“Liz?” Quell whips around, looking for her in every dire. “Liz!”

  For a moment I think I hear a returning call, broken words snatched up and tossed away by the wind. Quell scrambles up the back of Poppy for a better look. “Darian! Liz! Anyone!”

  A gust of wind buffets against us, and Quell is nearly blown from Poppy’s back. He falls to her saddle, clutg the reins and hung against the wind. I wait for the gust to pass, then grab Quell and pull him down.

  “We should use her as a windbreak,” I say, keeping close to the drake’s side. Or at least, a sand-break. “We have to get out of here.”

  “Not without Liz!” he says, voice tight with panic. “What even happened? I couldn’t see anything! They were just gone! Are they—they have to be okay, right?”

  “They’ll be fine,” I say, hoping that’s the truth. “I don’t know what happened, but those four are a tough group. Liz will be safe with Darian, right?”

  Quell nods, but his face is still pinched in fear. “Right. Thanks.”

  “Besides, if something ate them, there would have been blood everywhere; I would have smelled it.”

  Quell looks horrified. “That’s signifitly less f!”

  “And we would have seen it if they’d gotten swallowed by a giant sandworm or something,” I add.

  “Nye, please!”

  “I’m saying they’re probably fine.”

  “Just stop talking!”

  Quell rakes his fihrough his braids, grimag against the sand.

  “Okay,” he says, letting out a breath. “Okay. You’re right. There’s nothing I do, anyway. We just have to find shelter somewhere to wait out the storm.”

  Good. I thought he was about to have a panic attack. I might be able to fight soldiers and wyverns and ivorous cacti, but I ’t beat back sand and wind. We just o keep our cool and wait for this to blow over.

  “I think Darian said she could see something ahead.” I gesture to where we’d st seen their group. “We should go that way. Maybe we’ll find what she did.”

  “Yes,” Quell says. “Yes, of course. Maybe they’re just ahead of us, only a little out of sight! e on, we should go quick, before they move any farther away!”

  Quell starts to strike out ahead of Poppy before I catch his cloak and haul him back. “Stay o Poppy,” I repeat. “We have to stick together. No matter what, don’t let go.” I hand him her reins, and he relutly takes them. I get that he’s eager, and maybe desperate, but him and I getting separated as well is the st thing we need.

  Heads bowed against the storm, we move forward. What was once cy has been covered in sand once more, and though it doesn’t seem very deep, it causes us to slip and slide over the firm grouh. That, with the wind, bebors every step. I squint against the sand as it pelts against my face, but I ’t make anything out. Not rocks, not people, not shadowy forms. Whatever shelter Darian must have seen is too far away, or our field of view too restricted. We’d have to stumble over the top of it before we’d even notice it was there. Is searg for shelter our best bet, then? What if we’re only getting more lost iorm? Maybe we could throw a vas over the top of us and huddle against Poppy until it passes.

  “Nye?”

  I freeze, whipping my head to the side. The wind howls, but nothing is there. Was that my imagination pying trie? I stand there for a moment longer, peering into the shadowy storm. Nothing.

  I start walking once more.

  “Nye!”

  My heart skips a beat. This time the voice is distant but unmistakable. I spin around, searg for which dire the voice had e from. “álvaro?” I call. “álvaro! Where are you?”

  Quell stops and turns back. “What is it?”

  “My brother,” I say, looking around desperately. My heart squeezes in my chest. “I heard him. I know it was him!”

  Quell squints through the dim. “I didn’t hear anything.”

  The storm shifts, and a curtain of sand parts, just for a moment. There, not thirty feet away, is the silhouette of my brother.

  “álvaro!” I squeeze the strangled words from my throat, relief and pain and love all crashing through me in a desperate wave. I lurch toward him, tears prig my eyes. “I’m here! I’m here.”

  “Nye, wait!” Quell calls.

  The sand closes around him once more, and I race ahead, desperate to not let him pass from sight. I ’t let him go now. I ’t—

  My stomach lurches as I pitch forward in abrupt free-fall. The ground vanishes before me, a crevasse is suddenly beh me, and I’m falling. Terrrips my gut, and I twist around, trying to grap the ledge, but it’s too te. I’m already out of reach.

  I summon the Crimson Aegis.

  It bursts ience above my head, and I fling my arm to the side as it tches itself to me. The tip of the shield cracks into stone, but doesn’t anchor. Fear hrough me—theher end of the shield strikes something hard.

  I sm to a halt, the shield wedged between two walls of rock, and I’m left hanging by my arm. Pain spikes down my shoulder, but it doesn’t dislocate, and the shield doesn’t slip. I’m alive.

  My heartbeat thunders in my ears, drumming a mile a minute. Holy shit. What just happened? Where did this ravine e from? I almost died.

  The Aegis is also fused. What are we doing, dangling over a cliff? This is no way to win fights!

  Quell appears above me. “Nye! Nye, are you okay?”

  “Hanging in there,” I grunt.

  “Now’s not the time for jokes,” he cries.

  “What?” It doesn’t matter. “Quick, help me up. I could slip any sed.”

  Quell leans over the edge, stretg a hand down.

  “No!” I cry, horrified. If I grabbed him at this angle, I’d just pull him over the cliff. “Go get Poppy! Throw me her reins.”

  “Oh,” Quell says, a little embarrassed. “Right. Of course.”

  He disappears for a moment, and I ch my arm, attempting a one-armed pull-up to alleviate the strain the posture is pulling through my back. I’m suddenly very gd my shield is of the demonic variety; I wouldn’t have been able to do the same with a ventional one.

  The Aegis scoffs. Of course I should be gd! It is the best shield in all of existence. Surely this should have been apparent by now.

  I huff out a ugh, but it bees a wince. You did save my butt, I think. Thanks.

  The shield smugly accepts my gratitude.

  Quell returns a moment ter, getting Poppy to lean her head down and dropping the rein into the ravine. I grab it with my freehand, looping it around my wrist several times.

  “Alright,” I grunt. “Back her up!”

  Quell does, and the leather goes taut. I pull with all my might as the drake strains to back up. The Aegis scrapes across the stone, slipping free of its brace, as I’m pulled up and over the edge. Once I’m ba solid ground, I crawl a few feet from the edge, then colpse onto my back, spread-eagle. Even with the wind and sand biting into my flesh, the ground has never felt so good. The rush of adrenaline in my ears gradually fades.

  Quell leans over me. “What was that about stig together?”

  “I saw my brother,” I say. “He was iorm.”

  “Why would he be out here?” Quell demands. “For him to be this close noould have seen him way before the storm reached us.”

  He’s right. Rationally, I know he’s right. “But it was him. I’m sure of it.”

  “You’re seeing what you want to see,” Quell says, his face softening with pity. “Just like me and Liz.”

  I sigh, squeezing my eyes shut and f myself to let go of that brief spark of hope that had buro life inside me. It hurts to let it go out. But it would have been a miracle to run into álvaro out here. It ’t have been him.

  Even though it had been so detailed. Could that really just have been a trick of the light?

  Either way, it doesn’t ge what o be done. I open my eyes and ch my teeth—which grinds saween my mors. I turn and spit. Against all my instincts, we o keep moving.

  I keep the Aegis out as I roll to my feet, examining the ravi’s obvious now that I’m looking at it—I’d been so distracted by the figment of álvaro that I hadn’t even noticed the giant gap in the ground. Or perhaps the sand had obscured it. Either way, it’s clear we’ll o be more careful about where we walk from now on.

  “You keep a fns of the others,” I tell him, not trusting myself to search fures in the sand. “I’ll keep an eye on our footpath. Alright?”

  “Alright,” Quell agrees. We both take a side of Poppy’s reins as we circle away from the cliff. “But, here’s something unnatural about all this.”

  I watch the ground in front of us. “Xamireb said it was magical.”

  “Yes, but magical how?” Quell wonders. “I feel the magi the air. But the Oasis spills life magic. How a sandstorm be alive?” He shakes his head. “I think there’s a beast at the ter of this, and it’s using the storm for cover. It strikes from our blind spots, and reveals just enough to lure us into danger.”

  Like an anglerfish. Is that what I’d seen? It would make seh what we’ve experienced so far, for the most part.

  “No more chasing shadows,” I agree. “In fact, if you see any, we probably should head in the opposite dire.”

  “Good point,” Quell says. “I’m not sure I want to know where it’s trying to actually direct us.”

  “And with any luck, we don’t have to find out.”

  I keep my eyes oh in front of us as we walk. It’s only now sinking in how close I’d e to dying. If I want to find my brother, I o be more careful. I ’t let my emotions trol me like that. If I throw myself blindly into every situation I find myself iually I’ll meet my match. And I ’t help anyone if I’m dead. ime, I—

  [Role Requirement,] Echo warns.

  I grab the back of Quell’s shirt right as he begins to pitch forward, letting out a yelp. His foot appears to pass straight through the ground, and the s his shirt goes tight. I dig in my heels and yank him backward. Both of us fall ba the grouh Poppy as the sand before us slips away, revealing another ravihe lizard gives a startled chirp.

  “What was that!” Quell cries. “Where did it e from? How did we miss it?”

  He’s sprawled half on top of me, our limbs taogether and his back against my chest. I feel heat rising in my cheeks. “I don’t know. Quell, could you…” I put a hand on his shoulder and give it a gentle nudge.

  “Oh! Sorry.” He scrambles off of me, bag away from the ledge and up against Poppy. He nervously adjusts his gsses.

  I pointedly look back to the cliff, f my thoughts on that embarrassing enter aside. “I was watg the ground. It wasn’t there before. It looked like your foot went right through the ground, like it wasn’t even there.”

  “What?” The question is so sharp, I look back at him. Far from being flustered, his brows have knotted in tration. “Describe exactly what you saw.”

  “I don’t know,” I admit. “It was like one moment the ground was there, but the sed you stepped forward, it vanished.”

  Quell turns his attention back toward the cliff, frowning. “Hold on. That sounds like…” He pauses a moment, then his eyes go wide. “Of course. Oh, gods, Nye, yoing to think me such a fool!”

  “You don’t have to worry about that,” I say.

  Quell stands up, and I cautiously follow suit, eyeing the nearby ledge. He’s too close for my liking. I surreptitiously grab a er of his cloak, just in case.

  Quell takes a steadying breath, closing his eyes. Then he raises his hands like an orchestra ductor, and ahereal purple glow flickers around his fingers. He slowly exhales, and an aurora of magic leaves with his breath. The light is caught on the wind and swirls around him, growing brighter and thicker by the sed. Then he snaps his palms forward, and the magic pulses away from us. As it does, reality ripples.

  The sandstorm shimmers. The ground undutes like a stone cast into a ke. Overhead, moonlight breaks through the storm. Then, all at ohe illusion shatters.

  It’s like someone’s removed a pane of distorted gss from before my face. Large ses of ground fizzle away; the wind’s howl dies, and its force dissipates. It’s not pletely gohe sand still stinging our skin, but it’s also no longer obsg ht. We’re standing on a rocky pteau, surrounded by snaking yons.

  Awed, my gaze returns to Quell. His eyes are still closed, but his expression is one of serious tration. The slou his shoulders is gone. Whatever he did just affected miles of nd around us. How could he ever have thought he’s a useless?

  He’s amazing.

  Quell opens his eyes, thes out a little squeal and backpedals from the cliff’s edge.

  And, moment gone.

  “It was all an illusion?” I ask.

  “Mostly,” he says, back up to slump against Poppy’s hide. He pauses for a moment, as if out of breath. “The sandstorm is real, though the illusion made it seem much worse than it was. Illusions aren’t just visual, but be audial as well, and the really strong ones have a slight tactile element. Gods, would you look at all these ges! We’re lucky we didn’t fall in.”

  I carefully edge up to the side of the cliff, peering over. “I don’t think luck art of it.”

  “What do you mean?” he asks.

  There are bo the bottom of the cliff. White sticks and stones scattered all across the yon floor. “I think this is where the illusiorying to lure us.”

  “There wasn’t a monster,” Quell realizes. “When Darian and Liz’s star drake vanished, it must have fallen off an invisible ledge. Gone in an instant.”

  My stomach s. The very same had nearly happeo Quell and I. Which means the others… I look around the pteau, and my heart sinks. We’re alone up here.

  Quell must have reached the same clusion. “We have to find them. They ’t be far. Actually, hold on.” He climbs up on Poppy’s bad looks behind us. He squints, trag his finger over the nd. Theakes her reins and bee to join him.

  “Based on the way we’ve headed, I think I know where we lost them,” he tells me.

  I climb up behind him, mildly impressed. “That’s a good sense of dire.”

  “Oh, it’s not that good,” he says, urging Poppy on. “We just we when we lost the group, then right when you nearly got lured off a cliff, then we went straight and a bit left again after that.”

  I snort. “Quell, take the pliment.”

  “Oh.” He gnces back at me. “I’m not really used to getting pliments. Ah. Thanks.”

  “You also just dispelled a sandstorm-sized illusion,” I add.

  He huffs. “Now you’re just trying to make me unfortable.”

  “Maybe.” I smile at his back.

  Quell leads us through the maze of ravines, finally pulling us over to stop. We both climb down.

  “Okay,” he says. “If I’m right, they probably fell somewhere around here.”

  The image of those bo the bottom of the cliff float to the forefront of my mind. “Maybe I should look,” I offer. “You stay here.”

  “No,” he says firmly. “Like you said: They’re going to be fine.”

  He turns and cups his hands to his mouth. “Liz!”

  His voice echoes back at us from several different ravines.

  “Anyone!”

  We wait. His echoes die out, and my heart sinks.

  Then, distantly, we hear a returning call. “Quell! Quell, we’re here!”

  He turns to me and grins, his smile as bright as the sun. Much like the sun, it warms me.