Baz turned to Alya, who was fussing over a tired-looking Vera. “You mentioned a train to Threnody?”
Alya gave a tight-lipped nod. “But the Regulators will probably be there waiting for us by now…”
“Why Threnody?” Vera asked.
“There’s a safe house there,” Baz said. “For Eclipse-born.”
Emory frowned. “Do you know where exactly in Threnody it is?”
“Near the old prep school is all I’ve been told,” said Alya.
“Can you get us there?” Emory asked the boy—theShadow. They exchanged a weighted glance, a silent conversation seeming to pass between them as time ticked on. Baz didn’t miss the way Emory gripped the dagger tighter, a threat that had the Shadow squaring his jaw and narrowing his eyes at her.
“Fine,” he said at last. “I’ll help. But you owe me, Tidecaller.”
“No.” Emory leveled him with a stony glare. “Iownyou.”
The Shadow looked like he was going to throttle her, yet all hedid was proffer his arm. She rested her hand on it, smug satisfaction tugging at her lips, leaving Baz to wonder what in the Tides’ name was going on here.
Emory instructed everyone to grab on to the Shadow. Baz was last to do so, hesitantly resting his hand next to Emory’s. The Shadow’s ecliptic eyes snapped to him the moment Baz touched him, as if seared by the contact.
And then darkness swallowed them all whole, and Dovermere Cove disappeared around them.
It felt oddly like when the threads of time in the sleepscape had dragged Baz and Kai back into the past, a maelstrom of swirling darkness pulling him at vast speed somewhere he did not know. But these were not threads of time, nor any magic Baz knew or understood.
When the world finally stopped spinning, he found himself standing on a familiar beach. Tall grass sang on the sloped dunes behind him. Seagulls flew overhead. If he strained his ear, he could almost hear the sound of Romie’s laughter as she ran into the waves.
He met Emory’s gaze, and it was like that precious shared memory flitted between them.
And then the Shadow had his hands wrapped around Baz’s neck, his eyes flaring unnaturally, mouth curled on a snarl. “I can smell him on you,” he hissed. “Did he send you here to return me to my prison?”
Baz sputtered, legs kicking wildly beneath him as the Shadow lifted him from the ground. He was distantly aware of Emory shouting at the Shadow, grasping at his arms to make him let go of Baz. Darkness gathered around him as if he were an umbra, tendrils of it wrapping around Baz’s torso and neck to squeeze the breath out of him.
Then, just as quickly as it started, his feet hit the ground, and thedarkness receded. The Shadow seemed taken aback, gasping for breath just as Baz was, the silver spirals on his skin flaring bright.
“You have the stench of time on you,” he snarled at Baz, rubbing at his own neck as ifhe’dbeen the one being choked. “What did thealmighty”—he spat the word like it was a curse— “promise you?”
“Who are you talking about?”
But even as Baz cried out the question, he knew the answer. And when the Shadow spoke his name, there was not a doubt in Baz’s mind who he meant.
“Equilibris.”
The god of balance.
“Look,” Nisha cried out, pointing farther up the beach, where the air seemed to shimmer and part like a curtain. Out of it appeared someone walking toward them with purpose. Beneath their open wool coat, they wore slacks and a billowing shirt with ample sleeves and layered necklaces.
Baz’s heart leapt at the familiar short hair, jet-black and streaked with more silver than he remembered. “Jae?”
Jae Ahn broke into a wide grin. “Thank the Tides, it is you!”
Baz was engulfed in Jae’s embrace, holding on to them tightly, heart swelling to know they were okay. It was in this moment that he finally allowed himself to breathe deep and think to himself that perhaps everything was going to be okay.
21EMORY
JAE AHN PARTED THE AIRlike a curtain again, waving them through. Emory remembered Baz talking about the Illusionist, and seeing them now, the kind of magic they wielded, she understood Baz’s quiet reverence for them.
When the group stepped through, they were still on the beach, but Emory could feel magic crackling around her. Not just Illusionist magic, but Wardcrafter, too.
