And not a moment too soon. From the center of the darkness emerged a towering umbra with a crown of obsidian atop its head. Nightmares rippled around him like a billowing cloak of shadows. It spoke in a tongue Kai did not understand. It felt old, guttural and melodious all at once. And though he could not distinguish the words, he knew their meaning, deep in his soul.
Open the door.
The umbra launched itself at him. Kai fell backward, holding his hands above him to fend off the umbra—only for it to dissipate at his touch, like dust blowing on a breeze. As if it’d never been there at all.
In his hand was a crown of obsidian.
And then the nightmare was crumbling around him. Kai was in the printing press again, in the caves again, with Farran again, machinery and rock falling on him, chess pieces clattering around him, the sea rising up to swallow him, even as darkness pressed in from all around, the sleepscape seeping in, looking to dig its claws into Kai’s subconscious.
Kai screamed himself awake.
At least, he thought he was awake. It was hard to tell in the dark, in this room that was not his. A light switched on, and then Baz’s face was hovering over him, big brown eyes open wide. He wasn’t wearing his glasses. He spoke words Kai didn’t understand. Fear surged in him, wild and uncontrollable.
This wasn’t Baz.
Kai lunged out of bed and wrapped a hand around the umbra’s neck, shoving him against the wall. “I’m not afraid of you,” he hissed in its face.
“K-Kai,” the creature sputtered, claws seeking purchase on Kai’s wrist. “Stop.It’s me.”
Not claws, Kai realized.Fingers.
Not an umbra, he registered, butBaz.
Kai let him go at once, stumbling back. Something slipped from his other hand and clanged at his feet, but Kai paid it no mind. He stared horrified at Baz, who rubbed at his neck, where the beginnings of a bruise had already appeared.
“I’m sorry,” Kai panted. He slumped on the bed and grabbed his head between his hands. “I’m so sorry.”
The narrow bed shifted with Baz’s weight as he sat next to Kai. Their shoulders brushed ever so gently, the only tether Kai had to reality.
“It’s all right,” Baz said. “It’s over now.”
On the bedroom floor before them was a crown of obsidian. Kai did not understand. He could take others’ fears out of their nightmares, pluck them from their heads and conjure them in real life, but he’d never brought an object out of his own dreaming.
The crown remained for a time before it disintegrated, as all dreams eventually did. And then it was just a memory.
9BAZ
THE SOLSTICE HOLIDAY CAME TOan end too quickly. Before he knew it, Baz was on a train back to Cadence, watching Harebell Cove and all sense of joy recede. And though Jae was with him—making their way back to Threnody and the Eclipse-born who awaited them there—Baz couldn’t help but feel a pang of loneliness already setting in.
He hadn’t been able to find Kai after saying goodbye to his family. There wasn’t a doubt in Baz’s mind that Kai was avoiding him after what happened—the Nightmare Weaver screaming in his sleep, his magic spinning out of control, his hand around Baz’s neck, the forlorn look in his eyes.
Baz had no choice but to leave without saying goodbye.
“Here,” Jae said now, pulling Baz from his thoughts. “My belated solstice present to you.”
Baz reverently picked up the old leather-bound journal that Jae set beside him. “You’re giving me Clover’s journal?”
“Lendingyou Clover’s journal. Alya’s been pestering me to get itback, and I don’t trust a courier to handle this. Figured you’d like to peruse it before giving it back to her for me.”
Baz ran a finger along the spine. A fraying black leather rope was bound around the journal to keep all the random scraps of paper tucked safely within its yellowing pages. From what Jae had told Baz about it, Cornus Clover’s personal journal was an eclectic collection of writings, ranging from notes on magic to early passages of what would becomeSong of the Drowned Gods. Jae had fought tirelessly to get his hands on the journal. It’d taken a fair amount of bribing to get Alya Kazan, a supposed descendant of Clover’s, to lend it to Jae for them to study.
And now here it was, in Baz’s hands. There was a peculiar sort of magic in that, he thought.
“I put the epilogue in there too,” Jae pointed out. “Though you can take that out before giving Alya back the journal.”
“Did you find anything of note in here?” Baz asked as he carefully untied the leather rope and opened the journal.
Jae grumbled. “It’s just as I remember it,” they said, having perused the journal once before, back when they’d been dating Alya. “It’s full of nonsensical things I can’t help but think are code for something else. Verses that make no sense. Lists of random names or words that sound made-up. Passages written in alphabets I’ve never seen before—which reminds me, have Beatrix look over some of those passages, will you? If anyone can make sense of the languages, it’s her.”
