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“What, between you and my mom?” Tanner chuckled. “Shit happens, Darien. She made a mistake, and you’ve both moved on. I’m not going to hold something that minor against you.” The sudden apprehension on his face told Darien where this conversation would go. “This is about you,” Tanner began. “You need to cut yourself some slack.”

“Atlas—”

“You’ve been blaming yourself for everything. You’re blaming yourself for Loren being in a coma, you’re blaming yourself for her nearly dying in Paradisi, and now you’re blaming yourself because she didn’t wake up after one treatment.”

That glass was in his lungs again. “Tanner, I promised to protect her—”

“And you’ve been doing a great job.” Before Darien could argue, he continued, his words rushing together, as if he’d waited days to get this off his chest. “Darien, she would’ve died six months ago if you hadn’t found her in that alley.” The reality of his statement was a blade skewering his heart—and it lit that glass in his lungs on fire. “Randal and the imperator would’ve put her in the Well replica a lot sooner, the city would’ve blown up a lot sooner, and none of us would even be here right now.” Maybe that was true, but he couldn’t take full responsibility for that miracle on Kalendae—any of the responsibility, really, when you got down to the details.

“Loren saved Angelthene on Kalendae—”

“Because you put that suit on her,” Tanner said. Darien swallowed. “She’s alive right now because of you—we all are alive right now because of you. So you need to cut yourself some damn slack and trust that this is going to work.”

Darien inhaled, the sound as ragged as he’d felt for the past ten days. “I feel like I failed.”

“That girl is still breathing because of you. And guess what? When she wakes up, it’s gonna be because of you.”

Silence fell between them. The television droned in the background as Ivy and Jack watched a movie. Darien knew his sister well enough to sense that she wasn’t watching the screen.

“Can you at least try?” Atlas asked.

Darien nodded. “I’ll try.”

“One more thing.” He smiled a little. “You look like shit.”

Darien smirked. “Thanks.”

“You need sleep. When was the last time you slept for more than two hours?”

Darien grimaced.

“Exactly.” He drifted down the hall, heading toward the kitchen—probably straight to the cookies, if he knew Atlas at all. “Try to sleep—you’re no good to any of us if you die of exhaustion.”

Ivy added in a singsong voice, “He’s right, you know.”

Yeah, he was. And it was for them, not himself, that Darien pulled himself up the stairs and collapsed on the bed in his guest suite, an arm slung across Loren’s waist. Because he was no good to any of them if he died.

Loren still wore the Avertera talisman—they all hid their auras now, to prevent the imperator from finding out what they were doing, where they were. But when Darien was this close to Loren, he could feel her aura, muted as it was. Soft as the salt lamp glowing on the nightstand.

Her aura was growing dimmer every day. He hadn’t wanted to admit it, but he could sense that she didn’t have much time left.

If she didn’t wake up soon, she wouldn’t wake up at all.

28

Angelthene Academy

ANGELTHENE, STATE OF WITHEREDGE

Angelthene Academy was situated above a network of tunnels that looked like they hadn’t been accessed in centuries.

Max used his Sight as they walked through the darkness, nothing to guide them but the beam of a flashlight he’d found in the SUV. He’d given it to Dallas, who walked at the head of the group, the flashlight illuminating the tunnels ahead.

The traces of auras down here were so old and dull, he couldn’t get a firm read on them. Many souls had walked this ground—he could see the colorful streaks they’d left behind, like swipes of watercolor paint. The souls of people who were probably very old now; a person’s aura vanished the minute they died, so the colors that were still down here belonged to people who must still be alive.

“What is all of this?” Dallas’s voice echoed as she pointed the flashlight at the walls. The tunnels were coated in a glossy black crust that reminded Max of volcanic glass.

Malakai said, “It looks like the same shit they use to make the rabbit masks in Yveswich.”