Phoenix laughed, his palms dropping to his knees. “Are you telling me your fucking sweet tooth saved that night?”
“I’m confused.” I chuckled. “You had to think of ice cream?”
Zephyr shrugged. “Turns out freshly baked cookies weren’t fit for the occasion.”
Laughter echoed throughout the grounds as five Heathens stood in a circle in the middle of the night. As I looked around at the smiles on their faces, I thought,this. This was what I had always wanted. If only my younger self could have seen this to know that it would get better.
“All right, all right,” Julian interrupted. “Can we get back to the Shadows please?” His gaze steered around the circle, and the laughter faded as Beck drew a pentagram inside the circle with his finger, each point ending where each of us stood. “Thankfully we don’t need pleasure or pain ...”
The directions weren’t complicated. Chant a spell, then drink the vial we’d taken from the Heathen Athenaeum. Each vial contained magic with a strand of hair soaking inside. It didn’t matter who’s hair it was, so long as the person it belonged to was currently sleeping. Once we climbed into the other dimension, we could move from one person’s dream to the next.
Phoenix hovered his palm above the pentagram and whispered a spell.
The whisper surrounded us, the words strung together and coming out like a snake’s hiss. A flame ignited at the point of the pentagram at his feet. It then slithered, following the lines Beck had drawn until the fire touched each point and the entire star was on fire.
We all exchanged glances, clutching the vials in our fists. It was time.
“Aperi ianuam.
Liceat mihi intus.
Ad subconscietiam.
Ego sum apud te.”
We repeated these verses five times, the flames growing higher each time we finished. On the last round, we gulped down the vial.
When I opened my eyes again, the rest of them still had their eyes closed.
“How long did the book say it would take before it started working?” I asked, but neither of them answered. “Zephyr?” I called, and then, “Stone,” I heard behind me.
My chest instantly recognized the voice, and my heart galloped.
Suddenly, I could hear the waves, smell the brine, and taste the ocean. I spun around, and behind me, Adora was running toward the lighthouse.
“Stone, what are you doing just standing there?” she asked, waving her hand, andgod, she’s beautiful. One glimpse of her on this island, and I was taken back to a time when she was only mine. “Come here.”
The sun was out, beaming high above us, and I had to throw my hand over my eyes and squint to see her better.
Adora was barefoot in the sand, her hair down, wearing the red dress.
I looked back at the Heathens. They were still frozen with their eyes closed, standing in the middle of the grounds, the pentagram still on fire. And as I faced them, it was nighttime, as it should have been, but when I looked—“Stone!” Adora laughed, and the sound of it spread bliss throughout my body as I turned back to face her, where it was day—bright and warm. “If you don’t get over here in—”
I didn’t give her a chance to finish. I broke away from the pentagram point and charged after her, sand flying up from the bottom of my feet. “Out of all the places in the world you’ve dreamed of visiting, Bone Island is where you choose to be?” I asked, grinning and scooping her up into my arms. “Why, Adora?”
She ran her thumb across my bottom lip. “Because it’s where you are.”
Then she was sliding her fingers through my hair, giving me the look.
The look that told me she was about to kiss me.
A scream echoed in the background.
I turned back to where I’d entered from, expecting to see my brothers waiting for me at the grounds, but only a dark tunnel remained.
Brothers, my mind repeated. I saw them as my brothers.
A slow grin fell on my lips.
