Kai didn’t push him, wondering if he had seen Emory at all. Reality and sleep fusing together again.
It made no sense that he should still be able to see her in his sleep when two hundred years separated them. But this wasn’t the first time he’d found her so inexplicably. When he’d been at the Institute, he’d somehow ended up in her nightmares despite his magic being put to sleep. As if this connection they shared knew no limits.
“You and Clover… Do you often find yourself in his nightmares like that?”
Thames seemed flustered. “His nightmares are stronger than most people’s. And we’re very close, he and I, if you catch my meaning. So yes, I often drift to him in sleep.”
A certain bespectacled Timespinner came to mind. Kai asked, “Do you trust him?”
“With my life.” His expression softened. “If this is about the games, I assure you Baz is in good hands. If anyone can make it past these wards, it’s Cornelius.”
Because he’s a Tidecaller, Kai thought. He wanted to trust him, but Clover reminded him of Farran—more so than Thames did. The Fear Eater might have the same last name, but the similaritiesstopped there. Clover, on the other hand, had the same idealistic fervor that Farran once had. Ideals Farran had abandoned at the first sign of hardship, the same way he’d abandoned Kai.
What Artem had said in the sleepscape came back to him.
The way you poisoned Farran’s mind with this “Tides and Shadow being equal” nonsense…
Kai had been racking his brain trying to figure out what Artem meant by it. Had Farran had a change of heart, in the end? Had he regretted siding with people who’d seen all Eclipse-born as vile?
All pointless questions, really. Farran had broken more than Kai’s heart. He’d shattered Kai’s trust in anyone who claimed to stand with Eclipse-born. The reality was, they all folded when things got hard.
Clover, he knew, was different. He was Eclipse-born himself—a Tidecaller at that. Having to hide his nature meant he had more to lose than any of them, yet he still chose to put his neck out for his fellow Eclipse-born, when the safer approach would have been to not associate with them at all. That earned points in his favor, Kai supposed.
But he couldn’t be too cautious. Not where Baz was concerned.
34EMORY
“LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT: You want me toslow down your heart?”
“Precisely.”
Virgil looked at her like she’d grown a giant raven’s head and serpent’s tail.
“You have Reaper magic,” Emory explained again. “You can technically stop my heart. What I’m asking you to do is bring me to the brink of death, just to the point where I pass out.”
“Okay, first of all, I’ve never done anything like that before. And second, how do you know I won’t accidentally kill you? Don’t put that on my conscience, Em.”
“You won’t kill me. I trust you.”
Virgil huffed a laugh, rubbing at the back of his head. After her disastrous talk with Romie, Emory had come to him with this plea for help. She needed to contact the demon again. And if it tookfaintingto reach him, then she would find a way to make herself faint.
“Why is it so important to talk to him?” Virgil asked. “He’s gone. We shook him off. I hope a giant raven-snake plucks his eyes out. Bottom line, he’s not our problem anymore.”
Emory shook her head. “We haven’t seen the last of him. He’s after something, and I want to know what it is.” And most importantly, he knew things about her magic—things she needed to understand.
Especially if Romie was right about hurting her on the ley line.
Virgil sighed, looking at the ceiling. “To think you were an innocent once, not so long ago, and we were the ones corrupting you to do dangerous deeds.”
“I’m not that girl anymore,” Emory snapped, thinking of her conversation with Romie.
“Oh, I know you aren’t.” He flashed her a sly grin. “You’re far more fun.”
“So you’ll do it?”
“Let the record show that I still think there’s a safer way to do this, but…” He threw his hands up. “What can I say? I’m an enabler. A proud supporter of terrible decisions.”
Emory grinned at him. “I know. That’s why I came to you.”
