Page 36

I let myself back into the dorm room as silently as I could, closing the door behind me in an effort not to wake anyone up. So, when I turned to find Fable standing there, her face three inches from mine, I nearly sheet myself.

“What the fruck!” I hissed.

“I could ask you the same,” she whispered back. “Now come on, follow me.”

She led me past the beds of our housemates into a little sitting room where we sometimes congregated and played board games. There was a wicker bowl filled with goodies sitting on the table and I let out a low groan. Sticky buns, donuts, glazed scones, muffins.

“Bless you,” I said, hurrying to sit on the comfy couch.

“I heard you leave earlier, and I almost followed you, but I figured if you’d wanted me to come along, you wouldn’t have been sneaking out in the first place.

So, I took a page out of your book and hit up the kitchens for when you came back,” she said, taking a seat beside me and curling her feet beneath her.

“Sorry about that. It wasn’t really up to me,” I explained gently.

Fable picked up a silver carafe and filled two mugs with coffee, adding a healthy dose of cream and sugar to mine. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I actually had the food in my sights. I stuffed a chocolate-covered donut into my mouth and chewed with a blissful moan.

Fable poured herself some coffee and took a drink. Black, she liked it black.

I spoke around the donut. “Typhon took me on a private field trip .”

“You had sex with him?” Fable gasped, the motion making her coffee slosh over the sides of the mug and making her let out a low yelp. “I thought that was a good afterglow on you but ...”

I nearly choked on the donut. “Field trip is not a euphemism for sex, Fable. It was rune casting. He took me outside the bounds of Neverthorn –”

“Wait ... what? He can’t do that.” Fable shook her head. “What was he thinking? He could get you both in trouble! I don’t want you to get thrown out, you’re like ... my best friend, Harlow.”

A stupid warm glow wrapped around me. I could have pushed it away, but I clung to it a little.

I told her about going down to the water, about Typhon taking the bracer off. How hard it was to get the runes right, but how amazing it was once I did.

“It was the freest I’ve ever felt. Like for the first time my magic was mine and it was actually listening to me, and the rune was working.

A rune that I hadn’t tampered with or created.

I’ve never ... I’ve never felt connected to my magic and the runes like that before.

Not in my whole life. And ...” Did I break the promise that Typhon had extracted from me?

Did I tell her and give her hope? Yeah, yeah I did.

“He wants to take us all out next time. But we gotta keep this between us. He doesn’t want everyone knowing. ”

Fable stared at me, her eyes glittering with unshed tears. “That sounds ... awesome. Do you think he’ll really take us all?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I actually do. He has to find a way to do it when Tarquinius isn’t around.”

“That frucker.” She grabbed a scone and tore it in half. “How dare he keep us from our magic! Why is he doing it this time? If he wants us to be strong, this doesn’t make sense.”

I nodded and, for the first time since Typhon had taken me with him to the edge of the water, I let myself look at what had been done to not only me, but the whole House of Phoenix.

“They caged our magic because they were afraid of us, and now that they need us, they have to uncage us. But either it’s not working, or they don’t actually want to,” I snorted.

“Tarquinius claims they stopped muting us, but obviously that’s not the case since taking my bracer off allowed me to cast like I’ve never been able to before.

Typhon thinks it has to do with our Quirks and making them show up which makes zero sense.

” I rubbed at my arm cuff, feeling a flare of warmth there.

Fable took a shuddering breath. “They set us up to fail. From the beginning. They clipped our wings.”

I reached over and put a hand on her arm, feeling her shake and tremble. “But not now, Fable. Not now. We know the truth. We’ll find a way to be connected to our magic again, and they won’t be able to take it away from us. Ever.”

Her hand covered mine and she gave a fierce nod. “Agreed. I even understand why they did it – to a point. They don’t need another Nocta rising up, flinging power everywhere, killing people just because they can. I get that part of it.”

I flinched, guilt chewing at my insides.

Guilt that I was his daughter? No, guilt that I could never tell her, because I knew how it worked.

Guilty by association wasn’t a saying for nothing.

It was why you had to be careful who you worked with on the street.

Reputation could be destroyed with a single wrong association.

Fable patted my hand. “Look, this is good news. Even though it sucks what they did to us, blocking us. We know now, and that means we can find a way around it. That’s what Typhon is doing, isn’t it?”

I nodded. “I think so.”

“So, let’s do our part. We are going to fight Nocta. To know your enemy is to know how to defeat them. Despite what Elmwood has been teaching us, I don’t think it’s the whole picture. I mean, all she keeps saying is that he’s the strongest Dwimmer ever. That’s not helpful, right?”

I shook my head. He was the strongest. And I was his daughter.

“I bet we can find out more,” Fable continued. “More about him. About his weakness. Maybe he has a wife? Or a family? Maybe we could use them to find him on our terms. Bring the fight to him.”

My guts turned over and the only thing I could do was nod. I struggled to swallow and pushed the basket of food away.

“Sorry, I’m just ... tired suddenly. Doing the runes that way was super draining. I need to get some sleep.”

By the time I crawled into bed a few minutes later, Bandit was under the covers, and he curled into the crook of my body. “Rough night?”

“Yes.” I breathed the words. “The best and worst.”

“Sleep.” Bandit rumbled and his soft purring body soothed some of the cold that had crept into me.

I didn’t think I’d be able to sleep. Not after the magic with Typhon. Not after the pain with Fable. But I’d had too many restless nights and the second my eyes shut; I was out cold.

Only to find myself in a nightmare.

Following Opie across an open expanse of a field, a wall of thorns and brambles rose high above her head. She was with her two friends, they were dragging her along.

She didn’t want to go. I tried to call out to her, but the words wouldn’t come out.

I knew they were up to no good. I knew they weren’t really her friends.

I hurried, running barefoot through the field, barely feeling the stones and hard ground. All that mattered was Opie.

The dream twisted around, and we were through the thorn bushes and a ramshackle house was in front of them. I couldn’t hear anything, but I could see Opie’s mouth open, and she was surely screaming as her “friends” dragged her up to the door. The place looked ... haunted.

Tears streamed down Opie’s face; I saw her hands flash runes at the other girls but of course .

.. nothing happened. My heart broke as I saw her realize the truth of it.

That someone had been fooling her all along.

That she didn’t have the magic that the teachers and Neverthorn had been telling her she had.

I reached for her and then I stood at the door and the other two girls were running away. I didn’t hesitate. I threw myself at the door and fell through, spinning through darkness, tumbling down what felt like a hundred feet before I hit the bottom.

A puff of dirt and dust rolled up around me. I lifted my head. Opie lay beside me, as if sleeping, I reached for her, and she sat up.

The space we were in was lit from above, a fiery red gemstone floated far, far above our heads. Opie pointed, her mouth moving. No words.

I took her hand and stood.

The space was dirty, but not empty. Dwimmers sat all around the edges of the room, on their knees.

They wore black, their mouths were bound with thick leather straps, but none of them were trying to get the gags off.

Their hands flashed the same rune over and over again, one I didn’t recognize, their eyes never leaving the walls they sat in front of.

Opie pushed against me, her terror infectious. I dragged her backward, looking for a way out. But nightmares don’t work like that. The only way out is to wake up.

A Dwimmer dressed all in dark gray, their face wrapped up so that only the eyes were exposed, approached us, finger pointed at Opie. I stuffed her behind me. Tried to yell, but nothing came out.

Typhon. I needed Typhon.

I spun with Opie and ran from the figures cloaked in the shadows, ran until my lungs were bursting. Hands grabbed at us, yanking us apart. I tried to scream for her, panic filling me.

I jerked awake, gasping. “Opie.”

The room around me was silent, everyone was still sound asleep, and it looked like I’d only been out cold for an hour at best.

It had seemed so real ...

Panic crept up the back of my neck, but I forced it down ... made myself remember how it had felt out there by the river.

I was still stuck here in this sheet storm, but now I knew something I hadn’t known before.

I wasn’t helpless. I had rune magic that was as strong as any Dwimmer out there.

Nocta and his men would be coming with the solstice.

If I could help the others in House Phoenix access their true potential before the big battle to come, that was all for the better. Because someone had to stop Nocta.

Even if I knew in my heart it wouldn’t be me, no matter what Liam said. No matter how much Typhon praised me. I knew that they would never trust Nocta’s daughter to face him.

But I could help the others. I could find a way to keep my friends and Opie safe. I had to believe it.

It was the only hope I had left.