Aarya pauses again before another archway with an open door, this one bigger than the ones before it. She peers inside and once again waves us on. I peek inside on my way past and my heart nearly stops—it’s a large room not unlike the dining hall at the Academy, with fancy tapestries and portraits on the stone walls. The realization creeps up on me slowly, like a spider you didn’t know was on your arm. My dream! This reminds me of the room from my dream with all the dead bodies—the dead bodies of my dead friends. I immediately break out in a sweat. I want to call out to them, to tell them we have to turn around, but I just stand there unable to form the words. Ash grabs my hand, pulling me forward. I open my mouth to warn him, but he shakes his head as we move toward Aarya and the door she’s standing next to at the end of the corridor.

Unlike the other doors we’ve seen so far, this one has large iron brackets on either side, the kind you would put a wooden bar through. And it has a keyhole. These extra security measures spark a flutter of hope in my chest. There are very few rooms that would require security, and one of them is definitely a dungeon. By the look on Ash’s face, I can tell he, too, thinks we may have found it.

Despite the progress we’re making, I can’t shake off the image of the room from my dream. “My nightmare, Ash, I saw—” I breathe, but Aarya gives me a death stare.

“One more word and I’ll knock you out with a blow dart,” she whispers back, and looks through the keyhole.

And I believe her. I shut my mouth and glance over my shoulder, certain there is some great danger lurking there. Aarya stands and makes eye contact with each one of us, as if to make sure we’re ready. Ash gives her a nod and she turns back around. She presses on the latch with painstaking slowness, moving it only a millimeter at a time, her face scrunched in concentration.

The latch unhooks. Only Aarya doesn’t crack the door like Ash did, she pulls it fully open. On the other side a guard is whipping around to face us. I strike him with a dart in the neck and Aarya grabs him by his shirt. But he’s big, and as his legs go out, Aarya stumbles forward under his weight. I lunge, grabbing his arm, and together we lean him against the wall.

Aarya winks at me. I don’t understand how she could possibly be relaxed enough to have a wink in her. We slink down the stairs side by side, blowpipes in hand and ready for more guards.