Page 82 of Avalon Tower
“I think so,” I say softly. “But I don’t even know who I am.”
He tugs my wrist, and we’re bounding down the stairs. But I can’t tell where my body is, and it’s only a few steps before I stumble and fall. Raphael sweeps me up in his strong arms, and I melt against him.
CHAPTER 26
I’m sitting in a chair with my eyes shut, holding my head in my hands, hoping to anchor it and keep it in place.
“Raphael, we have to go.” I hear Viviane’s voice through the cacophony. Her words intermingle with the voices in my mind.
Raphael sits next to me, stroking my back. “Just give Nia a moment.”
I listen to them talk from a distance, wondering who Nia is. It takes me a few deep breaths to remember. Ah! Nia might be me.
“What’s wrong with her?” Viviane snaps. “What has she done?”
“She’ll be fine,” says Raphael.
“Why don’t you tell me the fucking truth?” the woman says sharply. “She’s overdosing on some kind of magic, isn’t she? I can feel it emanating from her. Except it isn’t Sentinel magic because there was no veil in there. So what, exactly, is happening?”
Raphael lets out a sigh. “Telepathy. She used it on too many people at once. But you cannot tell anyone she has diametric magic. We need her.” He sounds short, impatient. “They will kick out anyone with two powers. They’ll say she’s going to be another Mordred. She’s not trained in telepathy, so she didn’t know the dangers. We’ve been trying to suppress that magic, but I guess she thought it might be useful. Viviane, we need her.”
Freya swears. “How many minds did she read, three? Four? If it’s four, she might already be lost to us. She’s strong, but I don’t know if she can hold the thoughts of that many people at once.”
“I don’t know,” says Raphael. “It might be more than four.”
“I think it’s twelve,” I mumble. “Or thirteen. It’s hard to count because they keep jumbling together.”
Silence follows my words, and I wonder for a minute if they’re even here, or more voices in my mind.
I open my eyes to find Raphael, Viviane, and Freya all staring at me, stunned.
“What?” I ask faintly.
“Please tell me you didn’t.” Raphael’s fingers flex on my back. “Telepaths aren’t supposed to read more than one or two minds close together because they can lose themselves in the sea of consciousness.”
“The sea of consciousness,” I repeat, staring at a flagstone floor. It sounds nice. And appropriate. That’s what I have in my mind right now. A nauseating, churning sea.
“It can’t have been twelve,” Raphael says firmly.
For a moment, I almost believe him. “At least twelve,” I repeat.
“That’s impossible,” Freya blurts.
“There was Lumos, and Gaia, and Belrior.” I count them on my fingers. “And Calixto, and Nia—”
“You’re Nia!” Viviane snarls.
“Oh, right. I’m Nia. Anyway, there were at least twelve. Thirteen including Nia, but I guess she doesn’t count? I mean me. Me doesn’t count. I doesn’t count.”
I frown. That doesn’t sound right, either, but the words are confusing. So many of them. Nia knows a lot of languages, but Calixto knows different languages, and so does Gaia, and the grammar and words keep getting muddled in my mind.
“Gods,” Freya says.
“We need a different getaway plan,” Viviane says. “She won’t be able to control the veil like this.”
This room is all shadows and stone arches, like a crypt beneath a cathedral.
“Why?” I ask, trying to focus on the conversation. It keeps me grounded, reminds me who I really am, Calixto.