Despite what I told Kael, I can’t go to sleep. I’m too afraid that if I do, I’ll wake up in the morning to discover that the serum has taken over completely and I no longer have my Speaking ability. I haven’t come to terms with it yet; I still need to process it, as well as everything else I learned tonight.

But my body has other plans. And in the quiet of the room after such an impossibly long day, I begin to drift off without being able to stop myself, falling into a deep, healing sleep that lasts long into the morning.

Chapter Twenty-One

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

I jolt awake and jerk upright, my heart pounding, pounding, pounding as I try to figure out where I am, as I try to figure out what happened to me.

It takes a few seconds, my disorientation thick as I look around at the unfamiliar limestone walls before I remember that I’m at the catacombs. Before I remember everything that led me here and all that has happened since.

As I remember what happened just yesterday.

I rub sleep from my eyes, distressed to have fallen into such a deep slumber that I awoke so thoroughly confused. I must have desperately needed the rest, but still … I have no idea what time it is. If not for the flaming torches that Cami must have lit when she awoke, I wouldn’t even know if it was morning yet. Or perhaps another night entirely.

“Hey, sleepyhead.”

I look toward Cami’s bed to find her reading in the low light, Schrödinger curled up contentedly on her lap.

I frown at him and wonder aloud, rather belatedly, “Is someone feeding him?” I look around the room, searching for a bowl or even a kitty litter tray, but see nothing.

“Liana has been looking after him,” Cami says as she turns her page. “When he’s not here, he spends most of his time with her.”

That surprises me. I haven’t seen Liana since awakening in the catacombs, so it’s strange to hear my kitten is being cared for by someone I barely know. I feel like an irresponsible parent, even if I have had a few things on my mind. I make a mental note to hunt her down and thank her … as well as ask her about a few things while I’m at it.

As everything from yesterday crashes into me, I hold out my hand—and my breath—as I say, “Light.”

A beam shoots from my palm like a flashlight, and I breathe out in a rush, overwhelmingly relieved to learn that I can still Speak.

“Everything okay over there?”

I glance across to Cami again and catch her What are you doing? expression.

I clear my throat and cancel my command. “Just had a weird dream,” I lie. “Wanted to check something.”