Page 31 of Cherish

“I’m aware, Cassia,” Jikan answers with a loud sigh. He doesn’t look impressed as he shoves his hands deep into the pockets of his green sweatpants and studies Heather for a minute.

Then he turns his gaze on mine and says, “But I also won’t be helping you eliminate time dragons—not because I don’t want to but because I literally can’t. There’s no shortcut to eliminating them, no cheat code that will shut them down. They are the worst thing I’ve ever created, and they are nearly undefeatable, as you and Hudson figured out the hard way. My advice, Grace? Enter the Shadow Realm in a way that doesn’t cause a tear in space-time.”

“And that way in would be?” I ask, holding my breath as I wait to see if he’ll finally answer.

His gaze darts to the Bloodletter’s for half a second before capturing mine again. “You already know. It’s where the shadows converge.”

“The shadows?” I repeat.

Jikan looks at me expectantly, but when I just stare back, baffled, he gives another heavy sigh. “The fountain in the Trials, where you first encountered the shadow bugs. It doesn’t just exist there. It exists—”

“In Turin!” I exclaim as memories of the piazza outside the Witch Court come flooding back. “I knew I recognized that fountain from somewhere. I saw it the first time we went there for help.”

I can’t believe I forgot it.

“But wait,” I continue as another thought occurs to me. “That means the gateway into the Shadow Realm is in the Witch Court.”

Jikan harrumphs. “Just remember, it’s not getting into the Shadow Realm that’s hard. It’s getting out. Itisa prison, you know.”

Well, at least Hudson was right, I guess. The Shadow Realm is a prison. That’s not concerning at all. “Do you have any suggestions on how to escape?”

“I actually don’t.” He looks disgruntled, jabbing at the remains of his dessert pasta with a scowl. “That being said, I know there are ways and people who know how to negotiate them. You just have to find one.”

My gaze searches out Hudson’s, and we both say the same thing at the same time. “Blue jeans.” I give him a huge smile, remembering how he’d borrowed a pair from Arnst on the farm and we’d realized therewerethings in Noromar that weren’t purple. You just had to know the right people or—as we are obviously both guessing right now—the right smuggler to get them for you.

Heather raises a hand. “Okay, I’ll ask. How do blue jeans get us out of the Shadow Realm?”

“What’s one thing every prison has?” Hudson asks, an eyebrow raised at me.

“Walls. Huge fucking walls.” I repeat back to him what I said in the diner what feels like an eon ago, then toss him a wink and turn to Heather. “And contraband networks.”

Hudson smiles. “We’ll just have to get ourselves smuggled back out.”

He makes it sound so simple, but I can’t help my stomach twisting at the possibility that we’re wrong and we get stuck there forever. Or worse, we make it back but I forget him again. Because something tells me it’s going to be harder than he makes it sound—I doubt there’s a laundry cart filled with purple T-shirts we can hide in heading out. But at least there probablyisa way back. That’s got to count for something.

“Watch your back, Grace. The Shadow Realm is pure chaos. Everything is far more dangerous there than it seems, with a complete lack of rules or—” He breaks off as my grandmother rolls her eyes and interrupts.

“I’ll take it from here, Jikan,” she tells him. “Now, why don’t you head home? If you don’t have a few minutes to rest after your travel, you’ll end up tossing your cookies all over your trapeze class.”

“I think you mean tossing my pasta. And that hardly hadanycookies.” But they share another look before he eventually nods. “A pleasure, Cassia. As always.”

Then, between one blink and the next, Jikan is gone. The only thing left to signify that he’d been here at all is his empty plate and mimosa glass, standing forlornly on the corner of the bar.

I have one second to wonder how all these gods manage to disappear whenever they want before everyone becomes unfrozen at once.

18

Too Much

Scream Time

Between being frozen and Jikan’s sudden departure, everyone’s more than a little worked up. Jaxon is one hundred percent tired of being frozen. Eden keeps loudly reassuring herself that the God of Time hasn’t given Heather an extra limb, considering she did threaten to junk-punch him. Flint just looks bewildered.

And Hudson—Hudson has gone back to texting furiously.

Once I get everyone settled again, I turn to address my grandmother—and realize she and Alistair must have snuck away during the chaos. Which stinks, because I really need to talk to her.

Something tells me Heather was right when she wondered if the Bloodletter knows more about how I can bargain with the Shadow Queen than she’s let on so far.

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