I stared at him, stunned speechless. Tears welled around my eyes, and I fought to hold them back. “It’s not your fault. I wasn’t exactly waving the friend flag your way. I’ve been avoiding you because the dream-seer stuff scares me. And I understand why you blamed me. I felt the same way when I first came here. Only I was pissed at my mom for being a Nightmare.”
He opened his mouth to say something more, but Selene arrived in the doorway.
“Hey you,” she said, beaming at me. “How you feeling?”
“Better.” I kept glancing warily at Eli as he returned to the chair.
Selene gave me a look that told me she knew I was lying. She sat down on the side of the bed and handed me the glass of water she’d brought in with her. “You aren’t responsible for what happened,” she said matter-of-factly. “I just want to make that clear right up front.”
Eli smacked his hands against the arms of his chair, making Selene and I both jump. “Of course she’s not. But what’s the good of having these dreams if we can’t save anybody?”
“But it’s not that simple, Eli,” I said, feeling the urge to defend us. “There was no way we could have known that the Minotaur symbolized Mr. Ankil.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Selene, brow furrowed in confusion.
Eli filled her in about the Minotaur getting beheaded by the black phoenix.
“Wait,” Selene said when he finished. “The Minotaur had a ring in its nose? And then Ankil’s hand was missing?”
I nodded, knowing exactly where she was going. I’d already come to the same conclusion.
“Then the senate must’ve known he was in danger.”
“How do you figure?” said Eli.
“Because he was a Keeper,” I answered, setting down the glass of water that I’d finished in three swallows.
“A what?”
I hesitated, unsure if I should trust him. I wasn’t supposed to know about the Keepers myself. But I had to tell him. He was as much a part of this as I was.
A stricken expression spread across his face as he listened. “So all this time the killer’s been targeting specific people?” he said as I finished.
Selene and I both nodded.
Eli turned his icy blue eyes on me. He swallowed. “I really wish you’d told me sooner, but I’m glad to know now.”
As our eyes locked something seemed to click between us, and I felt my resentment toward him slipping away.
“So if the senate knew Ankil was a Keeper,” said Selene, “why didn’t they keep a better guard on him? And why did he go down into the tunnels in the first place?”
Nobody answered for a moment.
Then Eli said, “Maybe he was bait.”
Selene and I both looked at him, horrified by the idea.
“Well, if that’s true,” said Selene, “they did a bang-up job of it—he died and they still didn’t catch the guy.”
“Just goes to show how dangerous and clever the killer is,” said Eli.
Selene looked sick. “No wonder Ankil was so nervous lately.”
“Yeah, I noticed that, too,” said Eli. He ran a hand through his hair. “But it only started a couple of days ago. You’d think he would’ve been nervous as soon as Rosemary died.”
I bit my lip, an idea occurring to me. “He must’ve been a new Keeper. Think about it. The senate probably decided to change the Keepers after Rosemary died to hide their identities. And Rosemary was so young, too. I heard Lady Elaine say that the spell had become more of a rite of passage than something to take seriously. So if the other Keepers were just as young and inexperienced, they would’ve had to change them.”
“Rite of passage my foot.” Selene scowled. “They shouldn’t have been messing around with illegal black magic in the first place.”
Eli leaned toward me. “So what’s this Keeper spell guarding?”
I sucked in a breath, once again shocked by the enormity of the situation. “You won’t believe it,” I said, glancing between the two of them. Then I recapped what my mom had told me about the Arthur legend and how Excalibur was now The Will’s power source.
“You’re right, I don’t believe it,” said Selene, rubbing her temples.
“Well, I could believe anything with this crazy magic stuff,” said Eli, his voice wry.
Selene turned a fierce gaze on him. “Do you know what would happen if The Will stopped working? Total chaos.”
Eli scoffed. “Why do you think so? Isn’t that like saying if the United States legalized drugs, everybody would turn into crackheads? Don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t do it just because it was legal.”
Selene snorted. “Drugs are nothing like magic.”
“She’s right,” I said. “Drugs mostly hurt the person doing them. Magic can hurt everybody.”
“Especially when we’re talking about the predatory magickind out there,” said Selene, hugging herself. “Don’t forget, the only reason why a lot of the demons and such don’t hurt people is because The Will doesn’t let them.”
Eli held up his hands, his arm muscles flexing. “I get it. No Will is bad.”
I shook my head. “It might be worse than that. My mom said the killer wouldn’t necessarily want to break The Will but control it.”
“You mean so he could control us?” said Eli, raising a single eyebrow. “Like how I’m forced to fall asleep for our sessions?”