Baz tensed, not knowing if he could trust her. But then, whywould she risk runningtowarddeadly arrows and the monstrous incoming tide?
And that’s when he recognized the other woman. Alya Kazan, her white-blond curls so similar to Luce’s that Baz felt a pang of grief like a punch to the gut. Alya, he knew he could trust. And when both women stopped at the edge of the grass, beckoning him over with increasing urgency, Baz knew they would get him to safety.
He ran as quick as he could, lungs burning as he drew in cold air and breathed out magic to stop the arrows behind him and slow the tsunami coming in. When he finally reached them, he nearly crashed into Alya, panting loudly.
“What are you—” he tried, “how did you know—”
Alya was bent at the waist, fighting for breath. “We’ve been monitoring the coast in case any of you returned from the other worlds,” she explained.
“And I saw you coming,” Ife said. “In a vision, I mean.”
She was a Seer, Baz recalled, catching a glimpse of the House New Moon sigil on the back of her hand.
Alya eyed the wave warily. “There’s a train that’ll take us to Threnody—”
“Threnody?” Baz echoed, confused.
“That’s where everyone is. We needed a safe house away from the Regulators. Jae’s got a place there.”
Of course—the safe house where Jae had been training Collapsed Eclipse-born in secret.
“Are the others not with you?” Ife asked, searching the coastline behind Baz.
“Others?” Baz repeated.
“Vera, Kai, Nisha, Virgil…”
Right. The last thing people here would remember was Baz going through the door with all of them. They didn’t know abouttheir group being separated, about the time travel, about Clover.
“It’s just me,” Baz said softly. “Is my dad…”
“He’s fine,” Alya cut in. “In Threnody. But there will be time for all that later. We need to get behind the wards around Cadence before that wave hits and—”
Ife drew a sharp breath. “What in the Tides’ name isthat?”
She was pointing to the mouth of Dovermere, where shadows spilled from the cave, slowly crawling over the silt and sand and lighthouse ruins. Drutten and his people had also spotted the disturbance and were now turning their magic on the cave mouth rather than Baz.
Baz had half a mind to let go of his magic so that the incoming tidal wave would drown whatever was trying to seep out of the cave and maybe break against the cliffside so hard that it would take Drutten with it. He was already straining against the force of the Aldersea, wouldn’t be able to hold it much longer.
But then—shapes emerged from the shadows. Baz’s first thought was that the umbrae might have slipped through the cracks when he emerged from the door, but these werepeople. Three faces Baz recognized as Virgil, Nisha, and Vera, dressed in clothes that belonged to another time, another world. One he did not recognize at all, a boy with dark auburn hair, his features timeless and his eyes flashing oddly in the daylight. And the last…
Mousy blond hair that was longer than he remembered. Messy fringe no longer kissing her brows but curling around her chin. Eyes like the Aldersea rising to meet them.
Emory.
She washere.
And she was walking straight toward Drutten’s arrows.
“No!” Baz shouted, reaching desperately for the threads of time that would stop the arrows from hitting their new target. But the arrowsexplodedbefore they reached Emory or the others,crackling with dark energy that was then shot back toward the Eclipse commons, making Drutten and his people scramble for safety.
Baz’s grasp on the tidal wave slipped, and there was a horrible sound as the wave picked up speed, momentarily freed from time’s hold. Alya clutched her neck, Vera’s name on her lips. Ife was shouting Virgil and Nisha’s names, but they didn’t seem to hear her. More magic shot from the Eclipse commons toward the beach, but it never reached the newcomers, as if some sort of protective ward enveloped them. A ward no doubt erected by Emory.
But even she wouldn’t be able to stop the Aldersea coming for them. Baz ground his teeth and with all his might pulled on as many threads as he could grasp. He couldn’t control the entire Aldersea at once, but he erected a perimeter around the cove that stood outside of time, frozen to the elements outside of it, so that the wave would break against it, and notthem.
He wasn’t prepared for the sheer force of the tide as it hit. It beat relentlessly against his magic, wave after wave breaking against his time shield, quickly eroding it despite his best efforts. Miraculously, he managed to keep the shield up until at last the tide was drawing back out toward the horizon, leaving those on the beach unscathed.
Baz fell to his knees, out of breath, out of strength. But Emory and the others were still in the line of danger, not from the Aldersea but from Drutten and his Regulators.
