Page 83 of Avalon Tower

No, hang on. Nia. I. Am. Nia.

“Because we need to go through the veil,” Viviane says. She sounds furious.

“Okay. We did that once, we can do it again,” I point out.

Raphael looks at me. “I agree.”

“Raphael.” Viviane’s voice is steely. “She can’t get us through. If what she says is true, she’s gone. It’s a marvel she can still talk, but we don’t know who she even is anymore. And there’s no way in hell she can focus enough to use her Sentinel powers.”

“Yes, I can.” I know it’s true. I feel both my powers pulsating inside me, awake.

“She can,” Raphael repeats after me. “She’ll get us through. There’s no other way, in any case. The royal prince has probably already found out that his map is gone. We have to get out of here tonight.”

“The map!” I suddenly recall. “We have the map?”

He flashes me a dazzling smile. “We have, thanks to you.”

“Okay. Good.”

Raphael slides his arm around my waist and helps me stand. I stare at the torchlight flickering on the walls. “Where are we?”

“In an empty room in the lower level of the Château des Rêves,” says Freya.

She’s a chambermaid. I narrow my eyes at her. No, she’s pretending to be a chambermaid. She’s a human agent! I should tell Talan at once, and then I’ll finally have his respect.

No, hang on. I’m Nia. I shut my eyes and take a deep breath, trying to pry apart the pieces of my mind that belong to me.

We step out to one of the hallways in the château. I’m completely disoriented, don’t even recall how we got here, but Raphael leads us confidently. He sets a brisk pace, fast enough to get out quickly, but slow enough to avoid making too much noise and draw unwanted attention from the servants down here.

We pass a small kitchen and a threadbare woven rug. The ceilings are lower than the ones upstairs. We walk past numerous rooms identical to the empty crypt we just left. A coat of arms hangs on one wall. I try to keep pace with them, but my head is still shrieking. I see the world through a haze, but Raphael’s arm around my waist steadies me.

Raphael stops short. “Hang on. We missed a turn.”

“Are you sure?” Viviane asks.

“Yeah. We need to go back.” He turns around. “Come on.”

I follow him, past the threadbare rug, the coat of arms, and twenty or more other rooms. So many rooms.

“What the hell?” Raphael mutters, looking around.

“I think we missed a turn again,” Viviane says.

“There were no turns, Viviane,” I say.

“What are you talking about?” she snaps. “There were a dozen turns. Where’s Freya?”

My heart thuds. Freya is not with us anymore.

“Something’s wrong,” Raphael says.

“She probably went outside and didn’t notice that we weren’t with her,” Viviane offers, but I can hear the uncertainty in her voice. “Come on, I’ll lead. Through there, see?”

She points at a fork in the corridor that we somehow missed before. Now Viviane takes the lead, marching confidently on. We walk past the coat of arms again.

“We were here just a second ago,” I say.

“No.” She shoots daggers at me. “And you’re the last person we should be listening to.”