“Okay, okay, enough flirting. Four kings!” Cam tossed his cards down with a flourish.
Eli wanted to ask Tav if they could stop her from dreaming. She wanted to touch their shoulder, to run her fingers through their hair. Instead she balled her hands into fists and sat up. Tried not to think about Kite’s light going out, the vacuum of dark and empty. Tried not to think at all.
“If Kite’s a friend, why haven’t we met them?” Tav looked back at their cards and Eli wondered if she just imagined the look of worry in their face.
“She’s a witch,” said Eli simply.
“So is the Hedge-Witch,” Tav pointed out.
“Yeah, but she ran away. And the only other witch we’ve met is Clytemnestra …” Cam shuddered. “I mean, I’m glad she rescued us, but I don’t know how safe I feel with witch allies.”
“Safer than without,” said Tav.
“She also might be dead,” Eli told the ceiling. Fingers interlocking over her knees. Tight, tighter, choking the joint. Waiting to feel something. Waiting for a sign.
Nothing.
She breathed.
“Or not,” she shrugged. “I think maybe not.”
“You think?” Cam shot her a worried look. “Are you still hallucinating?”
“No, just dreaming.” Eli laughed, and even to her own ears, it sounded wild.
“Clytemnestra said you needed to rest.” Tav played with the edges of their card.
“Where is my jacket?”
“She also said you needed to photosynthesize.” Tav bent one of the corners. “I wasn’t sure if she was joking or not.”
“I never know.” Eli suddenly felt exhausted again. She laid her head back down on the cool ground and let her eyes close. Home. She didn’t want to leave.
Eli woke in a single moment, sharp as a cut. Her eyelids snapped open. The sky was dark purple, and thick brambles twisted overhead.
Tav was sitting nearby.
“You can’t let me sleep,” she said, sitting up and checking for her pulse. “It’s too dangerous.”
“Clytemnestra was watching over you for a while, in case you ‘got out of hand,’ she said. Eli, you need to sleep.”
“I don’t trust her. Promise me you won’t let me sleep, Tav.”
“Eli —”
“Promise me. My dreams could kill us. You have to promise.” The panic was rising in her voice — why had she allowed herself to fall asleep? Was she a weak human now, with no self-discipline? “Promise me!”
“Okay. Okay, fine. I promise.” Tav glanced over, eyebrows raised. “Okay?”
“Okay. Good.” Eli exhaled. “Where’s Cam?”
“Still asleep.” Tav gestured to the pile of clothes in one corner of the room. “He got tired of losing at rummy.”
Eli nodded and began checking her blades for scratches. The silence hung between them like a string of lights.
“You could have died,” Tav whispered, their voice so soft that Eli could barely hear them.
“I don’t think that was even the closest I’ve come to death,” said Eli.
“You were struck by lightning.”
“Good thing I’m hard to kill.”
Tav shuffled the deck aimlessly. Then they crawled over to Eli.
“I’m glad you didn’t die.”
“Me, too.”
Another beat of silence, heavy with unsaid words. Eli waited.
“The Heart,” Tav said finally. “We’ve been sent for the Heart of the Coven.”
Eli’s head snapped up. “That’s impossible.”
Tav shook their head. “The Hedge-Witch says it’s possible, but a human has to carry it across worlds.”
“You came to steal the Heart?” she breathed.
“Yes.” Tav’s eyes were burning with intensity. “We want to steal the magic of this world. Think how we could use it. Think how it could help us!”
“Us, or you?”
Tav’s jaw tightened. “You’ve seen what it’s like in our city. You know the way people like me are treated. With magic, we could make a difference. We could change things!”
“It would be chaos.”
Tav leaned back against the rock and looked up at the constellations overhead. “Maybe chaos is better than violent order. But it doesn’t have to be chaos, Eli — we could build something better.”
“We?”
Tav moved closer. They reached over and brushed a strand of hair from Eli’s face. They were so close their breath clouded Eli’s glasses. “You could come with me. Once we have magic, the real fight begins. I could use your help.”
Eli swallowed. She felt trapped by the sparks in Tav’s eyes and the heat from their touch. But stealing the Heart, ripping it out of the world and transplanting it into a new one?
What would happen to the City of Eyes?
She wished Kite were here. With her knowledge, she might have the answer. But Tav wasn’t thinking about what could go wrong. They didn’t want to hear that their plan might fail. They were living on hope — and desperation. Eli understood that feeling. Instead of answering, Eli leaned forward and into danger. She brushed her lips against Tav’s. A spark lit up the dark. A sudden intake of breath. Eli hesitated. Then Tav kissed her back, and their hands were in her hair, and they were holding each other, pressing their bodies together.
This time, lightning didn’t strike. Instead, it danced around their bodies, as if it wanted to be a part of everything.
Eli had never been so grateful to have a body.
After a while, they both lay back on the cool rock. Eli wanted to ask how Tav was able to tell her their mission when Cam had been cursed into silence. She wanted to know if Cam, too, wanted to steal the witches’ magic.
There was something about Tav that was different from the other humans — she could taste it on her tongue. Something that made her blades tremble. And Tav had opened a door in the world. They had used magic.
“Does the Hedge-Witch know you can use magic?” she asked.
“No. At least she never said anything to me.”
“Maybe she didn’t want you to know.”
“I trust her, Eli.”
Eli sighed, feeling the tension creeping back into her joints. “I said I would take you to the Coven, and I’m going to. I can’t promise anything else.”
“I’ll take what I can get.” Eli could hear Tav’s smile through the darkness.
They lay side by side, hearts beating wildly, fingers intertwined.
Should she let Tav take the Heart? Could she stop them?
She pulled her hand away from Tav’s. “I need to see Clytemnestra.”
“Now?” Irritation gravelled Tav’s voice.
“Yeah, now.”
“I’ll come.”
“No! No — you need to stay with Cam.”
“Okay …”
“I won’t be long.”
Eli checked her knives, stood, and retrieved her jacket from across the room. She pressed her hand against one of the walls and it melted away, as if it recognized her touch. She stepped through into another identical room, and for a moment, her breathing stuttered as she gulped air. As a child, she had often enjoyed trapping creatures in a maze in the wall. But before Eli could panic, a wooden door grew out of the wall, vines and twigs stabbing and twisting together to form a perfect gate. The gate opened, and Clytemnestra skipped inside.