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“Go in or be thrown in,” she says.
“You’re making a big mistake,” I say as I pick myself up from the floor. “If you fail her she won’t even bother with you. Look at Stanton! She’s not even breaking him out! She will replace you like she’s trying to replace me!”
Dione doesn’t wait for me to go in peacefully. She grabs me by the wrist and throws me through the door and I roll into a couch. Someone gasps. She peeks in, stares at Eva, then slams the door behind her. In moments the gleam-shield is up and running again.
I massage the shoulder I landed on as I look up at my new roommates who are sitting together on one of the two beds. Emil’s mother, Carolina, looks exhausted and it’s possible—well, likely—that she’s been crying too. For the most part, she’s fine. Unlike Eva. Her brown skin seems paler, her hair is thinning on one side, she has a black eye the size of my fist, and there are bandages all over her arms. It’s like she’s been strung up like a punching bag, which is something we did once with a former chief enforcer who didn’t get the memo that no one messes with Luna’s Casters; here’s hoping we can get Eva out of here before she finds a wand to her head like the chief did.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
Eva sits up. “Do we look okay?”
I don’t say anything. No need for my stupid answer after my stupid question.
“Why are you locked away with us?” Eva asks.
“Everyone else is busy, so I needed a babysitter. Was Dione this terrible back when you were both friends?”
Eva shakes her head. “She used to be my favorite person.”
Carolina comes and kneels beside me, taking my hands in hers. “Please tell me that my boys are okay.”
“I was hoping you could tell me. I’ve been cut off from all live news since the invasion at Nova.”
“Everyone made it out,” Carolina says.
I get a recap on everything major that happened while I was busy reuniting with the Senator. The Spell Walkers took on the Blood Casters. Luna stabbed Emil with an infinity-ender dagger, and then Brighton showed up and shot her in the stomach with a spell before drinking the Reaper’s Blood. But apparently the elixir didn’t make him immortal, and he’s likely going to die. Emil is still alive too, as far as they know. Take the wins when you get them, and that’s a big win in my book.
“We don’t know anything else,” Carolina says.
“If there had been any mention of Emil or Brighton or any Spell Walker dying, I’m sure the Senator would’ve thrown a party.”
Framing the deaths of her sons as cause of celebration doesn’t help her mood. She releases my hands and sits on the couch. I join her. How relaxed Carolina is around me releases a lot of tension.
“I regret my last words to Brighton,” Carolina says. “I called him ‘high and mighty’ for choosing those powers, and now I may never get to tell him how much I love him.”
“He wasn’t kind to you either,” Eva says. “He’s got to be regretting his words too.”
“What did he say?” I ask.
Carolina doesn’t meet my eyes. “That his father was the better parent. I often think that’s true, but I’ve been trying my best.”
“I’m sure your best has been great,” I say.
Brighton doesn’t know how great he’s got it. I would kill to have my mom back instead of being left with a man who is using me to ruin the country.
This is the first time in days I don’t feel watched. Not by Jax from outside my room or from Zenon wherever he is within the manor. My life for the past few years has been putting on all these metaphorical masks and some literal ones the past few months. The last time I’ve really let down my guard was when I was around Emil, and he caught me in a vulnerable moment where I had morphed into one of my victims. I think about him as I inhale a deep breath with my eyes closed and embrace this peace.
Eva snaps her fingers. Peace killed. “What were you talking about with Dione? You’re being replaced?”
“Apparently,” I say. “The Cloaked Phantom hits the sky tonight.”
“Which constellation is that one again?” Carolina asks.
“Not as epic as the Crowned Dreamer,” Eva says. “But it was one my mother admired because this constellation invites change. Sort of like the beginning of a new year. It’s also really important to any celestials who can shift . . . and now apparently anyone looking to become a specter who can shift too.”
She can judge me all she wants; she doesn’t know me. “I would undo everything if I knew I was going to end up here again. All the propaganda I’ve been filming to build Iron’s case against gleamcrafters will be some other specter’s problem soon.”
“Will they keep you down here with us?” Carolina asks.
