Cassandra’s lids fluttered open, her eyesight adjusting.
Ronin was leaned against the dresser in her bedroom at Mireille’s, arms crossed, a worried expression tightening his features.
Mireille was seated next to the bed. “What happened?” The concern on her face belied the lack of sympathy in her tone.
“I…I don’t…” Cassandra started, her mouth dry and her tongue thick. Mireille handed her a glass of water from the nightstand. Cassandra pushed up, electric pain sparking in her head, but took the glass and gulped down half. “Where did you find me?”
“Nowhere you were supposed to be,” Ronin said, eye narrowing. “You were laying at the end of the bridge into the city. At the edge of the mists. What were you thinking? Why did you go down there?”
Cassandra handed the glass back to Mireille, then circled her fingers against her temples, willing away her headache.
Willing away the vision she’d seen in that pool.
Tristan.
With Ione.
KissingIone.
Those fissures in her heart deepened and she wished she could slip back into unconsciousness. Maybe forever.
She crashed back onto the pillows. “I went back for Reena. I thought?—”
“Foolish,” Ronin snarled. “Why didn’t you tell me? I would’ve gone with you.”
And even though she knew where his frustration was coming from—his search for Selene had yet to bear fruit—she bristled. “I wasn’t aware I needed yourpermission.”
Cassandra looked toward Mireille, expecting to find the same anger she’d heard in Ronin’s tone, but instead found a soft understanding.
Ronin ignored Cassandra’s jab. “Obviously you didn’t find her. What.Happened?”
Cassandra told them what she’d seen in the mists, the red desert that Reena had led her to. The vision in that pool surrounded by the multi-colored trees.
“How is any of that possible?” she asked.
Ronin and Mireille shared a wary glance.
“It sounds like you may have visited the Halfway,” Mireille said carefully.
“The what?”
“The Halfway. The realm between worlds ruled by the Creator. It’s where our souls go when we die. While we wait for Adelphinae to deliver us into a new body in a new world. Some believe that the black mists surrounding Tartarus are made up of the souls of prisoners who’ve died here. That they’ve been trapped since death, unable to breach the wards.”
Cassandra shuddered, remembering those voices she’d heard. She turned a panicked glance to Ronin. “Reena was there. In the Halfway. Does that mean she’s…”
“Was she glowing?” Mireille asked. “Was there a multi-colored halo around her?”
“No, not that I?—”
“Then she was just a visitor. She’s not dead,” Mireille said. “Perhaps the Goddess asked Reena to lead you there. Showed you that vision on purpose.”
At the moment, Cassandra couldn’t imagine what that purpose could possibly be.
She turned to Ronin, her heart squeezing though she forced herself to ask the question. “Ione Saros,” she said, the name burning up her throat. “She’s alive, then?”
Ronin gave her a stiff nod. “She’s the leader of the Teles Chrysos. Along with Trophonios.”
Cassandra slumped back against the pillows, shock stealing through her. “Trophonios?”
