Page 196 of The Mask Falling

“Hey, is this a joke?” one of them shouted across the street.

Several people ran straight past me, even though I wore no mask. It was too dark for them to see Paige Mahoney. Where they were going, I had no idea.

Ducos would know what was happening. I groped for the phone and selected the only number in the contact list. When I held it to my ear, all I could hear was a long tone. I tried to search the æther for anyone I knew, but the pain was too much, and I gave up. Out of options, I started to walk, not sure where I was going—only that I had to move, because I had someone to find. Either Cade knew how I had ended up in chains, or he had been the one to chain me.

Even though it was the middle of the night, the streets were thronged with people. Voices shouted in anger and confusion, but their voices sounded far away, too far to hear. Snow tumbled into my hair and caught on my lashes.

I was almost at the river when the streetlamps flickered and went out. Every single one.

More shouts went up. Some screams, too, high and thin. In the near distance, I could see the bright glow from the screens on the wide Pont de L’Inquisition. By the time I reached the nearer of the two, I was so cold I could no longer feel most of my face, or any of my fingers.

scioneye emergency transmission

regular announcements have been suspended

stand by for further instruction

les annonces régulières ont été suspendues

tenez-vous prêts pour des directives supplémentaires

I stared at it until my vision blurred again, trying to read between the lines. There were no platitudes from Scarlett Burnish, no gentle voice telling us to remain calm, and no indication whatsoever of why the sirens had activated. Just words on a screen, and the noise, never-ceasing.

A hand seized my bad wrist, making me gasp. A speaking medium stood before me, eyes milky, in the grip of a possession.

“The Devil,” he croaked. “The Devil has deceived you.”

“What?” I tried to twist my wrist free, but he only held tighter. “What are you talking about?”

“The third card. Two horns, two wings, two cloven hooves,” he called over the sirens. Tears leaked from his eyes. “Why did you not heed the cards, Paige? Why did you not listen?”

Before I could speak, the medium crumpled and fell into the snow, like a puppet without strings.

The sirens soared to a key that sent a fearful thrill along my spine. Now people were starting to run in every direction. Cars skidded to a stop and decanted passengers onto the street. I turned left and kept forging through the snow, my ears aching in protest. Some unseen force was pulling me on. With every step, a piece fell into place, each one sending a hot jolt into my bones.

And then I remembered something. Something I had known for months, but had never put together.

You told me once that there was something that proved that you were always on my side.I could almost hear my own voice. Something that would betray you . . . if anyone but me could see.

I understood now. Far too late, I had solved the riddle Arcturus had given me. His dreamscape. The red drapes in his mind that only a dreamwalker could see . . .

He felt safest in the place he had first held me in his arms.

A moment so powerful it had transfigured his dreamscape. A moment that forever shaped him. Because somehow, for some absurd reason, I was the very centre of his world. The realization hit me so hard I almost bent double.

Arcturus Mesarthim had not betrayed me. By not trusting him, not believing in him, I had betrayed him. I had condemnedhim. I had left him all alone in his dark room.

And it was possible—suddenly, terribly possible—that I was not the only voyant who could see into his mind.

I ran.

It was a long way. Perhaps they had already moved him somewhere else, to a safer place than here. But sheer, desperate, blinding resolve propelled me through the streets of Paris. Cade was a dreamwalker. I was not the last of my kind. And for whatever reason, he was working for the enemy.

I chased the river east, toward the Île de la Citadelle. The next time I passed a screen, it switched to a different message.

scioneye emergency transmission

military threat detected

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