Chapters (53)
- Front Cover
- Letter from the Author
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- • One •
- • Two •
- • Three •
- • Four •
- • Five •
- • Six •
- • Seven •
- • Eight •
- • Nine •
- • Ten •
- • Eleven •
- • Twelve •
- • Thirteen •
- • Fourteen •
- • Fifteen •
- • Sixteen •
- • Seventeen •
- • Eighteen •
- • Nineteen •
- • Twenty •
- • Twenty-One •
- • Twenty-Two •
- • Twenty-Three •
- • Twenty-Four •
- • Twenty-Five •
- • Twenty-Six •
- • Twenty-Seven •
- • Twenty-Eight •
- • Twenty-Nine •
- • Thirty •
- • Thirty-One •
- • Thirty-Two •
- • Thirty-Three •
- • Thirty-Four •
- • Thirty-Five •
- • Thirty-Six •
- • Thirty-Seven •
- • Thirty-Eight •
- • ∞ •
- • Thirty-Nine •
- • Forty •
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgments
- Excerpt from Be Dazzled
- One
- Two
- About the Author
- Back Cover
“Poesy is Poesy,” Dean said. “No one knows where she began, or how, but by now she is more a force of nature than she is human. This power to manipulate etherea that you both share—it’s incredible. She uses it to harvest reveries, and then she experiments on them. She dissects them for their resources.”
“Resources?”
“Treasure, beasts, architectures, magics. She can even take out weapons and magical artifacts—like the whistle and the door. Anything she wants, she takes. It’s all just material to her. ”
“Material for what, though?”
Dean lowered his chin. “You really can’t tell?”
Kane shrugged.
“She’s building her own world,” Dean said. “Her own entire reality, bigger than just a reverie. All she needs is a source of etherea powerful enough to help her weave it all together.”
Kane’s eyes cut through the tapestry of East Amity, up into the wide, blank clouds. “That’s why she’s after the loom.”
“And that’s why she must never find it,” Dean said. “Whatever reality Poesy creates, it’s going to replace this one. I’m sure of it.”
Kane reminded himself that the wavering was within him, not beneath him. He fought for focus. He wanted to ask how to stop Poesy, but he already knew the answer. He had to find the loom before she did and destroy it utterly.
“You helped me try to stop her once, didn’t you?” Kane asked.
Dean nodded.
His scars prickled as he looked upon the dark waters that had once held his burned body. He was playing with a similar fire now, guessing at his past instead of just asking about it. But it felt safer to guess, like passing his hand through a wobbling candle flame whose little licks couldn’t burn him.
“But whatever I did hurt you, and now you’re not helping me anymore. Not in the same way at least.”
“I have been helping you.”
“Helping me survive is not helping me achieve.”
Kane pulled his hand away, jamming his leg into the corner of two bars so he could look at Dean head-on. Dean reached for him, but stopped, seeing a new hardness in Kane’s face. It was time to know the truth.
“Tell me what happened. Tell me about us, and how it all ended.”
Dean’s eyes skipped over Kane with the dexterity of a dragonfly. “There is a lot to tell.”
“Start from the beginning, then.”
Dean’s eyes settled on his own empty palm and stayed there. When he spoke, it was like each word hurt more than the last.