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My heartbeat quickened. I couldn’t answer him—I was not that brave.
Baron Joachim smoothed the covers of the bed with his hand. “You are unlike anyone I have ever encountered, Hannah. I do not like to see you go, and I hope you will return. Of course, the next time you are invited to dine in the great hall, you must be sure to keep your dress on.”
I held my breath as his fingertip traced a light, teasing trail up my leg. When he next spoke, his voice was hardly more than a whisper. “Whether or not the dress stays on elsewhere, however, is a different story.”
Desire swelled hot inside me, sudden and unexpected and thrilling. I reached for his hand—
CHAPTER 77
“Hey, girl. Hey! Hello? Hannnnnnnah!”
No, don’t wake me no no no
Joachim! Where did you go?
Take me
Take me
Someone’s palm was goingpatpatpatpaton my cheek. I pushed it away. “Stop it!”
“Sorry! But, girl, you’ve really got to come back to us now.”
I dragged my eyes open. Saw white fluorescent light, that hideous tile ceiling, and the looming face of my friend Indy. He was perched on the edge of my bed with his dark hair flopped over one eye, and he was wrinkling his nose at me. “You were moaning,” he said. “Hot dreams, babe?”
“Ugh, shut up,” I said, feeling my cheeks flush as I pushed myself up to sitting.
It wasn’t a dream. It was real.
Indy grabbed my foot and squeezed it. “Come on, upsy-daisy,” he said.
I want to go back.
I tried to shake him off. “Leave me alone. You’re not supposed to be in my room.”
I want to go back. Let me go back.
“I know that,” Indy said. “But I don’t care. You’ve been doing that thing too much—you know, where you’re here but you’renothere? And it sucks. It’s spooky. But you’re really here now, aren’t you?” He unfolded a piece of paper and held it out to me. “Look, I made you this.”
I stared down at it, waiting for the drawing to come into focus. Waiting to come all the way back intothisworld, even though I didn’t want to.
Joachim—
“Hello?” Indy said, stabbing at the page. “I’m awaiting your words of praise, Hannah.”
The paper was almost entirely covered with blue ink marking out lines, words, and shapes. I saw two towers, a wide gatehouse. There were staircases and banners and horses. A border of swords and stones.
“It’s a castle,” I said, wonderingly. I squinted at it, turning it this way and that, as if I’d be able to see the baron in one of the doorways.
“A hundred points for the girl in the hand-me-down sweats,” Indy said. “It probably doesn’t look anything like where you go, but I thought of you when I was making it.”
It was beautiful, and so intricate it made my eyes swim. “It’s like a maze,” I said.
“Every picture I make is a maze,” said Indy matter-of-factly. “I draw what it feels like to be inside my head.”
“You want to get out, but you never can,” I said. “I know the feeling.”
“It’s like a funhouse, except that nothing is fun. It’s a sadhouse.A madhouse. A very, very badhouse. God, listen to me, I’m like Dr. Goddamn Seuss over here.”
