With a groan, Baz lamented, “Why did I let you talk me into this?”
“It wasyouridea!”
“I wasn’t beingserious.”
“Then why are we here?”
Kai had to admit, when Baz suggested they break into Clover’s room to find something that might help them make sense of this mess, he’d laughed. Surely it had to be a joke. But with Clover otherwise occupied for the day, the opportunity was too great to pass up on.
If anything, Kai just wanted to know if Clover had started writingSong of the Drowned Gods. There was no doubt in his mind that Baz burned with the same curiosity.
With a mumbled “I’m going to the Deep for this,” Baz finally unlocked the door with his magic. He winced as if he expected to be struck down for pulling on even the tiniest of time’s threads, but just like earlier, nothing happened. Obviously.
“I’m not sure we should—”
Kai gave Baz a light shove inside before he could finish his thought. “Just make it quick.” Kai remained in the doorframe, keeping one eye on the corridor.
“I don’t even know what to look for,” Baz grumbled as he leaned over the desk, careful not to disturb anything. “There’s schoolwork… bloodletting instruments…”
Kai snickered. “To keep up appearances, I guess.”
“Oh!”
Baz held up a familiar leather journal—the same one he had in his pocket, though nowhere near as threadbare. Baz carefully flipped it open. His brow creased. “There’s nothing in here. Other than his name on the first page and this”—he held up a flattened four-leaf clover that had been pressed in the pages—“it’s completely bare.”
Maybe Cloverhadn’tstarted writingSong of the Drowned Gods, though the timing made little sense to Kai. This was Clover’s last semester at Aldryn; surely he must have at least started brainstorming the book that would propel him into literary stardom.
“Wait…” Baz put the empty journal back in its place and reached for a small, dark book crammed between two larger volumes. “This isDark Tides. How—”
Voices echoed down the hall. Baz nearly jumped out of his skin. Wide-eyed, he strode to the door, book still in hand.
“Brysden,” Kai gritted out. “Leave the book.”
Baz swore, rushing back to the desk. Something seemed to hit him as he glanced between the book in his hand and the door. Outside, the voices were growing louder.
Suddenly the world went quiet.
It took a moment for Kai to understand what had happened as Baz started to flip through the book instead of putting it back, looking like he had all the time in the world to do so.
Which he did—because he’d stopped time.
They might as well have been the only two people left in the world, everything around them frozen except for them. All Kai could do was stare at Baz as this indescribable sense of pride and wonder swelled inside him.
Having seemingly found what he was looking for, Baz slammed the book shut and put it back. He pushed a still-mesmerized Kai out the door, brushing his abdomen as he did. Kai sucked in a breath. Their eyes met as the click of the door’s lock sounded.
“Get ready to run,” Baz said.
Time resumed with a whoosh of sound. And then Kai and Baz were running down the corridor, eager to leave the scene before anyone could see them.
There was no real sense of impending urgency, but their adrenaline propelled them forward all the same, breathless laughter ripping from their throats. They’d just broken into Cornus Tides-damned Clover’s room—and thanks to Baz’s magic, no one would ever be the wiser.
When they reached the empty courtyard, they toppled onto a frost-dusted bench, still wheezing with laughter.
“Okay. What did you find?”
Breathless, Baz said, “Doors to the Deep. I figure if Clover’s read about them inDark Tides, he has to know about the Hourglass, right?”
Kai had never readDark Tideshimself, but both Romie and Bazhad become enthralled by it—especially with its epigraph, which even Kai knew by heart at this point.
