He’d ridden on the back of adragon, for Tides’ sake. They’d flown to the Institute to retrieve Jae and Vera and a handful of Eclipse-born who’d been hiding in the woods nearby, and now they were at a safe house near the sea that was no longer just a sea, planning a prison break with people who could sprout dragon wings and wore actual armor and wielded genuine swords.
How the hell was Kainotsupposed to question his reality.
But it was real. He had Baz at his side to remind him of it.
Kai didn’t want to leave reality behind for one second, but his presence was needed in the sleepscape. No one had been able to make contact with those who’d been taken to the Institute—even Louis, the only Selenic Order member who’d stayed behind at the safe house, couldn’t reach them through the spiral mark they all had, as if the wards rendered that trick powerless. And so Kai let himself be pulled into nightmares in the hope that his own magic would prove more useful.
Hers was the first nightmare he sought, knowing the bond they shared could not be stopped by wards. He felt responsible for Luce. No one should be subjected to the horrors of the Institute, but she, least of all. Not after all they’d been through.
It pained him to see how haunted she appeared in her nightmare—a cruel scene in which her newborn child was ripped from her arms by Clover, a representation of how powerless she must feel, unable to save her daughter from the very monster she’d once sought help from.
As the nightmare faded, Kai drawing the worst of its darkness into him, Luce noticed him with all the awareness of a Dreamer, recognizing him as real. She launched herself into his arms and broke down into sobs, asking if he’d managed to reach Emory, despairing over the fact that she couldn’t use her own Dreamer magic to find her daughter in sleep.
“We’re going to get you all out of there,” Kai promised her. “But we need to know where everyone’s being kept, how many Regulators there are, every detail you can think of. I need you to help us piece all of it together. Can you do that?”
Luce gave him a determined nod. “If you do find Emory… tell her to hold on. Make sure she knows we’re all here for her.”
Kai did find Emory. Her Tidecaller power—even put to sleep bythe Unhallowed Seal—called to him as it always did in sleep, a magnet pulling on his soul. Yet it felt like she was just out of his reach. He tried to talk to her, to make his presence known, but she couldn’t hear him. Whatever they were doing to her must be horrific.
But Romie was there too, and Kai knew this wasRomie, not Atheia. A glimmer of hope in the dark, because if she was dreaming, if she wastalkingto him and helping him plan this jailbreak just as Luce had been, then surely there was still a chance for her. A way, perhaps, for her to get rid of Atheia’s possession.
Two Dreamers trapped in a waking nightmare. A Tidecaller without her power. Countless Eclipse-born forced into a soulless, magicless existence that Kai remembered all too well for having lived through it himself.
They were going to save them all—and tear the Institute to the ground.
50BAZ
BAZ WOKE TO THE STEADYsound of rain and the feel of a body pressed close to his.
Everything was faintly blurry without his glasses, but Kai’s face was close enough to his own that it stood out in stark relief. Kai hadn’t opened his eyes yet, his features peaceful in sleep. Baz studied him openly, every line of him familiar yet tinged with a newness seen this close. Baz breathed him in, the smell of his freshly washed hair and that midnight scent wrapping around him like a blanket. The actual blanket they shared was tangled around their intertwined limbs.
Heat crept up Baz’s neck as he suddenly recalled, in vivid detail, the kissing that had led to such entanglement. Slow and languorous. Making up for lost time before sleep inevitably won. And while that was all they’d done—sleep—the intimacy of it still struck Baz. They were sharing a bed—had been for days now. Sleeping in each other’s arms, something he had feared they would never get to do.
After they’d returned to the safe house a few days ago, carried here on the back of a dragon named Gwenhael—an actual dragon!—their group had spent hours going over what the plan was to rescue their friends from the Institute. By the time they’d all gone to bed, exhausted from what felt like a never-ending night, it was well into the morning hours. Baz had led Kai to his room, and alone at last, they lay in the dark, talking until there was nothing left to say, then kissing if only to keep sleep at bay, to bask in each other’s presence a while longer. They had done the same every night since.
Gently, Baz brushed a dark strand of hair from Kai’s brow. He wished they could stay here forever, but he could hear voices downstairs, the clang of activity, and a thrum of nervous energy he could feel creeping along the floorboards and invading the safe bubble that had enveloped this room for a moment.
The world was falling apart at the seams, and here he was contemplating the merits of stopping time so he could exist with Kai outside of it.
“It’s way too early for whatever you’re worrying about.”
Kai kept his eyes closed as he sleepily muttered the words. Baz’s heart hitched, his fingers freezing where they’d still been toying with that supple strand of hair. Kai angled his mouth to press a kiss on the inside of Baz’s palm, sending a delighted shiver up his spine as his eyes finally opened, dark and heavy with sleep.
“Hi,” Baz whispered.
“Hi.”
“You know it’s actually well past noon, right?”
Kai grumbled in response, nestling in closer to Baz. “I don’t care.”
Baz couldn’t say he cared very much either as Kai kissed his neck. But the voices downstairs grew suddenly louder, pulling them both out of their haze. There was a jailbreak to keep planning, and with Kai’s recent sleepscape encounter with Romie—thethought of her fighting against Atheia’s hold brought Baz so much hope—they were closer than ever.
Kai heaved a sigh and sat up in bed, pressing his palms against his eyes. “All right,” he said. “What’s on your mind?”
Baz stayed quiet awhile, not wanting to let the peace of this moment come to an end. “I keep coming back to what Equilibris said about Emory not being strong enough to stop Clover,” he said at last. “His exact words were, ‘Your Tidecaller will never have the kind of power Clover imbibed.’ Meaning the keys, right?”
“Or the gods,” Kai said. “Hell, maybe even the souls of the dead.”
