Her sorrow rushes through me in a wave, strengthening our bond again, and I can feel tears wet on my own cheeks.

Is this how these dreams are happening between us? When she’s unconscious enough to let down her defenses, when, in her sleep, the tide of her emotions overwhelms her … does she open the gates between us? Our bond, run cold after so many months, surges forward now in a desperate hunger. I can feel it tingling between us, yearning to connect us as much as that first moment had bonded us on the old Mara warfront.

No. This is dangerous. This could be how Constantine sensed that something had happened between us, how he knew about our plan at the train station. What if he senses us this time?

I pull away from her, trying to find a way out of this place, to break out of this dream. But I can’t—I don’t know how.

Neither of us does; Talin is still here, too, the tears drying on her wounded face. We stand apart and feel the hum of the bond between us, unable to break it.

We can’t meet like this, she says, her voice trembling. He might know.

How can we not? I answer. How can we break it?

She is silent at that. Because how can you keep yourself from falling asleep? How can you control what you do in your dreams?

Can…, I start to ask, hesitate, then push through. Can Constantine sense everything you think? Can he control you?

She shakes her head. Not yet. Constantine only controls me because he has my mother.

I catch the unspoken warning in her answer. Not yet. The anger in me bubbles at the realization that Constantine is using her mother against us all. Where is he keeping her? I ask.

I never know, Talin replies. He just moved her last week—something he does every other week. The information is kept a close secret. He chooses the location himself the day before he orders her moved, and tells no one else. She pauses, her expression darkening. He can sense a shift of my emotions. He’d known that you were in my dreams the last time we met like this. And through my emotions, he can assume you were up to something.

Relief and sadness and fear flood through me at the same time. So, Constantine has not invaded all of Talin’s mind yet. She can still think for herself, make her own decisions, keep things from him if she must.

You haven’t lost her. Not yet.

But he is still tied to her. His mind is linked to hers as surely as mine is, able to sense her changing emotions. No wonder she’s locked her heart behind walls. No wonder she’s terrified.

Worse, he has her mother. Forcing her hand so that she must protect her loved ones. I think back to the way her mother could fight alongside her, the ferocity of her love a beacon to us all. The way she had managed to lay out a feast for us when she had so little.