“I don’t really care about her logic right now,” I say through gritted teeth. “I care about the fact that she’s sick, and in the most dangerous place she can be.” I push my shoulders back and set a fast-paced stride, then expand the radius of my Privacy bubble to cover the noise of Skye’s running shoes squeaking on the floor as she jogs to keep pace with me. “Please go back to your room. I’ll let you know when she’s safe, but, right now, I need you to get out of my way.”
“Right,” Skye says. “This is exactly why I need to come with you. You can’t be trusted to make intelligent choices right now, given that you are her Counterpart.”
My heart stops in its tracks. “What did you just say?”
Skye, pretending she doesn’t remember, says nothing and follows me, matching my quick pace through the long hatchpassage.
“You’re not coming,” I tell her. “Why are you following me?”
Her brows snap together, and her mouth quirks to one side. “I fell for it.” Her gaze turns inward. “Ember is not diseased. She used her gift. She lied because she wanted to go to the temple without me.”
“She lied?” Something inside me clicks, like a key turning a lock after a few tries. I huff out a dry laugh, grateful she isn’t really sick, and shocked I fell for it. This is how her gift neutralizes mine. Ember can’t lieto me, but shecanlie to other people, and when they relay the lie to me, I believe it. It must not have worked when Farrah told me Ember said I hated her, because Farrah had figured it out already.
“It’s too bad she’s not here,” Skye says. “She could lie that you said I could come to the temple, and then you’d have to let me.”
My face pinches, and I narrow my eyes at her. “Then we wouldn’t need to go to the temple in the first place.”
“I’m hearing awe. . .”
I push my shoulders back and focus on the hatch at the end of the long, dimly lit hall. “I’m not taking you to the temple. It’s too dangerous. You can wait for her in your room.”
“I don’t mind if you need to use your other light magics. Obviously, I already know about them.”
At the hatch, I stop moving. “How?”
“I know a lot about you. Or, I should say, I know more about you than most people do. I knowa lotabout Ember. You, for some unknown reason, don’t always come through.”
My brows furrow in confusion as Skye opens the hatch herself, hustling me through it with an impatient, waving hand.
“My gift is mindreading. You know Ember figured you out like two weeks before you told her? The Scrying on her all the time really gave it away. Oh. She didn’t tell me. I found out because I can’t turn it off. Unless I, like, go into Nova or put headphoneson over my industrial piercing, which I obviously will not be doing. Ember’s basically a vault. She has many questions about my cat and never asks.”
We walk down the pedestal, slowed by the long slope of rocky terrain still considered academy bounds, and therefore impossible to Teleport from. “You have a cat?”
“Nova. She has night vision. Do you think we’ll need that in the temple?”
“The temple you’re not gonna be at?” I’m itching to throw up a barrier to stop Skye from following me, but she’s going to be sitting at a desk in my classroom in a few days, and I’d rather not start off the year like that.
As if she didn’t hear me, she says, “Nova’s shy. She only shows herself to who she wants. Thus far . . .” Her face scrunches like she’s counting. “Who she wants to show herself to includes Ash and Ember. Potentially you, once you agree to let me come to the temple.”
“You can’t come to the temple.”
“So your plan is to, what,kickyour way in? Let me know how that works. The temple was specifically designed to be opened by one method. Two, if you want to count the Everblade, but I don’t see that working out either, considering Ember lost it in the catacombs. My Counterpart has a coin, and I have already communicated telepathically with her, asking her to bring it there.”
Her Counterpart. I should’ve known. “Ash?”
“I know.” Skye grins, wide and pleased. “I have the best one. Isn’t it great?”
Of course, I knew about them, but Ash is private, so I left it alone. Ash and Skye started getting close last winter, pretended like they weren’t dating for five months, and then Ash was supposed to be in Alchemia. Once Skye and Ember were hanging out, I thought Ember had a right to know and told Skye to tellher. Skye said Ash wanted to wait. That they were Counterparts wasn’t something I considered, but it makes sense. Skye sees into minds. Ash empties them. Skye has a Familiar before Selection . . .
“When did you bond?” I ask.
“Recently. And she has answered. Ashy is coming to meet us at the temple as soon as she can.”
Even if she is Ash’s Counterpart, there’s a difference between an Allwitch and an Unselected first-year student. I open my mouth to remind Skye she can’t come, but before I can get the words out, she says exactly what I’m thinking.
“ ‘You can’t come, Skye.’ ” The words are low, mocking my voice. “Go ahead. Tell me your two reasons. I can’t wait to hear them.”
Well, that’s not annoying. If Skye knows there’s two, she’s read them in my thoughts, but I tell her regardless. “I work with a Dark Witch who covers my spelltracks. Your gift would expose her.”
