I hold on, breathe, and let him work.
And then, like a bubble rising to the surface of dark water, a memory emerges of Oliver’s face, pale and serious. I don’t know where we are, but I can see him and hear him clearly.
“Avery, listen to me. This is important.”
“You’re scaring me,” I say, hating how small and afraid I sound.
“You should be scared.” He takes my hands in his, his fingers cold and shaking. “There’s something I need to tell you. Something I should have told you weeks ago.”
“What is it?”
“Revenants.” The word falls between us like a curse. “They’re real.”
Then the memory fractures, dissolving into static.
I gasp, my eyes flying open.
Tobias is breathing hard. Sweat beads on his forehead, and his hands have dropped to his knees.
“Revenants.” The word tastes strange on my tongue. I’ve never heard it before, but it’s like I remember having spoken it.
“There’s more,” he says. “I can feel other fragments. They’re deeper and harder to reach, but they’re there.”
“Then keep going.”
He reaches for me again, and I close my eyes.
The pain is like needles being driven into my skull. But I grit my teeth and bear it, because Oliver tried to warn me about something, and they ripped it out of my head. They violated a core part of who I am.
Another memory surfaces.
Oliver again.
“We need to get out,” he says. “Me, you, and Evie. We need to find a way off this island before it’s too late.”
“You’re not making any sense. What’s going on?”
“There are Revenants at the school.” He grips my shoulders tightly, more serious than I’ve ever seen him. “They’re walking around pretending to be normal, but they’re here, and I don’t know why, but we need to get out before they do anything.”
“What are Revenants?” I’m crying now, and I think I’m the one asking, not the me from the memory.
He opens his mouth to answer.
I’m wrenched back to the present before he can.
“That’s where it ends,” Tobias says. “I can’t find any trace of whatever he told you next.”
I press both hands to my face to try pushing down the tears, but the composure I’ve spent three years perfecting is cracking, and I don’t know how to stop it.
“Revenants.” I lower my hands and look at him again, searching his haunted, empathetic eyes for answers. “You know what those are.”
“I don’t” He shakes his head, watching me like he’s begging me to believe him. “But that’s not what concerns me right now.”
I wipe my eyes with the back of my hand. “Then whatisconcerning you right now?”
“The fact that someone has compulsion magic powerful enough to alter a witch’s memories. Before I entered your mind, I assumed your memories were fuzzy because of the trauma caused by the emberlink bond breaking. It’s been known to happen when the bond is particularly strong.”
I look down at my lap, my fingers tangling together. Because I know the subtext behind his words.