“Seracia Zackery. I already know this.”
Although we have Privacy, I shoot her a harsh look that saysstop talking. I don’t want conflict with Seracia. She’s the only reason I’m comfortable using light magic I’m not supposed to have — I cast, she covers it up. It’s always worked for us. But if she had any idea other people knew about our arrangement, she’d want out, and now more than ever, I need my full range of spells. My secrets are unraveling, secrets I’ve bargained everything away for, just to live long enough to graduate fifth year. It should feel like defeat, how — little by little — everything is coming undone.
But somehow I feel fine, good. The total opposite of what it felt like three years ago, after the incident, when I thought the only way forward entailed a volley of deaths. Wouldn’t be the move I made now, that’s for damn sure. The shift started before Embercame into my life, but I can’t say watching her be so willing to take the fall for people she hardly knows, people who despise her, hasn’t played a part in solidifying what getting away from Jaxan has helped me figure out. I’m done doing whatever it takes to survive. Some things just aren’t worth it.
Skye rolls her head in time with her giant eye roll. “Stop being dramatic and tell me the second reason.”
I glare at her for reading my thoughts again. “The Allwitch temple is in Hartik’s Hollow.”
“That is correct.”
“You don’t Teleport. How are you getting there?”
“Extremely nauseously,” she says, her breath hitching like she’s been bracing for it.
I give her a look.
“Ember and I have been practicing. Not on portstops. That would be a terrible idea. But sometimes I make her spin me in my chair really fast to simulate thewoooshing. I think I’ve improved.”
“Youthink?”
“I want to do it. Ember was not in a good place when she left. Rye Cackrin attacked her. She was severely injured. Vyra told her she’s ruining your life. And as you know, Ember was already very sad. She’s not just yours, you know. She’s also my friend, and when she realizes how dumb she was today, and inevitably processes that information by hating herself, I would like to be there to tell her how stupid she is.”
The thought of Cackrin laying his hands on her wipes every other thought from my head. I don’t have it in me to fight Skye on this anymore. Finding Ember in one piece is the only thing I care about.
At the end of the pedestal, I drop Privacy to Contact Seracia, letting her know to stay hidden because Skye’s coming with us. After that, Seracia surrounds us in shadow, and we Teleport tothe temple.
Immediately after landing on the terrace, Skye clutches her stomach and sprints off to the steps down the hillside to hunch over the fountain. I take out my transmitter and message Case while we wait for Ash.
Five minutes go by. Ash isn’t here yet. Ten minutes. Skye’s done puking, but still no update from Ash. A painful knot pulses in the pit of my stomach. Skye lifts Nova and makes me pet her.
“Ash will be here,” she says at the same time I stop breathing.
A stabbing pain of a thousand knives spears me through the heart. The same pain I felt when Jaxan Severed Ven. A part of me is dying. My Counterpart is dying, and I’m too late to save her.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-FOUR
EMBER
The Last Breath: the last spell a dying witch casts before death, and focus is not a requirement for it.
— Ydris Ledoux, Echelon to the
School of Healing
The dark and windowless underground chamber was a swamp of mildewy air. Dashell’s fingertips sparked quantum blue, and the scent of his magic, breeding with the staleness, surrounded me in sickly sweet, disorienting fumes. Since I knew how easily he could Teleport me to the temple’s exit, undoing every battle I’d fought to get here, I summoned the strength to run.
It was more of an uncoordinated stumble, my ankle weak and unstable on the slippery floor. But that ended up being a blessing. Due to my slowness, when Dashell tried to Teleport to me, his timing was off. He landed a few feet ahead of me, giving me just enough time to spin and run the other direction.
Sharp, throbbing pain coursed through me as I zagged at random intervals, alternating inconsistent bursts of speed and moments of slowing down. In the course of this, Dashell wasted spells. My unpredictable movements were not mathematicallysound enough for him to calculate exactly where he needed to Teleport in order to apprehend me and remove me from the temple.
Time stopped as a loud splash sounded from fifty feet across the room, and everyone turned toward the well.
Pepper emerged from the water. My shoulder’s sagged with relief at the sight of her hopping to the ledge. The first thing I noticed was she was dry. Then I noticed something else.
Something wasn’t right about her.
