Aislin gave her a tiny headshake. “By that point, you’re too deep inside your own mind. Eventually you’ll learn to carry out operations from the dreaming proper, but you need more experience for that. More control.”
“I don’t get it,” Seelie said. “If I can’t do this when I’m awake, and I can’t do it when I’m asleep, how do I cast the spell?”
Aislin started to answer, then caught herself, sly now.
“I’ll tell you every part of the ritual…save for that. It isn’t difficult. It just needs a bit of creativity. I want to see you apply yourself. Now, once you’ve inscribed your sigil, the next step is to home in on the specific dream, the specific mind you want to touch. I know three ways to accomplish this. The first, which is the simplest but least precise—”
The city trembled.
A ripple ran through the reconfigured streets, asphalt turning to black water, skyscrapers roiling as they went rubbery-soft.
“Is that you?” Seelie asked, staring at the upswell. A second ripple coursed through Manhattan in a wave, taller now. Buildings collided, knocking chunks of masonry loose, sending them tumbling down where they rolled along the avenue like jagged dice.
“No.” Aislin crossed her arms, glaring. “Someone is interfering. Outside.”
Seelie felt herself slipping away. Aislin’s voice went faint, swallowed by the reverberations of the waves. The world around her started to fade. She drew on her mnemonics, her breathing tricks, everything she’d learned to keep hold of a dream.
“Your workshop—” she said, fast. “The Asclepion! Tell me where to go next! I can’t finish the Labor if I don’t know—”
Aislin was talking, shouting something in her ear, but now the undulations of the streets rose to a wet and foamy roar. —the river, the Smoky Hollow boys are protecting—
The dream winked out in a wash of white spray. Seelie’s eyes flicked open.
* * *
Weight. Sudden pain, rotten wood digging into her spine. Dergwyn was straddling her, down in the open grave, shaking her shoulders in the rhythm of the waves that had devoured dream Manhattan.
“Wake up, wake up,” the ghoul princess hissed. Fetid breath washed over Seelie’s face.
“I’m awake. I—”
Dergwyn’s open palm whipped down and cracked across Seelie’s cheek. Seelie flexed her jaw, groaning at the sudden starburst of pain.
“I’m awake, I said. Ow. What are you doing?”
Dergwyn grabbed the collar of Seelie’s T-shirt and hauled her up, pulling her nose to nose.
“Saving your life, rabbit. The Hessian just pulled up to the cemetery gates in that fancy black car of his. He’s fetching his shotgun from the trunk.”
Seelie scrambled to her feet. Dergwyn was ahead of her, bounding from the open grave in a single brisk leap. Seelie scaled the dirt, wriggling up on her belly and rolling onto dew-damp grass.
“Run, rabbit!” Dergwyn rasped. “This way!”
She wasn’t alone. Ghouls ran through the shadows, some loping on all fours, a sparse and scattered pack fleeing among the lonely tombstones. Seelie pumped her arms and raced in a dead sprint. She stayed tight on Dergwyn’s heels, darting around the graves, keeping low. At the back of the cemetery, clawed hands clamped down on her waist from behind. She barely had time to flinch before a ghoul hoisted her up, tossing her like a sack of groceries and shoving her over the crumbling brick wall.
Long-jawed canine shadows were blurs under a lonely streetlamp. One block over, a corner tavern was closed for business, windows boarded up and a realtor’s sign on the door. The sidewalk shutters on the cellar entrance were wide open, though, with the torn remnant of a padlock and a stretch of chain discarded in the gutter. Dergwyn led Seelie down jolting steel steps, into the darkness. The princess’s opal eyes became a pair of glowing moons. She grabbed Seelie’s hand and yanked her close.
“Follow. Stay near, step where I step.”
Behind them, the cellar shutters whistled shut with a tooth-rattling clang of metal on rusted metal. Sealed in together, Dergwyn’s eyes were the only light, and Seelie followed her lead. The ghoul led her down what felt like a tunnel; she made out the hazy impression of labyrinthine walls, and dank cold water dripped onto her shoulder.
“Where are we?” Seelie whispered.
“Under. This city’s honeycombed with Under. Tunnels built once and forgotten twice, highways if you know how to ride them. There’s an entire city under the city.” Dergwyn’s gemstone eyes blazed as she tugged Seelie along, and she flashed her teeth with glee. “The city’s bones are down here. You the kind of witch