Because if Emory had lied about this, what else was she keeping from her?
As Emory and Virgil looked over Aspen, and Vera ventured out to forage for some kind of edible plants, Romie volunteered to find firewood—or anything they could burn—along with Nisha. With the sun rapidly going down, the desert had turned frigid, something Romie hadn’t thought possible in a world that Clover described as a forge, full of warmth and sunlight. But then, the sickness Mrs. Amberyl had foreseen plaguing this world did involve a dimming sun, a world plunged into darkness.
Romie barely noticed the silence that fell over them as they walked away from the others, her thoughts still intent on Emory. She snapped out of it only when Nisha nudged her gently. “Everything all right with you?”
Romie mustered a smile. “Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?”
“I’m pretty sure you were about to pass out when we found youback in that grotto,” Nisha said, unconvinced. “And I don’t know. You seem preoccupied.”
Romie couldn’t help the rush of feelings that came back to her at this reminder that Nisha could always see right through her.
And Tides—Nisha was reallyhere. It hit Romie all over again as she took her in. Nisha looked just as she remembered—better, even. Long lashes fluttering prettily against her high cheekbones. Those dark eyes she could get lost in. Black hair unbound, tucked over one slender shoulder. The disparity between the outfits they each wore was almost laughable: Nisha in a fine-knit sweater tucked into wide-legged corduroy pants complete with dainty brogues, and Romie in a lacy high-neck blouse and ample skirts that were at least a few centuries behind the fashion back in their world.
“I just can’t believe you’re here,” Romie breathed. She wanted to reach out and touch Nisha, to solidify that this wasn’t all a twisted dream. But she didn’t, reminded of how they’d left things before Romie had slipped through the Hourglass. She swallowed past an unpleasant tightness in her throat. “I thought I’d never see you again.”
Nisha smiled timidly at that. “Does that mean you’re happy to see me?”
“Are you kidding? Of course I’m happy to see you. You traveled across worlds for me… and Emory,” she added quickly. It dawned on her that Nisha might have moved on from the brief romance they’d had, that she might have come here only for the friendship she’d made with Emory and not for the feelings she’d once had for Romie. After all, Romie had messed things up between them, isolating herself in her search for the epilogue, losing everything and everyone she cared for in her all-consuming pursuit of destiny.
“So what’s bothering you, then?”
Romie chewed on the inside of her cheek. She wanted to let it all pour out of her, how it had felt like Emory was leeching fromRomie’s power when she stood on that ley line, how betrayed she was that Emory had lied about Keiran. How she couldn’t yet bring herself to voice her suspicions that Emory might indeed be a Tidethief, as the slur went.
Instead, Romie said, “Remember when you last found me in the greenhouse?”
“Before your initiation?” Nisha asked, taken aback.
Romie nodded, smiling fondly at the memory. The greenhouse had always beentheirs, and it was no wonder that Nisha had found her there before Romie slipped through worlds. Nisha had told her the time and place she was expected at Dovermere for the Selenic Order initiation, and though she hadn’t explicitly told Romienotto go, Romie remembered her worry.
“You told me to be careful,” Romie said. “And I… you left before I could say anything, but I remember swearing to myself that I’d see you on the other side. That if I made it through the initiation ritual and survived Dovermere, I’d come back and make things right between us.”
Nisha’s eyes blazed as if they housed the remnants of the fading sun. “I remember hoping for the same thing.”
“Do you think it’s too late now?” Romie asked, heart in her throat, skin hot at the intensity in Nisha’s gaze. She wasn’t sure where this blatant honesty was coming from—maybe it had something to do with nearly dying at the hands of a demon wearing a resurrected Keiran’s face and her own best friend’s magic. But if she didn’t ask now, she wasn’t sure she’d have the courage to later.
“No.” Nisha stepped closer to her. “I would have waited for you however long it took.”
“That won’t be necessary.”
Romie wasn’t sure who made the first move, but suddenly they were kissing, Nisha’s hands laced behind her neck, and Romie’s tangled up in her silky hair. Romie lost herself in the warmth andfamiliarity of Nisha’s lips, transported back to before, to the early days at Aldryn College when everything had been exciting and new. When she’d been falling head over heels for Nisha, sneaking kisses in the greenhouse, just a normal girl doing normal girl things. Before the Order had sucked her in, before the song had snuck into her dreams, before the hunt for the lost epilogue had consumed her whole.
Romie clung to this moment of normalcy, the utter bliss of Nisha’s kiss. It was like nothing had changed between them, even as everything was changing around them.
The rest of her world might be imploding, but this, at least, was something to hold fast to.
26EMORY
EMORY WAS CHOKING ON LUNARflowers.
Black narcissus and indigo hollyhocks and white orchids and purple poppies grew between her lungs, sprouted up her throat, their roots sinking deep into her heart, draining all the blood from her veins and marrow from her bones. Before her stood her ghosts, whispering in her ear:
Tidethief.
Your fault.
Everything you touch crumbles to dust.
A hand touched her arm. With a gasp, she jerked awake to find Virgil leaning over her, face shadowed in concern. “Bad dream?”
