Page 74 of A Dusk Of Stars

I don’t feel prepared to think about it, butthat’sthe question that’s been plaguing me. If this is all real, does it mean I’ll have to sacrifice my life, no matter what happens?

It doesn’t help my mood, when I hear someone walking down the hallway bordering with the Junkyard and I see it’s Lorcan.

It’s the way that he throws a glance at me, that makes me feel this is no accident.

They’re keeping their eyes on me.

Right now, I really don’t like feeling watched, so I move to get up and go back to my room, when I hear another pair of footsteps, two in fact, and my eyes land on Raven and Alaric entering the Junkyard.

They walk up to me in silence, coming to stand in front of my bench. I’ve filled them in already, when I returned from my wanderings yesterday, but I was beat and we haven’t really had a chance to talk at length.

“Do you think it could be true?” I ask them.

“What’s the alternative?” Raven says.

I shrug. “They’re lying to me. I don’t know why they’d do that, but—” I break off, spotting Lorcan again. “Look at him,” I say as soon as he turns the corner, “getting ready to pounce.”

There’s a second of silence before Alaric asks, “Where’d you disappear to, Anna?”

My eyes are still fixed on the spot where I saw Lorcan disappear. It’s weighing on me, all those things I’ve never shared with anyone, that seem so important now. “I’ve a question for you two,” I say as I turn to look at them. “Have you ever touched something and felt yourself be transported someplace else?”

Alaric frowns. “Afraid not.”

I nod pensively. “When I was eight years old,” I start, the images flashing through my mind, “we went to visit this museum with the school. I remember being so excited because this boy from my class, he said we’d get to see a mummy. Real-life mummy. It’s only later, when I connected the dots — you know, some mummies being vampires in deep sleep — that I did a bit of research on the one they took us to see. All my researchsaid it was magic gone wrong, nothing to be done to wake this particular vampire up.”

“What does this have to do with you, Anna?” Raven asks.

“I wasn’t supposed to, you know, but I had this obsession with touching stuff that I felt were old, and so I lingered next to the mummy as the rest of the class moved on, and I touched it.”

I see Alaric’s eyebrows shoot up.

“I don’t think it matters what I saw. It’s all a blur now anyway. Flashes of war and glimpses of strange magic and stuff like that.”

An image of my mother’s listless eyes appears in front of me. I let out an awkward laugh. “When I told this person what I’d seen, she said I have an overactive imagination. That everyone gets flashes like that, it’s just images in your brain.”

“I believe what you’re describing is a vision,” Raven says matter-of-factly.

“Yeah. I guess it could be. They’re only getting more vivid these days.”

“What if itistrue, Anna?” Alaric asks. “What will you do?”

“As if I have a choice.”

“They told you youdo.”

“Oh,” I drawl mockingly, “so I should just keep going to classes, talking about exams with the two of you and ignoring the threat the world is under?” I shake my head. “No, I don’t have a choice,” I say. “So the question is not whether I’ll be dealing with this. It’s whether I can trust these people.”

I get up, feeling as if I’ve finally found something that will help me make my decision.

“You keep this for a while,” I tell Alaric as I hand him the book with the drawing, I’d like to make sure it stays safe.” He nods. “Now, I’m off to the meeting. Would you like to come with me?”

***

It’s fifteen to eight when the three of us step onto the seventh-floor landing of the Grimm Tower, finding Bane leaning against the wall with his arms folded, watching us intently.

They throw me off and make me slow down — the pale skin, the dark rings around his eyes, this stiffness in his muscles. It must be that merger I read about taking its toll on him.

Why is he here though?

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