“Good?” Olivier finally says.
She smiles, relieved, and nods. “Yes. Good.”
Olivier pulls her into a side hug and squeezes her shoulder. She winks. “Good.”
When Cassius emerges, he’s wearing a strained smile.
“It went well, I presume?” Professor Olivier asks him.
“As well as it always does.” His voice is flat.
They walk back to the classroom in silence, and Claudia is about to explode. When Olivier opens the door, Claudia asks, “Can Cassius and I have a quick minute out here, Professor?”
Her gaze flits between the two of them. “Of course.”
The moment the door closes behind her, Claudia grabs Cassius’s hand. Eyes full of urgency, she whispers to him, “What do you see in your dreams?”
“What?”
“Tell me what you see in your dreams,” she urges.
“I—I see myself praying at the altar of Malevimus, and he answers. I can never hear him. It—it’s just noise. But it’s there.”
Claudia nods, her gaze locked with his. “Cassius, I think Malevimus has been trying to speak to you in your dreams. He gave me a message for you.”
His jaw drops in total bewilderment. “What did you just say?”
“He said to tell you that your dreams are real.”
Cassius stares for a long time. His brows settle in a tight, pinched line. When it’s clear he’s not going to say anything, Claudia continues with, “You’re the Dreamer your ancestor wrote about in those papers you shared with me. The one who will break the curse.”
He steps back, fumbling for a response. Running his fingers through his hair, he spits out a string of unintelligible consonants until he finds the wherewithal to say, “You used one of your questions on me?”
She shakes her head. “Malevimus let me use yours.”
His eyes turn shiny, but he blinks tightly and takes a deep breath. “No. It’s not possible. I’ve tried to get others to speak to the gods for me. It has never worked. The curse is too strong. It’s inhibited any messages meant for me, even if the gods aren’t speaking to me directly. No one can be my bridge.”
She doesn’t speak, nor does she falter. She looks deep into his eyes with the utmost sincerity and says, “I can.” She tightens her grip on his hand. “I did.”
“How?”
“I don’t know,” she lies. Something in her gut tells her not to mention her connection to his curse. She doesn’t understand it enough to explain it.
He stares at his hand in hers for too long before he takes a big, shaky breath. “What else did you ask?”
She looks down, slightly ashamed. “I asked him how Odette died and if you had anything to do with it.”
He holds his hand over his heart. “You thought thatI—”
“You thought the same of me!”
He surveys her, shiny eyes roaming over her whole body and settling on her face, searching for the truth. “It really wasn’t you, was it? You didn’t have anything to do with what happened to her.”
“No, I did not.”
He’s leaning down to her, foreheads almost touching. “Are you telling the truth?”
Claudia groans and throws her hands up in frustration. “Look into my eyes, Cassius.” She takes his face in her hands and holds him still with barely the space for a breath between them. “Malevimus told me that your dreams are real. You are going to break your family’s curse. You didn’t kill Odette, and neither did I. That is all I know, but I swear to you it is true.”
