I don’t disagree. Miranda isn’t long for this world.

Erebus walks slowly along the barrier. “I’ve seen a barrier like this before. Rootcraft-made, ancestor-forged. Impressive.” His eyes look past the magic. He can only see what he’s meant to see—an empty historic property—but for just a moment, I swear I’m looking straight into his gaze. “I know that you’re on the other side, Briana, watching and listening. Aren’t you?”

I hate that he keeps saying my name. Keeps emphasizing that he knows where I am, how close I am. It’s meant to get under my skin and it’s working.

Alice wraps a hand around my elbow. “Don’t answer.”

“I won’t. And he can’t hear us, remember?” My voice doesn’t sound very reassuring. Instead, it comes out breathy and high-pitched.

She swallows visibly. “Right. Right.”

The wind picks up, and Erebus turns toward it with a raised nose. “And you are still with the former Kingsmage? Selwyn, you must be desperate by now, starved for humanity without your Oaths and weakened by your lack of access to aether. I imagine that, currently, your eyes are only good for seeking the pain you might consume from others. Briana, I’d be very, very careful with him….”

A smirk grows on Sel’s face, but he does not respond. Erebus doesn’t realize he has Valec’s aether vials. That’s an advantage.

“I know enough about ancestral barriers to be aware that you could very well choose to never leave this place.” Erebus makes a sign behind him to the second car in the caravan. “So, I brought reinforcements to encourage you to make a different choice.”

The doors open behind him, and my stomach turns to ice.

Olsen, recovered from her injuries at the cabin, drags a familiar face out of the truck—Patricia.

“No!” I shout. Mariah screams with me. Lu wraps a strong hand around her elbow and Sel does the same with me—yanking us both back before we can run toward the barrier and our mentor.

Sel pulls me in tight to his side. “He’s baiting you, Bree. She’s fighting back.”

It’s true. Patricia isn’t strong enough to fight Olsen, but she isn’t coming quietly either. I can’t make out what she’s shouting from here, but I can see the scowl and hear the tone. She’s telling that Merlin off something fierce. I feel a rush of gratitude that she doesn’t appear to be mesmered into compliance or too injured to move. But then I wonder why they brought her and the gratitude dissolves into apprehension. Patricia is brought just out of Erebus’s reach, and held still by Olsen, who has clapped a hand over her mouth.