Paul put up a hand, trying to calm him. “Don’t worry. Worst it’ll do is burn her fingers if she tries. It’s not magic but mechanical.”
“Oh, sure, because that’s such a comfort,” said Eli.
Pushing Eli aside with my shoulder, I poked Paul in the chest. “Where’s my real phone? How’d you do it?”
Paul didn’t move to defend himself. “The day you stole The Atlantean Chronicle. I made the switch that night. There was nobody in the dorm so I broke in and replaced your old phone with this one.”
“Oh, this is just great.” Venom dripped in Eli’s voice.
I gritted my teeth, outrage making my head swim. “Is that why my phone started changing letters to symbols?”
“Probably. Sorry about that.” A sheepish grin crossed Paul’s face.
Eli took a threatening step toward Paul. “But why give it to Dusty in the first place?”
This time Paul stood his ground. “Because I knew it would be safe with her. And because my uncle would never expect it. It’s not like he’s been content just to trust me not to expose him. He’s been looking for the data nonstop. And I’m pretty sure he’s a lot smarter about technology than Sheriff Brackenberry and the rest of magickind.”
My fingers tightened on the phone automatically, some of my anger giving way to astonishment. He hadn’t exactly said that I was holding his life in my hands, but if he was telling the truth about Magistrate Kirkwood, then I most definitely was.
I started to put my phone back in my pocket, but Paul stopped me.
“Do you mind if I make sure it’s hidden again?”
I frowned, realizing the gravity of what my phone now held. I handed it back to him. I wanted to stay angry with Paul, but I couldn’t manage it. What he’d done was horrible—not to mention a little scary—but the fact that he would trust me with something so huge meant a lot. Even if I didn’t want it to.
He gave the phone back a moment later, and I stowed it in my pocket.
I faced Paul once more. “Explain how your uncle was behind the attack on Britney.”
Sighing, he took a step back. “I spent a little time at his house right after my release, and I didn’t waste it. I couldn’t believe he would support Marrow. He craves his own power too much. So I wanted to figure out what he was up to now that Marrow is out of the picture. I hacked his e-mail using the same laptop that I used for the website backups. It was hidden in my room the whole time. Brackenberry didn’t find it because they were looking for magical concealment, but I had it hidden in an ordinary secret compartment. They didn’t think to check for those.”
I shook my head, once again astounded by his cleverness.
Paul continued on, unaware. “Several of the e-mails I found were written in code. They had names and references to things that don’t exist. One of them, I was pretty sure was a reference to the attack on Britney. And when I found out she was awake, and that you and Selene were going to talk to her, I guessed she would be in danger.” He paused. “I was right.”
“How did you know we were going to visit Britney?” Selene asked.
Paul shifted his weight, squirming a little. “Dusty texted Eli about it. I’ve been monitoring the phone just in case…” He leveled a defensive look at me. “In case you told Brackenberry something important about me.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “You’ve been spying on me?”
Paul nodded. “But no more than you’ve been spying on me.”
I pressed my lips together, unable to decide on a response.
Paul pulled his gaze from me and glanced at the other two. “The attack on Britney is only the start of it. From what I saw in those e-mails, my uncle is planning something big. A way to make himself consul. It’s what he wants more than anything.”
Selene raised her hand to her mouth. “You think he’s going to assassinate Consul Vanholt?”
“What else?” said Paul.
I gaped—the consul was the same as the president.
“I don’t know how yet,” Paul said, “but based on the code words, I think it’s going to happen during Beltane. And the place is Lyonshold. My guess is it’s going down during the festival. But the e-mail also talked about Atlantis. I haven’t figured out what it means yet.”
He stopped speaking, giving us a chance to digest this. I turned the notion over and over inside my head. Was it possible? Could Titus Kirkwood be planning a coup? I stared at Paul, trying to decide if I could trust him. Something about the way his face looked in the torchlight reminded me of Bethany’s dream. He had been in the dream. No, that wasn’t right. Someone that looked like him but wasn’t him. Someone like …
Titus Kirkwood.
The realization dawned on me as bright as a searchlight. Titus and Paul shared a strong, almost uncanny resemblance given that they were only uncle and nephew and not father and son. But it was one close enough that I was certain Britney had been dreaming about Titus and not Paul.
I glanced at the other three and told them about Britney’s dream. “It all fits,” I said when I finished. “And Britney was supposed to curse Eli to keep us from seeing what’s coming in his dreams. This must be why.”
Eli nodded. “I suppose it makes sense.”
“That’s why you borrowed Mr. Corvus’s book, isn’t it?” I asked Paul.
“Yeah, I wanted to see if there was a record of any assassinations that took place on the island. I figured my uncle might try to copy it. Of course, I, uh, didn’t get very far.” A playful grin flashed across his face for a second.
It was my turn to squirm.
“Who were the e-mails to?” Eli asked, scowling.
Paul’s grin vanished. “There wasn’t a salutation, but the address was [email protected].”
Eli and I exchanged a look.
Paul’s brow furrowed. “What do you know?”
I gave him a quick summary of the Senate Hall dream and the connection between Mr. Corvus and crows.
“I suppose he might be involved,” Paul said when I finished. “But I don’t know much about him. We should check him out.”
Frowning at the “we” in his statement, I said, “Now wait a second. All this might be true, but if so, why haven’t you gone to Sheriff Brackenberry with it? Why come to us at all?” I waited, expecting Paul to finally be stumped, but he answered as quickly as before.
“Because I don’t have any concrete proof. Sure, his name is probably in the data, but so are hundreds of others. That’s not enough. And the stuff about Britney and the assassination is all guesswork. It’s not like they’re going to take my word for it, not considering my history. No, I can’t go to the authorities without indisputable evidence. My uncle is too powerful. There’s no telling how many people he has working for him. He’ll try to kill me if he thinks I’m going to turn him in, data or no. If I’m going to take that kind of risk, I want to make sure it’s worth it. I want to make sure that he pays.”
I flinched at the hatred in his voice, like the hard crack of a whip. It was shocking to learn the reality of his life now, the perilous tightrope he had to walk every second. Not that it wasn’t his fault.
But I decided his reasons were valid. With an accusation this big, they weren’t liable to take my word for it either. Titus Kirkwood was a magistrate, and you didn’t get that high up without lots of support. Besides, we hadn’t seen any definite signs of this in Eli’s dreams that I could tell.
“Okay,” Selene said. “I’m convinced.”
I glanced at her and then at Eli. He slowly nodded. “Me, too.”
I turned back to Paul. “I guess this means we’re on the case. But you’ve got to promise me something first.” I pulled the cell out of my back pocket again and held it up. “Once we’ve taken down your uncle and you’re no longer in danger, we give the phone and the password over to the sheriff.”
Paul hesitated, but only for a second. “I promise.”
His hesitation worried me, but there was nothing I could do about it at present. �
�All right,” I said to the room at large. “So I guess we start with Mr. Corvus and the Terra Tribe.”
“Yes,” Eli seconded. “And we’ve got one week to figure this out.”
One week until Beltane.
I hoped it would be enough.
24
Dream Remix
My session with Mr. Deverell the following afternoon wasn’t at all what I expected. It was less like Star Trek and more like Luke Skywalker being tortured by Obi-Wan with the blast shield and the training remote. Not that I pointed out this comparison to Mr. Deverell. I didn’t want him to think I was a total sci-fi geek.
We started off doing some mental “exercises” designed to strengthen my mind and to make sure I could keep the important stuff hidden, then he performed the nousdesmos. It seemed a lot like being hypnotized. In seconds I found myself slipping away, not falling asleep, but more like entering a dream. Except there wasn’t a dream or even a dreamer. There was nothing but empty blackness all around me as if I’d been submerged in an ultra-advanced sensory deprivation chamber.
Mr. Deverell’s voice spoke to me from somewhere in the darkness, encouraging me to visualize the plinth. “Let your instincts guide you.”
Yeah, he might as well have said “stretch out with your feelings, Luke” for all the help it was. I didn’t feel any instinct about anything. All I felt was nothing at all, just one big black everywhere. It was frightening and yet oddly peaceful at the same time. Unbeing.
But slowly I managed to reach the plinth and focus on the words, willing them into sight. It was hard, but infinitely better than scratching away at them the way I did in my dreams. I didn’t have any fingers to scratch with in this state.
But by the end of the two-hour-long session, I’d managed to uncover only two letters: A N.
B E L L A N
It wasn’t as much as I wanted, but at least it was a step in the right direction.
“Let’s try again on Friday,” Deverell said afterward.
“Why not sooner?” I asked, trying to hide my disappointment.
He shook his head. “Your mind needs time to recover from what we did here today. The brain’s a muscle, same as any other, and we just put it through a rigorous workout.”
I wanted to argue but could tell it was no use. As I left the classroom, I decided I would have to try again in Eli’s dream during our session tonight. Deverell had said it was dangerous to let anyone else see the name, but with so much at stake, I knew it was a risk I would have to take.
* * *
I told Eli this plan the moment I arrived in his dorm that night for our dream-session.
He thought about it for several long seconds before answering. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“What do you mean? Of course it is.” I leaned forward in the chair I was sitting in. Eli sat across from me on the sofa, slouched back and looking as hot as ever. The light blue T-shirt he wore was threadbare, as if from hundreds of washings, and it had a rip on the collar, one long enough that I could see the edge of the tattoo on his chest. Try as I did, I couldn’t keep my eyes from slipping down to it again and again.
Damn him.
Eli leaned forward, too, the opening in his shirt spreading even wider. “I don’t want you to get hurt, Dusty. If Deverell says your mind needs time to recover then we better do it.”
“We don’t have time. Beltane is less than a week away. I need to be able to manipulate your dreams now. But at this rate, it’s never going to happen in time.” I stood up and started pacing the room. “And we don’t know anything at all. The Atlantean Chronicle is super long with no index. There’s no telling if we’ll find details on an assassination. And we don’t know who’s involved or where exactly it’s going to happen. I know I haven’t been there, but I’m pretty sure Lyonshold is a big place. So it’s not like we can keep on top of everything. And—”
Without warning, Eli stood up from the sofa and pulled me into a hug. I was so caught off guard, I gasped. His arms slid around my shoulders as he drew me to his chest. “Calm down,” he said. “I’ve never seen you so worked up. You’re not yourself.”
For a second I had no idea what he was talking about, but then I realized he was right. I felt like I was on the verge of a meltdown. But that wasn’t like me. I’d been under plenty of stress before and not lost it. So why now?
Eli’s hands moved up and down my back. “It must be from the session. You’re stressed out.”
I nodded into his chest, relaxing against him automatically. I suddenly felt like sleeping. Right here. In his arms.
I felt Eli’s hands slide all the way to the small of my back, the movement making every muscle in my body react. I started to lean into his touch, then realized what I was doing, and pulled back, my face flushed.
As he let me go, I saw his was, too. And he was breathing hard. I watched the rise and fall of his chest, more confused than ever. I wasn’t completely inexperienced. I could tell when a guy was reacting to me in a not-just-friends kind of way. I remembered that kiss, so hot and steamy it might’ve scalded my insides. Friends didn’t kiss like that. A boy not interested in you didn’t kiss like that.
I mustered my courage to once again ask him for an explanation, but I didn’t get a chance before he deliberately changed the subject.
“I did some digging into Mr. Corvus today,” he said, returning to his position on the sofa.
Taking a deep breath, I retreated to the desk, leaning against it. “Oh, yeah? Find out anything?”
Eli made a face. “Not a thing, although that’s telling all by itself.”
“How so?”
“He doesn’t have a past,” Eli said around a yawn. “At least not one I could find so far. All the Internet and e-net searches I’ve done were a dead end. The guy doesn’t have so much as an entry on ratemyteachers.com.”
I frowned. “He wouldn’t, would he? I didn’t think magickind used that site.”
“Some of them do.” Eli turned and lay down on the sofa. “There’re even a couple of ratings on there for Marrow.”
I gaped. “Nuh-uh.”
He grinned over at me, his eyes half-closed. “Yep. And they were pretty positive, too.”
It was sort of funny to think about, but I didn’t laugh. Folding my arms across my chest, I walked to the sofa and looked down at him. “Not being on the Internet doesn’t really mean anything. Corvus is old.”
Eli shook his head, his eyes slipping all the way closed. “His official school records were a dead end, too.”
I shoved Eli’s leg with my knee. “How did you see his official records?”
Eli opened his eyes, a smirk splayed across his lips. “Easy. I broke into the admin office today after classes.”
I dropped my forehead into my hand. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“It wasn’t a big deal. Dr. Hendershaw meets with the office staff on Tuesdays so I knew I could get in and out without getting caught. Thanks to the moonwort key, that is.”
“I’m half-tempted to take it away from you.”
Eli pinned me with a gaze. “You wouldn’t dare.” He wasn’t smiling, but I could see the humor in his eyes, and I definitely heard the challenge in his voice. It put me in mind to do something daring, and for a tense moment I imagined climbing on top of him before he fell asleep. Better yet, I imagined him grabbing my hand and pulling me there.
Stop it, Dusty. Stop it right now. “Was his file empty or something?”
“Nope,” Eli said. “But it only had one entry for prior work experience. He spent twenty years at Castlebank Academy in Scotland.”
“Well, that seems normal. Castlebank is just like Arkwell.”
“Sure.” Eli slid his hands behind his head, his arm muscles flexing from the gesture. “Except he stopped working there ten years ago. And there’s no record of what he’s been up to since.”
I hooked my thumbs into the belt loops of my pants. “Well, that’s weird. But it doesn’t exactly link him to
Magistrate Kirkwood.”
“No, not yet. But the next step is to check out his office.” Eli sounded eager at the prospect, but I couldn’t say the same. Mr. Corvus was fierce. Mr. Corvus would not take lightly to catching someone breaking into his office.
“We’ll have to plan that one carefully.”
He nodded, his eyes slipping closed. “Did you get anywhere with Melanie yet?”
“No. Selene sent her an e-mail, but she hasn’t responded. Then she tried to track her down while I was with Deverell but didn’t have any luck. I have a feeling it’s not going to be easy.”
“Yes, well, it wouldn’t be any fun if it was.” His voice trailed off, and a few moments later he was asleep. Must be nice to be able to shut off so quickly.
I climbed on top of him, a dull ache beginning to pound in my temples from stress and worry. Still, I had every intention of having another go at the stone plinth tonight, no matter what Eli said. And as long as I didn’t hit him again it should work.
I reached for his forehead, ready to enter the dream, but froze as Eli shifted beneath me. It was slight, but enough to make my heart throb against my rib cage. My face went red, and my body temperature spiked. Then Eli’s hands, which had been pinned beneath his head, slipped down and landed against my waist, catching on the jut of my hips.
He smiled in his sleep. I considered removing his hands to somewhere less intimate but decided not to. Some things just felt too right to change.
* * *
What didn’t feel right was Eli’s dream. Once again, I found myself surrounded in thick fog, even worse than last time.
“Eli,” I shouted, fighting off vertigo. I tried to will the dream to take shape, but nothing happened. This might as well have not been a dream world at all. The sharp teeth of panic nipped at me, but then Eli emerged from the fog.
“I’m here.”
I wanted to throw my arms around him, but that would be a very bad idea. “What’s going on with your dream?”
“I don’t know.” Eli looked tense, and I wondered if he’d been close to panic, too. “Do you think this is because of the block?” He motioned to the fog.
The Nightmare Dilemma (Arkwell Academy) Page 21