“So they are on campus,” Ani says, just as astounded as the rest of us. “Just notthiscampus, exactly.”
“Brilliant,” Baz says. “Fucking brilliant.”
“Let’s go.” I grab the sweatshirt from the back of my chair and head for the door, hauling it open in a mad rush to get to the Towers. If Stevie’s theory is correct, we may have just found the key to a map we’ve been chasing since we first uncovered the Dark Arcana legends.
But there’s a woman blocking our exit, her grin sly and malicious. Behind her, another woman lurks, red lips pulled into an unnatural smile.
“Casey? Janelle?” My mind is reeling, my eyes darting back and forth between them. I step in front of Stevie, blocking her from view. “What are you two doing here?”
Casey glares at me with cold, empty eyes, and my blood turns to ice.
Despite all our years of estrangement, despite all the arguments that came before it, despite everything that happened on the long and winding road of our relationship, one thing I can say with absolute certainty is this:
The woman staring back at me now is not my sister at all.
“Haven’t you heard, little brother?” She flashes another wicked grin, then lifts her gun, pointing it directly at my chest. “There’s a curfew now. And I’m here to enforce it.”
Thirty-Nine
CASS
Trust. A concept that’s simultaneously as solid as bedrock and as fragile as a glass bubble.
I fear it. I loathe it. I long for it.
Despite my years at Arcana Academy, despite the camaraderie of the faculty and staff, the only people I’ve truly come to trust are my Brothers. Kirin, Baz, Ani, and now Stevie. Our Star. All others are either enemies or liabilities. That’s how I’ve operated. It’s how I’ve kept us safe.
Yet some part of me knows Stevie was right when she came to me last week. Wecan’tdo this alone—not anymore. There’s too much at stake, too many enemies, too many threats. Not even the strength of our bond is enough to see us through this war. Not if we want to be on the winning side of it.
And so it is, we’ve come to this night, nearly a dozen witches and mages gathered beneath a starry sky and the awe-inspiring standing stones at the center of the Breath and Blade lands.
I wanted to trust. Istillwant to trust.
But trust would be a hell of a lot easier if I wasn’t on my knees with a gun pointed at my head.
“Stop wasting time,” Casey Appleton barks, pressing the muzzle to the base of my skull.
Professor Broome glares at her, her gaze equally pleading and angry. “The ritual can’t be rushed, Agent. Not if you want it to succeed.”
Casey sighs, but the pressure against my skull lessens a fraction. I don’t dare breathe. Don’t dare move. My eyes find Stevie’s in the darkness, and she smiles, a beacon of hope on an otherwise hopeless night.
She’s skyclad, lying on a pile of blankets beneath a threadbare sheet, Baz and Kirin stretched out beside her. The men are also nude; Professor Broome believes dream sharing works best when the participants have as much skin-to-skin contact as possible. Positioned at equal intervals around them, Ani, Nat, and Isla hold space, casting a protective circle, their concern for their friends outweighing their concern for their own lives.
If not for the threat of death, this might have been a brilliant plan.
But behind me, the gun speaks volumes, and Janelle Kirkpatrick continues to pace, desperation and greed driving her onward.
“Hold out your palms, please,” Professor Maddox says calmly, and the three prone Arcana brothers obey. With a ritual athame, she makes a quick, clean slice across each palm, then orders them to join hands.
“Your flesh and blood now forms an unbroken connection. Close your eyes and feel the power of that bond. The intimacy of it. Use this to call each other into the dream, to find each other if you lose your way, and to bring each other back. It’s the only thing tethering you to this world.”
She speaks the truth. She removed their protective jewelry before the ritual began, as grounding stones like hematite would interfere with their ability to dreamshare and return safely. So now they’re entering a realm full of danger, totally unprotected.
My only hope is that they’ll find less danger their than they do right here.
That somehow, despite the bleak odds, they’ll find a way to escape.
“Dr. Devane?” Professor Broome calls. “It is time.”
