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‘Yeah. He’s in New York with a couple of other Bone Season survivors.’

‘How did they get here?’‘A Reph helped them, apparently. Rigel, I think?’ Nadine said. ‘Julian was left behind, but he made it in the end. He’d really love to see you.’ Some good news, for once. I had started to lose hope.

When Mun stopped the car, it was right by the glowing windows of a house. Nadine led me inside and up a flight of stairs, to a tidy bedroom.

‘This is yours. Let’s catch up tomorrow,’ she said. ‘There’s a heated pool outside. I left a bathing suit and a towel in the hallway. You can swim whenever you like.’

‘Thank you,’ I said.

‘You’re welcome. Just watch out for bears.’

She closed the door before I could work out if she was joking.

Even after sleeping on the plane, I was exhausted. I unpacked my holdall, and was about to go to bed when I looked out of the window. The swimming pool was right below.

You must find a way to practise dreamwalking.No time like the present. Downstairs, I opened a sliding door and walked to the edge of the pool. The sky was so clear, I could see tiny stars reflected in the water.

Arcturus had shown me how to embrace my gift, but while the Atlantic Ocean stood between us, I had to learn to train alone, without a living target. And I thought I had a way. As I had sunk into the waters around Capri, I had felt weightless, as I did in the æther.

And I was finally beginning to realise why Scion had tortured me with water.

Why they used water for all the dissenters.

An anchor stood against the sea. The wild sea, full of things that people found impossible to understand.

This was how I would train.

How I would go back to Scion with my whole self in my keeping.

I stepped into the pool, sinking in up to my waist. I looked down at my own reflection, circled by the stars. The dark mirror that was the key to my recovery.

Soon, Beatrice Sala would make her broadcast to the world, and everything would change.

Until then, I could only swim.