy look in her eyes, she’d just woken up.
Before falling asleep, they had all taken shelter in a dugout beneath some broken stones beyond the summoning circle. So what was Rune doing here,insidethe circle?
“Bad dreams?” asked Aurelia, studying Rune’s eyes, as if recognizing something in them.
“Something like that.”
Rune wiped the rain off her face and got to her knees. How much time had passed? She glanced up, searching for her spell’s signature overhead.
But the once bright-red moth had vanished.
Rune frowned.
“Looks like your spell faded,” said Aurelia.
“Maybe I didn’t cast it right?”
Should she have collected some of Cressida’s blood, instead? Would that have made for a stronger spell?
“It’s possible,” said Aurelia. “It’s also possible the ancient magic protecting this Roseblood from my Sight protects them from being summoned.”
They waited a few more hours.
When Meadow woke and started to cry, Aurelia tried to soothe her, pacing and rocking the girl in her arms.
“She’s hungry.”
But they had no food to give her.
We need to get back to the capital.
Rune glanced around the empty circle, trying to swallow her disappointment.
Why hadn’t anyone come?
