“Sumi thinks it would be better if we moved under the radar,” Jem explained.

She gave him a harsh look. “Something strange is afoot, and you know that, Jem. The Älvolk have been plotting for decades, but it never felt like this before. They’ve moved way beyond rhetoric and talk.”

“So what are you doing here then? If you can’t get in and have nowhere to stay?” I asked.

“I was preparing our own cloaking spell so we could sneak in,” Sumi said. “I think that’s how Eliana was able to get in here on her own before, but I can’t say for sure because she doesn’t remember.”

“Do you know why she came here at the beginning of the summer?” I asked.

Sumi shook her head. “We have no idea how or why she ended up here.”

“But she fondly remembers the time she spent staying with you,” Jem said. “Which is why we’d been hoping that we could stay with you again.”

“Yeah, of course,” I said, because what else could I say. “Dagny won’t mind. That much. Probably.”

Thinking of cool, logical Dagny eased the nausea in my stomach. She’d make sense of this and know what to do. And she’d know for sure if I was still dreaming or not.

“We should go to my apartment, then,” I said.

“I need to finish my cloaking enchantment,” Sumi said. “It only takes a few more moments.”

She went over to a small firepit that I hadn’t noticed before, made of stones just beyond the edge of the water. She crouched beside it and pulled a fire-starter out from a small satchel she wore on a belt around her waist. Within seconds, an ivory flame bloomed in the pit.

From her satchel, she procured a few leaves—small and dark, like dried bay leaves—and a few fuzzy sticks—like tiny cattails. She mumbled an incantation, then crumbled up the leaves and sticks before sprinkling them into the fire.

The flame instantly became a luminescent bright silver and grew robust before quickly going out.

Sumi straightened up and nudged the rocks to the side with her foot, so the lapping waves would soon take away the ash. “We should go now. The cloak won’t last long.”

“Ellie!” Jem called out, and waved for Eliana to join us.

She was standing out in the ocean, the cool water splashing up to her knees. She wore a long, slightly oversized maxi dress made of white cotton with pastel flowers, and the long hem was mostly bundled up in her arms in a vain attempt to keep it dry.

When Jem summoned her, she seemingly forgot that attempt and immediately dropped her dress, soaking the length of it as she sprinted up to the shore.

“Will Hanna be there?” Eliana asked breathlessly when she reached us.