Chapter 23 Baz
THE INCOMING TIDE HAD THEM scrambling farther up the shore. Baz stared forlornly at the disappearing cave mouth. Panic seized him as he realized no one else had emerged from the depths after them. “Did you see any sign of the others?”
Kai swore in answer, running a hand over his wet face. “We need to go back. Make sure they’re safe.”
If the others hadn’t been sucked into this same peculiar void that had pulled Baz and Kai through time, then the monstrosity that was Keiran’s reanimated corpse might have already gotten to them.
And if that didn’t do it, then the deadly magic of the doors surely would.
Baz quickly assessed himself and Kai. They showed no signs of withering away like Travers and Lia had. He could only hope the others would be just as lucky.
Kai suddenly shot to his feet and waded into the roiling waves.
“What are you doing?” Baz bellowed after him.
“We have to get back.”
“But the tide’s coming in.”
“So use your magic to make it low tide again. We were so close…”
A wave broke against Kai, pushing him into Baz’s steadying arms. Kai shoved out of his grasp, motioning to the cave mouth with angry determination. “The tide, Brysden. Now.”
“Are you hearing yourself? Look what using my magic just did!” He pointed to the beaming lighthouse above them. “I brought us back in time. Who’s to say going through the door now will bring us back to our friends? To the present?”
Kai’s jaw tightened. “We have to try.”
“No. I don’t trust my power right now, not for a second. What if using time magic here only makes things worse? I don’t know the rules—I didn’t know time travel was even possible. I just—I can’t—”
His heart was beating erratically, painfully pounding against his chest. Breathing became a foreign concept as he gasped for air and felt his vision begin to blur.
“Brysden. Hey, breathe.” Kai grasped his face between his hands, forcing Baz to look at him. His face was inches from his own, his fingers digging softly into Baz’s skin, threading themselves behind his neck. “Just breathe.”
Baz focused on the stars in Kai’s eyes, the dark depths of them drawing him to a calmer place where he could breathe again. In. Out. Ebb and flow.
The sea barreled into them, making Baz lurch forward into Kai.
He gripped a fistful of Kai’s sopping-wet shirt to hold himself steady, feeling Kai’s fingers digging into the back of his neck as he tried to do the same.
Wordlessly, they pulled each other back onto the slender strip of shoreline yet to be devoured by the tide, where they fell back panting in the wet sand.
Teeth clattering at the wintry cold seeping through them, they exchanged a weighted glance.
Kai’s throat bobbed. He was the first to look away. “Let’s start by getting out of these wet clothes. We’ll come back when the tide is low and figure things out.”
“Okay.”
Kai’s composure soothed Baz’s frayed nerves. They would find their bearings while they waited for low tide, try to figure out when exactly they were—and why they were here to begin with—before attempting to open the door again.
They drew themselves up and started toward the secret stairs to the Eclipse commons before glimpsing movement behind the window.
Right. This wasn’t their time. They couldn’t exactly barge into the Eclipse commons.
They locked eyes again, the weight of the situation almost but not quite laughable. “Best we head to town, then,” Kai said.
There was no denying they were in the past once they got to Cadence.
The cobblestoned streets were illuminated by gas lanterns—not everlight—and lined with horse-drawn carriages instead of cars.
A few people ambled in the night, each of them dressed in fashions that were at least a century behind the times.
Three-piece suits and suspenders and floppy hats, crinoline skirts and tailored coats.
They threw Baz and Kai odd looks, and Baz hoped it was because of their sopping-wet clothes rather than the fact that those clothes were much more modern than anyone else’s. Entirely out of place.
They ducked into a busy tavern, hoping to fly under the radar and get something warm in them to fight off the cold seeping into their bones.
They didn’t make it very far. A man barred their way in, saying a gruff, “Hands.”
“E-Excuse me?” Baz stammered.
“Your hands. We inspect sigils here.” The barkeep pointed to a sign behind him that read No Unchaperoned Eclipse-Borne. The backs of his hands were bare. No magic to declare.
Bile rose in Baz’s throat as he understood what this meant.
He felt Kai stiffen at his side. They didn’t know what year this was, but if establishments like this one were asking their would-be patrons to show their sigils and putting up such signs, it was undoubtedly a dangerous time to be Eclipse-born.
Baz lifted his left hand even as every instinct in him screamed this would not end well. Kai did the same, holding his middle finger slightly higher than the rest as he did so, an angry storm brewing beneath his features.
The barkeep’s eyes narrowed on their Eclipse sigils. He motioned to the sign again. “You’re not meant to be here alone, lads. Off you go on up to the College.”
“Sir,” Baz protested, “if we could just—”
“I’ll not have you here unchaperoned, and without damper cuffs at that. Has no one told you you’re supposed to stay behind Aldryn walls during the Bicentennial? Come back with an escort and cuffs.”
The Bicentennial.
They had gone back two hundred years in time.
Kai swore under his breath.
Some patrons were glancing their way. A rowdy, red-faced man bellowed, “Send the Shadow-stained away!”
Baz’s stomach locked up as this earned murmurs of consent from those around him. This was not good. If they’d thought things back in their time were bad for Eclipse-born, this was so much worse.
“What seems to be the problem, Hayworth?” a voice intoned.
A young woman appeared at the barkeep’s side.
She seemed to be their age—and quite well-off compared to most folks here.
Her strawberry-blond hair was swept up in a chignon, a small hat with a feather pinned atop her head.
She wore a long woolly skirt and a coat cinched at the waist, matching pieces the color of a deep emerald sea.
The cream-colored shirt she wore underneath was lacy and high necked, and a small emerald pendant rested on her chest.
The barkeep seemed annoyed at her intervention, though there was a deference in him that hinted to the young woman’s social status. “Respectfully, Miss Cordie, this is no business of yours.”
The young woman, Cordie, put her hands on her hips, an air of defiance in her green-blue eyes. “And if I choose to make it my business?”
The barkeep looked nervous now. “These Eclipse-born are unaccompanied,” he said defensively, “and have no damper cuffs to boot. You know the rules.”
“Yes, I do in fact know the rules. The law allows establishments like yours to demand Eclipse-born be accompanied, sure enough, but the requirement of damper cuffs has been illegal for some time now, Hayworth. You know better than that.” This was delivered in a conversational tone, her polite smile never slipping.
The barkeep fumbled for words, but Cordie beat him to it, adding, “Honestly, Hayworth, you disappoint me. Can’t you see these two are sodden wet and looking for a place to get warm? ”
“I’m sorry, Miss Cordie. Rules are rules. I can’t risk the Regulators bearing down on me now, what with the Bicentennial going on. You know they’ll come down harder on all of us in these times.”
“Then I guess we’ll be taking our leave.” She heaved a withering sigh. “Such a shame to think I’ll have to find another tavern to patronize. You know how much I like to come here after a long day at the art studio. But I simply cannot abide by this sort of prejudice.”
“Miss Cordie…” There was a note of desperation and regret now in the barkeep’s voice; no doubt he was scared to lose a patron as well-off as she seemed.
“Good night, Hayworth.” To Baz and Kai, she said, “Come along, gents.”
Cordie pulled Baz and Kai through the door as if they were old friends and led them down the dark street. She laughed when they were out of earshot, studying them from head to toe. “Tides, you two are a mess. Did you fall to the bottom of the Deep?”
“I’m sorry—who are you?” Kai asked.
“Right, where are my manners?” The girl stuck out a gloved hand. “I’m Cordie. Third-year Aldryn student, House New Moon.”
Kai gingerly shook her hand. “Kai.”
Cordie offered her hand to Baz when Kai refused to say more.
“Er, Baz. House Eclipse.” Obviously.
She arched an amused brow. “I can see that. Sorry about the barkeep. He has one foot still in the past, that one.”
So do we, it seems, Baz thought.
“He’s not wrong, though,” Cordie continued.
“The Regulators are going to be far more severe with their rules. Cadence is usually great for Eclipse-born, but with the influx of delegates from other countries, no one wants any accidents happening.” She scoffed.
“Still, I assure you that kind of hostility isn’t a reflection of every student here at Aldryn.
Some of us are much more accepting than others. ”
“Glad to hear it,” Kai said flatly, like he didn’t quite believe her.
Cordie looked the two of them over. “May I ask where you’re from?”
Shit. Surely they couldn’t say they were Aldryn students—not in this time, at least.
“Um—”
Kai’s elbow dug into Baz’s side, cutting him off. “Luagua.”
Cordie’s gaze flickered to Baz, and he knew she must be thinking he clearly did not look Luaguan.
Before he could think of some excuse, she asked, “And did you swim here from Luagua, then?” Her tone was tinged with amusement.
“Tides, you must be freezing. I assume the sea swallowed up your luggage, too?”
Kai chuckled. “Something like that.”