Chapter Twenty-Eight WITCHING MOON

Chapter Twenty-Eight

WITCHING MOON

Week Three, Day One

Year 3000

"Wake up."

Sachi drifted in the darkness, her limbs and her mind heavy. Her throat hurt, and her arm throbbed. Sorin had drugged her, she remembered that, though she couldn't quite recall why.

"Sachi, you have to wake up." Silence, followed by a far-too-familiar sigh. "I don't want to do this, truly I don't. But I have no choice."

The sharp crack of a palm across her cheek jerked Sachi from her stupor. She rolled away from the blow and fell off the bed, hitting the floor with a painful thud.

Except ... no, she didn't. She hovered just above the hardwood and expensive carpets, and when she looked up—

Her own face leaned over the side of the bed and peered down at her. "Well. That didn't work, did it?"

Sachi's tongue felt clumsy, and she tried to stand but slipped on nothing and fell again. "What is this? What's happening to me?"

In the next moment, she was back in her bed, beneath the covers. But the mirror image of her still sat on the edge of the bed, watching her.

"I'd prefer to do this gently," Other Sachi said, "but there's no time. They're almost here, and you have to be ready. So wake up ."

The strangest sensation overtook Sachi. She was sitting upright, wide awake, and yet she had the feeling that she was also lying right where she'd slept, eyes closed, dead to the world. "I can't," she said finally. "Sorin—he drugged me again—"

"The Betrayer?" Other Sachi shook her head. "How could he, when he has no dominion over us? We are the Dream, Sachi. Creation itself." The words began to echo, as if her double's voice was beginning to slip away. "Reality is ours to shape. All you have to do is open your eyes."

Sachi tried, she did , but her lids were so heavy they wouldn't budge.

"Ash and Zanya need you, Sachi."

She sucked in a rough breath that turned into a sob.

"Open your eyes."

This time, she did. She was alone on the bed, but not in the room. Lyssa sat in the corner, hunched in on herself, her eyes red and puffy. Golden chains encircled her, magical bonds that glowed and pulsed like a heartbeat.

Sorin's chains.

When Sachi sat up, Lyssa lunged for the bed. "My lady! Thank the Light, you're alive."

"Of course I am." Sachi gripped the girl's hands.

She shook her head, her red hair flying wildly around her pale face. "You don't understand. The Emperor said he had to sedate you, then he locked us both in here and left. I've been watching, but—but you were barely breathing. I wasn't sure you'd wake up at all."

"I'm fine. I'm—" Suddenly, alarm bells split the air, so loud they rattled Sachi's teeth. She covered her ears, trying to block out the noise. "What in the world?"

Lyssa's eyes had gone wide. "That's the alarm that signals an invasion, my lady. Someone has crossed our borders!"

Could it be? Sachi rushed to the tower's wide window, pressed her feverish hands to the glass, and looked down into the lake. There, with water still rushing off its deck, as if it had just breached the surface like a giant sea creature, was the Kraken's ship.

Sachi wanted to laugh and cry at the same time as she sagged against the pane in sheer, helpless relief. At that moment, nothing— nothing —could have kept Sachi away. Ash and Zanya were down there, and she had to go find them, even if it meant walking into the middle of a fight.

Staying away was more than unthinkable. It was impossible.

She turned and grabbed Lyssa by the shoulders. "My friends have come, so we have to go out and help them , all right?"

The girl started shaking her head before Sachi finished speaking. "We can't, my lady. It isn't safe. Besides, we're locked in."

That did present a problem, but not an insurmountable one. Sachi would tunnel through the wall if she had to, or use one of those endless diamond and sapphire tiaras to scratch a hole in the window and jump.

She'd set fire to the whole godsdamned palace if that was what it took.

"We'll find a way out," Sachi reassured her. "And then we'll run like the Void."

But Lyssa was unmoved. "I can't . You don't understand, the Emperor ... He ordered me to stay here." Her hands moved wildly as her agitation grew. "I can't disobey him!"

Because he was the Emperor ... or because she wore his chains?

"Lyssa." Sachi waited until the woman took a breath and met her gaze. "Listen to me. You do not have to obey him."

"But I do!"

"Sorin has no power over you." A strange plucking sensation thrummed under Sachi's hands, where the golden chains wrapped around Lyssa, trapping her arms. "You are free to do what you want."

Lyssa gasped, jerked, and one of the chains popped, as if it had been grasped by two giant hands and pulled apart.

Oh, gods. Could it be . . . ?

"You're free," Sachi said again.

Magic whipped through the room, and Lyssa cried out.

"You are free ."

Lyssa screamed and slumped to the floor as the remaining chains vanished. Sachi dove after her, but the woman hurried back to the corner and pressed her back to the wall. Her eyes were wild, and her breath came in short, uncontrolled pants.

Sachi moved toward her—slowly. "Lyssa ..."

The lock on the door creaked, then shattered, and Demir pushed the door open.

No, not Demir. This was the Beast standing before Sachi, alert and ready for the hunt.

"The Emperor sent me to fetch you," he told her. "He wants you with him when the battle begins. And when it ends."

Sachi didn't move.

"Of course ..." The Beast smiled in anticipation. "He only said you had to be alive and conscious, and you and I? Have a little unfinished business." He stepped aside, leaving the door wide open, and tilted his head.

"Run."