Into the Crooked Place by Alexandra Christo

Author:Alexandra Christo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Wesley closed his eyes and images shot against the backs of his lids like a flip book. The hands of a clock spinning madly until they shattered. Wind that moved like ghosts and a thin black line across the center of the realms, like a rip in time.

Shaken, he turned to Tavia, but she showed no sign of hearing it. None of them did. But it was so loud and clear and it kept repeating over and over like a dream.

This was the prediction Tavia had heard from the fortune orb. It had to be. And now it had found Wesley, too.

The realms really were trying to tell them something.

Wesley took in a breath and he could smell that damn burning again. His head ached with it. He closed his eyes to try to stamp out whatever it was, but there wasn’t any peace. Inside his mind, visions flooded like a great wave and he couldn’t make sense of them or discern one properly from the other. They moved so fast across that it was almost blinding.

Wesley caught sight of the moon careening through the sky. Saw flames in a forest, stealing something important. And Tavia, grabbing his hand and telling Wesley to run, her face not quite right, her voice not quite hers.

You’re so, so close.

Wesley jumped back and reality punctured through.

“Are you okay?” Tavia asked, reaching for him.

There was silence again.

There was stillness.

Wesley looked at her with a smile all teeth and pretense. Whatever that was, he would forget it. He wouldn’t let it ruin this.

“I’m always okay,” Wesley said. “Didn’t you know?”

He turned to Asees, resisting the urge to straighten out his tie or adjust his cuff links. Tavia would notice if he did. She’d know something was wrong.

“Well?” Wesley asked. “What’s the verdict?”

Asees frowned and handed him the canister.

Wesley’s blood was black.

Arjun stepped to her side and eyed it with equal confusion. They didn’t seem angry, which was something, but Wesley didn’t care for the uncertain looks on their faces.

“It is strange,” Asees said, and Arjun nodded.

“What’s strange?” Wesley asked.

“Nothing,” Arjun said. “I suppose your blood really does represent your soul.”

Asees smiled at that.

“Does this mean I passed?” Wesley asked.

“Congratulations,” Asees said, though she didn’t sound like she meant it.

Wesley stood and dipped a finger in his blood.

“Shouldn’t it be—” Saxony broke off and then shook her head, like the thought was too ridiculous to finish.

Wesley didn’t bother to ask what she was thinking. He didn’t care about any of their ridiculous uncertainties.

He was going to be a Crafter.

It was odd. Not just the color of his blood, but the sensation in his heart when he touched it. The realms swayed and Wesley squinted to keep the room straight.

There was a faint echo in the back of his mind, like a song he couldn’t quite remember the tune to. The words were there, but they were muddled and out of sync, and there were pictures in his blood. Or perhaps not in the blood, but in Wesley’s eyes.

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