“She said...” I close my eyes, trying to remember the exact words. “All the stars have chosen their champions. Soon we’ll learn if they chose wisely, or if they doomed us all.”
When I open my eyes, Logan’s watching me with an intensity that makes my skin prickle.
“What else?”
“Change is coming,” I continue. “The kind that reshapes worlds, topples kingdoms, and rewrites the laws of magic. The kind that requires champions willing to burn the old world to create the new, and to destroy those made from a darkness that shouldn’t exist.”
Logan’s jaw tightens. “Did she say what that means?”
“No.” I turn to face him fully. “But I think I know anyway, because Thad gave me a book—Divine Interference in Mortal Magic.It mentions four goddesses—the daughters of Selene. Moon, Sun, Star, and Storm. It says each one will choose a mortal champion to carry their light.”
“You think you’re one of them.”
It’s not a question.
“I think T—my pilot—is Tempest.” Saying it out loud makes it feel terrifyingly real. “I think that when she touched my forehead during that lightning storm and the plane went down, she gave me her magic. Storm magic.”
Logan’s quiet for a long moment.
He thinks I’m insane. Hedefinitelythinks I’m insane.
When he finally speaks, the words come out careful and measured.
“Do you know why she chose you, or what she expects you to do?”
“No. Neither does Constance, apparently. Or if she does, she’s not telling me.” I run my fingers through my hair, frustration building like sparks under my skin. “But there was something else she said that’s been stuck in my head.”
“Tell me.”
“She talked about Revenants. ‘The living dead that defy the laws of nature.’ She said they’re rising, and that some of them might be hiding in plain sight, within these walls.”
I watch Logan’s face, looking for any reaction. But he’s locked down, every muscle held so still he doesn’t look like he’s breathing.
“Oliver mentioned Revenants too,” I remind him. “In the passages, after we heard him scream.”
Logan’s fingers drift to the chain at his throat.
“I’ve seen the term in old texts, but the definitions vary,” he finally says. “Some say they’re an ancient sector of vampires. Others say they’re monsters caught between life and death.”
A cold draft cuts through the room, and the static under my skin flares, tiny sparks racing along my arms.
“But you don’t know for sure?”
“No.” He shakes his head. “Thad never mentioned anything about Revenants. Whatever Oliver found out, he must have discovered on his own.”
“Or maybe Thad did know about them.” I’m thinking out loud now, pieces clicking together. “Maybe Oliver found out and Thad killed him to keep it secret.”
“They’re both gone. We might never know the truth,” Logan says, carefully even, like I’m a firework he’s trying not to set off.
Gone.
It’s such a simple word for what we did on the Crown.
He crosses to me, his hands finding my shoulders. “We need to be more careful than ever. Because if Constance is looking for Revenants, she’ll be looking for anyone whose power doesn’t fit the normal patterns.”
Like me, with my storm magic. Or like Logan, with his abilities to compel other witches and travel back in time.
“So what do we do?” I ask.
