Arik glanced over his shoulder at me. “Keep an eye on the top of the bookcases.”
“Okay,” I said. I felt uneasy partnering with him again. Though we made a great team, I wasn’t sure I could trust him anymore. The cut healing on my lip reminded me he was the one who put me in the gallows. But I decided to go with it. Keep your enemies closer.
Jaran and Demos, back to back, were a few steps down from us. Lei had teamed up with one of the French Sentinels, Abre, an athletic girl with short brown hair and bee-stung lips. I wondered how Lei felt having a different partner. Before Kale had died, she’d been with him since the first year at the Asile Academy.
The silver tracer came out from behind a bookcase and darted in the air around us. We followed it to a room with a round table and more than a dozen red leather chairs surrounding it. We stepped inside.
Across the room, the tracer flew into the stone hearth, which, with the chairs and cabinet in front of it, looked to be out of use. The fireplace moved forward, pushing the furniture with it. We backed up as the table approached us. It stopped, and footsteps sounded from inside the opening.
A Talpar poked his head out from around the side of the hearth, the feelers on his nose sensing the air. He moved all the way out, carrying a gateway book. His large feet shuffled across the wooden floor, his eyes shifting from face to face.
The silver tracer rushed to me. I held up my wrist, and it landed, its butterfly body sinking into my skin.
Arik went to the Talpar and accepted the book he offered.
“When we had our own coven, just outside of Esteril,” the Talpar said, his nose twitching, “this was ours. But Conemar has destroyed our home, forcing us to move into the tunnels. By the kindness of strangers, we made new homes within their covens. We gladly relinquish this gateway book to stop the same fate falling upon other Mystik races.”
The Talpar returned to the hearth and disappeared around it. The fireplace moved back into place, the furniture staying where it had been pushed.
The book in Arik’s hand shook. He placed it on the floor. The pages flipped, stopped, and Aetnae darted out.
“Oh my, oh my,” she said, zipping around excitedly.
“Aetnae, slow down,” I said.
She landed on my shoulder, but she could barely stay still. “The worlds are ending. Have you seen the Mystik Observer? The live news?”
“Yes,” Arik said. “We are aware of what’s going on.”
“Did you know there was an article about what the council was up to? They arrested a group of Greyhillians who ran the underground press, and then…and then the Tetrad attacked the coven. A massive earthquake.” She took a deep breath.
“Slow down,” I said, “you’re going to fall off.”
Demos stepped closer to us. “Have you heard anything of a bird girl named Shyna there?”
“No,” she said. “I’m sorry. But I could have the curers ask about her when they go to aid the injured.”
“I’d appreciate it,” Demos said, his head lowering.
“There’s more,” she continued. “The Tetrad caused a tsunami in Veilig. The Aqualian undersea village was destroyed and many died.”
“Oh no,” I said, looking at Arik. “We have to stop it.”
Aetnae tugged at my hair. “I followed that boy you said liked me. The one with cropped brown hair and large wings. It was innocent, really. It’s not as if I was being nosy. A girl just needs to know what a boy is like before—”
“Do you mean Sen?” I had to stop her. She was making my head hurt.
“Yep.” She stomped her foot against my shoulder. “He’s a spy. That bug. I’m going to smoosh him flat if ever I see him again. He told Conemar what you were up to.”
“So that’s how Conemar found us,” I said.
Then I had an idea. “Aetnae, do you think you can follow him again? Bastien”—I swallowed, his name touching my lips tearing at my heart—“was taken by Conemar’s Writhes.”
“I don’t have to follow him,” she said. “Conemar is bringing his army and the Tetrad to Barmhilde. Sen told him where you are hiding.”
My heart felt like it had collapsed. The Tetrad was coming. There were so many families in the coven. And because of me, they were in danger.
“All right,” Lei said, walking around, giving each of us a stern look. “We know what’s coming. We must get with The Red and Edgar and prepare the coven for an attack. We’re on the defense, so we must gear our plan toward holding our ground and preventing loss of life.”
“There isn’t a gateway book registered to this library,” Jaran said. “That should slow them down.”
“It should,” Arik agreed. “So we’ll use the time to our advantage.”
“Let him come,” Lei said with a fierce glare in her eyes. “Because of him, Kale is dead. I want a piece of him.”
Because of him, Bastien is missing. I hoped she’d save a piece for me.
We returned to the coven and prepared for the attack we knew would come soon.
I sat on a bench near the fire pit in the middle of the camp and ran the blade of my sword across a sharpening stone. Arik dropped his canteen on the ground and took a seat beside me, picked up a stone, and started sharpening his own weapon.
Emily approached carrying a basket of sandwiches wrapped in wax paper. “Are you hungry?”
“Famished,” Arik said.
She extended the basket to him, and he took one.
“Take two.” She smiled. “You have to keep up your strength.”
He grabbed another one and put both on the rock beside him.
She moved the basket in front of me. “How about you?”
“Thanks.” I took two and put one down beside me.
She headed over to Jaran and Lei, practicing their sword skills. I placed my sword on the ground.
“How are you holding up?” Arik ran his blade across the stone with a shiiiiing.
I focused on unwrapping the sandwich in my hand, letting my hair fall against my cheek so he wouldn’t see the tears. “What happened keeps popping into my head. It’s like a horror film on replay. I lose my grip on Bastien, and those creatures pull him into the gateway.”
Arik dragged his sword across the stone again. “It was the same with me when my parent faery was taken by that hound. It will get better.”
“It will never get better,” I said. Or maybe getting better meant not having a heart at all. Never wanting to love another person again.
“I understand,” he said. “You care for him. Loss is painful. I’m just starting to feel again.” He glanced at Emily.
My eyes went from Emily to him. They were falling for each other. I took a bite of the sandwich. It was chicken salad, but I couldn’t taste it. There was no enjoyment in food or much of anything else for me since Bastien was taken. I forced myself to eat to keep up my strength like Emily had suggested.
He lifted a smile. “Good to see you have your appetite back.”