Chapter 11

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After dinner, I pretend I've got a headache and Mrs. Nightwing sends me straight to bed

with a hot-water bottle. It means passing up an invitation to Felicity's suddenly open

sanctuary in the great hall—thanks to my newfound status as the keeper of her secrets—

but there's only one thought in my mind: There has to be a way to control my visions

rather than have them control me.

I'm in the hallway when a small thump stops me. Shadows flit across the floor and wall.

Someone is in my room. Heart racing, spine flat against the wall, I creep toward my room

and peek in. Kartik is at my desk, no doubt leaving me another cryptic warning. Right.

Not this time. Fast as I can, I streak to the open window where he's come in and latch it

tight. He whips around, ready for a fight.

"There's only one way out now," I say, breathless.

His eyes narrow. "Step aside."

"Not until you answer a few questions."

I've blocked off his only means of escape. If I make a sound, scream, he'll be caught. For

the moment, he's trapped. He folds his arms across his chest and glares, waiting for me to

talk.

"What are you doing in my room?"

"Nothing," he says, crumpling the paper in his fist tightly enough for me to hear it.

"Leaving another message?"

He shrugs. We're going nowhere fast.

"Why did you help me today in the woods?"

"You needed it."

My temper flares. "I most certainly did not."

He scoffs, and it makes him look less menacing. He's all of seventeen again. "As you

wish."

"My plan worked, didn't it?"

The arms unfold. His eyes widen. "Your plan worked because I talked Ithal into leaving.

What do you think would have happened if I hadn't?"

The truth is that I don't know. I can't think of anything to say.

"Right. I'll tell you. That stubborn Gypsy would have stayed and your little friend who

likes to play with fire would have been very badly burned—expelled, ruined socially,

whispered about for the rest of her life." He mimics the high, prim voice of a society

matron." 'Oh, did you hear about her? Oh, my dear, yes, caught in the woods with a

heathen.' Tell your friend to stick to her own kind and stop toying with Ithal."

"She's not my friend," I say.

He arches an eyebrow. "Who are your friends, then?"

I open my mouth but nothing comes out.

He smirks. "May I go now?"

"Not yet." It's bold of me when I don't feel bold at all. But I need more information from

him. "Who is the 'we' that you mentioned? Why are they afraid of my visions?"

"I don't have to tell you anything."

I hate him, standing in my room as if he owns it and me, issuing warnings and insults,

sharing nothing. "Shall I tell you what happens if I scream bloody murder right this

minute and you're caught as a thief?" It's the wrong thing to say. Lightning fast, he's got

me pinned against the wall, his arm to my throat.

"Do you think you can stop me? I am Rakshana. Our brotherhood has existed for

centuries, stretching to the time of the Knights Templar, Arthur, and Charlemagne. We are

the guardians of the realms now, and we have no intention of giving it back. The time of

the old ways is past. We won't let you bring it back."

The pressure of his arm makes me feel dizzy. "I—I don't understand."

"You could change everything. Enter the realms. That's why they want you." He loosens

his hold, lets me go.

My eyes water. I rub at my throat. "Who? Who wants me?"

"The Order." He spits out the name. "Circe."

Circe. That was the name Kartik's brother told my mother in the marketplace.

"I don't understand all these names. Who are the Rakshana, the Order, Circe—"

He cuts me off. "You only need to know what I tell you, and that is to stop these visions

before they lead you into danger."

"What if I told you my mother came to me today in a vision?"

"I don't believe you," Kartik says, but his face drains of color.

"She left me this." I pull out the fabric I've kept tucked near my heart. He stares at it. "I

saw your brother there, too."

"You saw Amar?"

"Yes. He was in some sort of frozen wasteland—"

His voice is quiet but harsh. "Stop it."

"Do you know that place? Is that where my mother is?"

"I said stop it!"

"But what if they're trying to reach me through these visions? Why else would she leave

me this?" I hold out the blue silk.

"This proves nothing!" he says, holding my arms tightly. "Listen to me: That was not my

brother or your mother you saw, understand? It was just an illusion. You must put it out of

your mind."

Put it out of my mind? It's the only thing I'm living for. "I think she was trying to tell me

something."

He shakes his head. "It's not real."

"How do you know that?"

His words are sharp and deliberate. "Because this is what Circe and the Order do—they'll

use any trickery they have to get what they want. Your mother and my brother are dead.

They killed them to get to you. Remember that the next time you are tempted by those

visions, Miss Doyle." There's pity in his eyes. It's harder to bear than his hatred. "The

realms must stay closed, Miss Doyle. For all our sakes."

I'm responsible for their deaths. He's all but said it out loud. He won't help me. There's no

use trying. The muffled drone of girls drifts up from below. They'll be coming up any

moment. But there's one thing more I need to know.

"What about Mary Dowd?" I say, waiting to see what he knows about her.

"Who is Mary Dowd?" he says, distracted by the soft thud of feet on stairs. He doesn't

know. Whoever he works for, they don't trust him with everything.

"My friend. You did ask me if I had any friends, didn't you?"

"So I did." There are footsteps on the landing. He pushes me aside and like a cat, he's

over the sill and out through the window. I can see the knotted rope he's secured to the

wall through a loop in a small railing. It's nestled into a thick patch of ivy, making it hard

to see if you're not looking for it. Clever, but not infallible. And neither is he.

Closing the window behind him, I put my mouth up to the windowpane, watch my breath

fog it over with each quiet word. "You may give the Rakshana a message for me, Kartik

the messenger. That was my mother in the woods today. And I'm going to find her

whether you help me or not."