Still, Atheia hesitated for a beat more before steely resolution had her turning to Sidraeus, hands extended to untie him.
Panic seized Emory. If the gods got what they wanted, they would kill Atheia and Sidraeus. They would killRomie. And once they were done with Emory as their temporary vessel, it wouldn’t matter if she lived or died, because her best friend would be gone.
Romie had fought back against Atheia in order to get her friends freed. And if she could fight, then Emory could do the same for her.
She had no magic. She had no power against the gods impressing their will on hers. Still, she fought for words, a desperate plea, a shot in the dark. It rang in the echo chamber of her mind again and again.
Please help me.
She didn’t expect it to slip past her lips, to hear her own voice sounding in her ears. There was a familiar prickling at her wrist, where the Selenic Mark shone in a light she had never seen from it before. It echoed the spirals on Sidraeus, which suddenly flared with the same bright light.
She felt them then—an echo of the souls of the very first Tidecallers rising around her. As if her plea had called on them, just like the syrinx had done.
Perhaps the bargain she’d made tied their essence to her just as much as it tied them to Sidraeus, and they were here to help her now. To help them both.
Symbols appeared all over her skin, looking, she thought, like the tattoos Kai had on his collarbone.
The language of the gods.
They burst with a light so bright it hurt her eyes, and the scream that tore from her throat was somehow her own voice and the gods’ combined. But she felt the gods’ presence receding, shying away from that light, as if the symbols that the souls of the Tidecallers had manifested on Emory were a mark of protection against them. A ward that cast the gods out of her entirely, until she was just herself again.
Herself, but not entirely alone, and not at all powerless.
Emory flung herself at Atheia, gripping her wrists tight, hoping against all hope that whatever power had evicted the gods from her body could free Romie, too.
“Let go of me.” The words slithered out of Atheia, those kaleidoscope eyes burning with the fury of a thousand suns.
“Not until you give her back to me.”
But the symbols on Emory’s arms were already extinguished, their presence gone as quickly as it had come. She could no longer feel the souls of the Tidecallers.
Atheia seemed to realize this—how powerless Emory now was—and sent her flying across the corridor. Death magic gathered in her hands as she towered over Emory.
“The gods lied to you,” Emory said in a desperate attempt to stop her. “Clover had it right. They mean to kill you and Sidraeus.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Ifelttheir lie on my tongue. Heard their thoughts in my mind.”
Atheia didn’t seem to care. But before she could deliver her death blow, a resounding “No!” erupted from her.
FromRomie, who had wrested control of her body and was staring at Emory now through big, brown eyes.
“Go, Em,” she said. “Leave now before—”
Her eyes shifted to that kaleidoscope again, indicating Atheia had taken over.“Quiet,”she seethed, seemingly talking to herself. Her eyes shifted back to brown again as Romie screamed, and again back to Atheia, in a painful looking battle of wills.
“Emory!”
She whipped around to see Kai and Luce barreling toward her. Her heart sank. They were supposed to leave her here and escape with the others. Where Theodore and Farran had gone, she didn’t know.
“What are you—”
It came without sound, a spot of darkness right behind Kai and Luce that bloomed and grew. It swallowed part of the ceiling, swallowed the corridor they had emerged from, the everlight lanterns fixed to the wall. Rock crumbling all around it, suckedintoit. Like a pocket of sleepscape that was looking to devour the living.
Kai and Luce jumped out of the way with not a second to spare. When Emory locked eyes with Atheia, it was Romie staring back with horror. There was so much Emory wanted to say to her.Don’t stop fighting. I’m not giving up on you. We’ll find a way out of this.From the way Romie looked at her, the slight nod of her head, she understood. There was no time, might never be enough time, and this would have to be enough.
“Go!” Emory yelled at her, just as Atheia took control again.
