They’d wordlessly dragged each other out of the caves before the umbra could return. The incoming tide hadn’t been so bad after all, half-hearted waves battering against the cliffside. The shoreline had been close enough to swim. The whole cliffside had seemed to shake when Baz released his hold on his magic. Rocks had fallen as time resumed, and as they swam for the shore, Baz felt the strange caress of Dovermere against his magic, pleading, Wait, don’t go.
He reached now for one of the wool blankets they’d left on the beach and wrapped it around Emory. Sunken eyes met his, and in them he saw everything that felt too big and impossible to say.
He’d saved her from Collapsing—had reversed it, this thing that was supposed to be inevitable, unconquerable. It should have eclipsed her entirely and left nothing but raw, destructive power in its wake, but here she still was, still her. Still safe.
Emory grabbed his hand, searching for signs of silver in his own veins. “Are you…”
“I’m fine.”
Unease filled the space between his lungs where the words had been lodged. He was absolutely, completely fine. There had been no bottom to his magic, no end in sight, nothing to warn him that he might have gone too far past that line, and so he was fine.
Too easy. It shouldn’t have been so easy to wield such magic. He should have Collapsed trying to prevent her from doing so herself.
Adrenaline coursed through him, made him dizzy with wonder. If he had enough control over his magic to stop other people’s Collapsings… it could change everything. Eclipse-born students might truly find sanctuary at Aldryn with him there to protect them.
It was such an impossible, ludicrous thought, something Baz would never have even let himself dream of before. It felt like the whole world was unfurling before him, rife with possibility.
Emory looked at him like she was thinking the same thing, like she was seeing him for all he could be if he finally shed his fears, and it was a rush all its own, to have her look at him in such a way. Their labored breaths fogged the air between them as they held each other’s gaze, the waves clamoring against the cliffside serving as a stark reminder of what they’d so narrowly escaped.
And suddenly they were wheezing with delirious laughter, the tension and horror and impossibility of it all coming to a crest. Emory leaned into him, and he wasn’t sure if her shaking was from laughter alone or cold and shock as well. His cheek pressed against her sopping hair, fingers numb as he gripped the blanket around her. She tilted her face up to his, so close they breathed each other in. There was no laughter now, only stark reality, the warmth between them that proved they were still alive.
Nothing is out of your reach.
For once, Baz didn’t think.
Before he knew what he was doing, he grabbed her face between his hands and kissed her.
His mind went blank at the sea-salt taste of her lips. Emory hesitated for the briefest, most terrifying second before her mouth moved against his, soft and warm and inviting in a way he hadn’t known he’d craved until just now. A small sound rumbled at the back of his throat as she deepened the kiss. But then she was pulling away, holding him at arm’s length.
Baz blinked incomprehensibly. Emory was frowning down at her hand, where the sacred spiral glowed silver on her wrist. For a terrible moment, he thought she might have Collapsed after all. He reached for her arm, fear coating his mouth.
“Emory…”
She had a faraway look in her eye, as if she saw something he could not.
“What happened?” she breathed.
A sick, sinking feeling tugged on Baz. “I’m sorry, I thought—”
“Keiran, what are you talking about?”
Keiran?
Baz scanned the beach. There was no one here but them. Emory still had that distant look, all color leeched from her skin. He shook her lightly, his mind racing. She blinked. Swore. Finally, she came back to herself, her eyes clearing to focus on him.
“Are you all right?”
“It’s over,” she said as if still in a daze.
“Emory, what—”
“The dean found out I’m a Tidecaller.” She wrenched herself away from Baz, wiping furiously at her face. “She knows you’ve been helping me train. She’s on her way here to deal with us right now.” Her lip trembled. “I’m so sorry, Baz.”
“Emory, slow down.” What the fuck had just happened? “Fulton can’t possibly have found out. I’m the only one who knows…”
He eyed the mark on her wrist again, no longer faintly glowing. His shoulders fell as he put the pieces together. “You were talking to Keiran through the mark.”
Just like she’d tried with Romie the night Lia reappeared.
“Does he know you’re Eclipse-born?”
“Baz…”
The remorse in her eyes was all the answer he needed. And it was a knife twisting in his gut, this realization that he wasn’t the only one to bear her secret, to have earned her trust. That she would share such a thing with Keiran Dunhall Thornby, of all people…
Horror and anger and hurt rose in his throat. “He’s part of this, isn’t he?”
Dovermere, the drownings, those marks on everyone’s Tides-damned wrists…
Baz had known from the start that Emory was keeping things from him, and all along he’d been too blinded by his feelings for her, too scared of losing the fragile, rekindled bond between them to dig deeper.
But this—this, he couldn’t overlook.
“Is Keiran the reason Romie’s gone?”
“Of course not. He’s trying to help me save her.”
Baz huffed a cold laugh. “You can’t trust him, Emory. Whatever he’s told you, whatever it is you’re involved in… There’s no way he would ever work alongside an Eclipse-born unless he had some ulterior motive. He doesn’t care about saving Romie. He clearly doesn’t care about you if he betrayed you to the dean.”
“It wasn’t him,” Emory asserted. “And you’ve got him all wrong.”
“His parents were killed in a Collapsing incident.”
“I know. He told me everything.”
Baz flinched. “And did he also tell you who their killer was?”
She looked away, and it was confirmation enough.
“My father took his family away from him. Ever since, he’s had it out for me, for Romie, for the entire Brysden family and every single Eclipse-born there is. Tides, he even broke up Kai and his former lover because he couldn’t stand the idea of his friend being with some lowly Eclipse-born.”
This seemed to startle her, but she quickly composed herself. “It’s not like that. He’s not like that.” She drew herself up angrily, a defensive gleam in her eyes. “He sees the value in my power and has never once been afraid of it. Unlike you.”
“Then he must be a damn good liar, and you must be more of a fool than I thought. Tides, it makes me the even bigger fool, because despite everything in me screaming that I couldn’t trust you, I did. I took a chance on you, and I—”
He bit back his words, shaking his head, trying to make sense of this emotional whiplash. A moment ago, he was kissing her, thinking nothing had ever felt so right in his life. For the first time, he’d put himself out there, laid bare his heart, and dared to hope she might feel something of the same toward him.