“How does it feel,” the demon said, voice low and sinister, “to get retribution against someone who wronged you?”
Emory thought of Keiran’s ghost, of his hand around her neck, his silent promise of keeping a choke hold on her even in death. And now here he was, plaguing her still.
If surviving him was retribution for what he’d done to her, it didn’t feel like it. It only made her feel hollow.
“Is that what you’re after?” she asked. “Retribution?”
“Retribution. Vengeance. It’s what I’m owed.”
“For what?”
The gold and silver around his pupils blazed in a way that promised violence. “Everything that was done to me and mine.”
Emory took a step back despite herself. “Who are you? Tell me your name so I can stop thinking of you as Keiran.”
“I have had many names,” he said, “none of which I care to remember.”
“Then you won’t mind if I call you demon.”
“Said in such an endearing way? I insist.” He looked her up and down. “But enough about me. I’d rather talk about whatyou’reafter. Have you found the heart yet?”
The heart—this world’s key.
Emory’s own heart stumbled. If he got to the key before they did…
She felt the dawning of consciousness pull at her, beckoning her back to herself. Before she could be swept away from this strange place, she said, “If you hurt my friends again, I’ll kill you.”
“I’m positivelytremblingwith fear,” he deadpanned.
“I’m serious.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt it. Though, from what I’ve seen, you seem tobe doing a fine enough job of hurting your friends on your own. Careful, there. A Tidecaller’s power is a double-edged sword, as I’m sure you know.”
She glimpsed a wry smile on him before the scene dissolved, and she was pulled up through the darkness and into the light as she regained consciousness.
It was a jarring thing to have those last words ringing in her ears as she opened her eyes to find not only Virgil staring at her but Romie, Nisha, Aspen, and Vera too. There was another face in their midst, that of the page they’d met earlier that day, looking at her with wide, eager eyes.
“Can we see some magic now?” Caius asked, making Emory very nearly wish she were back in that strange in-between space with the demon.
35BAZ
BAZ QUICKLY LEARNED THAT AGREEINGto be part of the games meant he and Kai could no longer afford to be invisible.
The morning after the opening challenge, they were accosted in the quad by the Karunang dean. They braced for the worst—surely he would call out the fact that they weren’t actually Karunang students—but the dean only greeted them with a warm smile.
“Mr. Brysden, is it?” He wore another silk tunic, this one a deep plum with gold-threaded stars. “I wanted to touch base with you, see if you need anything now that you’ll be in the games.”
“Um.” Baz’s confusion was mirrored in Kai’s eyes. Surely the dean had to know they were frauds. “Is it… is it all right that I signed up?” he asked cautiously.
“I admit I was surprised when you agreed to it,” the dean said with a chuckle, “but I couldn’t be prouder. The first Eclipse participant in these games, a Karunang student? I wouldn’t dream of having it any other way.” He glanced between Baz and Kai. “Thetwo of you should be in class, though. Participation in the games does not excuse my students from their schoolwork.”
Indeed, all foreign students had to follow a regular Aldryn schedule while they were here, their class attendance mandatory for this to count toward their own studies back home.
“Now off you go,” the dean said as the clocktower bell tolled. “And if you need anything, anything at all—please know I’m here for you both. I won’t stand for mistreatment of my Eclipse students.”
An hour later, Baz and Kai filed into a classroom in Pleniluna Hall, having worked out a schedule that would allow them to remain close to Clover. Indeed, Clover sat alone in the very top row of the lecture hall—all gleaming white walls and vaulted white ceiling. He didn’t appear to see them as they climbed the stairs to join him, his pen gliding in a frenzy as he wrote in a familiar journal.
One that clearlywasn’tblank.
