I wasn’t going to let Pritch die down here in the dark. Our partnership had been a torturous experience for me. She grated against the very fiber of my being at every opportunity and took pleasure in it. I could never figure out where I stood with Pritch. I was convinced she hated me. I didn’t even know why she tolerated me as a partner. None of that was enough to condemn her now. I had to get her out of this place, even if it meant breaking into her mind to wake her up.

  “Isbrand, can you still move at all?” I asked urgently.

  “Barely. I burned through too much power at the end…” Isbrand admitted.

  “Whatever you can manage, just do it. Get us as far away from the chamber as you can. I’m going to graft into Pritch’s psyche. You’ll be on your own out here,” I warned.

  “Stop stalling and go. We’re not done yet.” Isbrand said.

  We were both spent, running on fumes. I felt it just as profoundly as Isbrand. Somehow, he still sounded confident. Even in the face of our grave situation, Isbrand believed we would win. I couldn’t imagine where his resolve came from.

  I turned my focus to Pritch. She was unconscious, but that didn’t mean her mind was defenseless. Every Intriomancer built a protective veil around their psyche. The veil kept the corrupting influence of the Impulsates at bay, as well as warding against direct mental assaults from other practitioners of the art. As Pritch had done to me earlier, forcing your thoughts into someone’s mind was a simple task with little consequence beyond a moment of pain. Incarnating one’s entire consciousness into an unwilling mind risked severe repercussions for both parties involved if done incorrectly. This was not going to be like my attack on the Harlot Queen. I needed to be surgical in my precision, or I risked scarring Pritch irrevocably.

  I pushed away every thought and centered myself within my mental space. Pritch was the only thing that mattered at this moment. I pictured her in my mind, standing serene and motionless. There was a door between us: the veil. The door’s frame was a fractal outline of limitless black, giving the impression of shattered glass. Each crack was highlighted in gold filigree. It carried a jagged edge that threatened to cut at the lightest contact. The door held within the frame was soft, supple, and plush, like the flesh of a peach. It was a delicate shade of pale orange. The doorknob was a perfectly carved citrine gemstone nestled above a simple keyhole.

  I had no hope of getting the key from Pritch. Even if she were awake, she’d never let me have it. Such things were precious and reserved for the most intimate of relationships. I reached out toward the doorknob. An unseen barrier stopped my fingers from coming close to the door. It felt like cold glass. I pressed harder, willing my hand to slip past. Pain shot from my fingertips and snaked its way up my arm. I withdrew my hand quickly, and the pain was gone. The skin on my fingers was covered in a pattern of tiny sliced lines that beaded with red drops of blood. This was going to be the price. Of course, Pritch demanded blood.

  My hand trembled as I reached out once more. I reached the barrier again and slipped my hand through. The cuts traveled up my fingers, enveloped my hand, and carved further up my forearm. I pressed on, trying to ignore the pain, and took hold of the doorknob. The gemstone was warm to the touch and vibrated rhythmically. It reminded me of a heartbeat. I tried to turn the knob. To my surprise, there was no resistance. I pushed the door open, letting me see Pritch on the other side. The path was clear; all I had to do was step through. That prospect seemed more daunting when I realized I would need to pass through the cutting barrier to reach her.

  There was no time to hesitate. I pressed a foot against the barrier to step through. The sensation took my breath away. It was almost enough to stop me, but I managed to endure. With another step, I passed the barrier and stood in the door frame. The cutting mercifully subsided once I had made it across. I took another step toward Pritch and found myself falling. There was nothing solid to stand on, just a black void beneath me. I lost my balance in that moment, tumbling towards nothingness. I grabbed desperately for something to hold, anything to catch myself from falling. My blood-slick hands found no purchase. I was cast down into the dark.

  I started to scream in the first few moments of the fall. I was cut off abruptly as I smacked into solid ground. I’d only dropped far enough to get the wind knocked out of me. I was dazed but alive. Light began to shine through my tightly closed eyes. I opened them and found myself lying on the floor of an unfamiliar room. It was tidy and sparsely furnished. A single window wall let in the neon glow of endless city lights. This building must have been located somewhere in the lower sections of the city, based on the surroundings.

  I took a few shaky breaths and started to rise to my knees. My head was beginning to ache. A throbbing pain had drilled itself directly behind my eyes. Pritch’s psyche was already attacking mine. This pain had a name. It had been waiting for the chance to find me at my weakest and tear me apart. This wasn’t anger at my intrusion but the cruel glee of satisfied revenge. I felt a sudden pressure on my back that made me collapse flat on the floor.

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  “What the fuck do you think you’re doing here?” Pritch asked. She ground her foot in between my shoulder blades, crushing the newly acquired air from my lungs.

  “L-Livia… please!” I choked out, struggling to breathe.

  “You know, this isn’t a bad look for you, Elias. I think I could get used to it.” Pritch taunted. She eased off just enough to let me breathe again.

  “You’ve got to listen to me! We aren’t here right now. We’re inside your subconscious. I need you to wake up!” I tried desperately to explain.

  “What kind of weird shit are you on now?” Pritch asked, clearly unconvinced.

  “Just look me in the eyes, I’ll show you!” I implored. I thought I heard Pritch let out a soft sigh. She lifted her foot from my back and used it to flip me on over. She leaned over me and stared into my eyes. This was my chance to wake her. It was much easier to connect two minds when both parties locked eyes. I held my breath and focused every ounce of intent through my eyes and into hers.

  Then I realized she hadn’t sighed softly before she flipped me over. It was a huff of rapidly growing anger.

  I had stepped on another landmine. Pritch’s single eye bore a hole through both of mine that carried a message into my soul. I was about to get everything coming to me, and she was happy to be the one to do it. I knew that coming here would be dangerous. But I never could have predicted that so much raw, visceral emotion was tied to me here within Pritch’s mind. Why had she spent so much time thinking anything about me? Had I wounded her this much? Whatever the answer was mattered little at the moment. Livia Pritch was going to end me, and she was joyous!

  Joy—that was it! I had to make her remember the joy of the Orgiastics. It was the only way she would wake up. I had to diffuse this landmine before it killed me. I needed something! Anything to give her just a moment’s pause.

  What would Isbrand do?

  I considered that thought as Livia hauled me up from the floor with both hands under each of my arms. She held me aloft to the point that I had to crane my neck down to look at her.

  “I always wondered what that beautiful eye would look like from this angle,” I spoke the words before they had even formed in my mind. It felt like someone else had been using my voice.

  Pritch’s eye shot open in surprise. I recognized that look. The beginning of a smile played at the edge of her lips. She glanced down briefly before looking back up at me.

  “In your fucking dreams, you pervert.” She didn’t sound angry.

  “No. I’ve been trying to tell you. We’re in your dreams, sweetheart.” My voice was being commandeered again.

  “Don’t you start with that shit too? I can only handle that from…” Pritch trailed off. “…Isbrand…”

  She lowered me to the ground until we were face to face. She suddenly felt very close.

  “Elias? Are you Incarnated right now?” She asked.

  “Yes! We’re stuck in your dream! The Seneschal knocked you unconscious. I need you to wake up. We’re trying to get you out of the Bacchanal, but Isbrand’s Incarnum is breaking down!” I finally felt in control of my words again.

  “Are you out of your fucking mind?!” She screamed, driving me back suddenly and pinning me against the window wall. I heard the muted crack of partially shattered glass. It sounded like footsteps in gravel.

  “I didn’t have a choice, I swear. I couldn’t leave you.” I assured her.

  “My veil could have torn your stupid ass to ribbons, you idiot!” She jabbed a finger into my chest to punctuate her words.

  “I… What?” I was taken aback. “That’s why you’re upset?”

  “For fucks sake, Elias. You are so impossible to deal with!” She lamented.

  “I’m impossible to deal with?!” I shouted. My mind had just erupted in flames. “Have you looked in a fucking mirror lately?!”

  She leaned into my face until I felt her nose touch my own lightly.

  “You have something to say to me, Elias?” She asked. There was an implicit threat to her tone.

  “There is a reason why everyone else calls you Pritch the Bitch,” I answered.

  The glass behind me was starting to collapse.

  “They call me that because it’s good marketing, you prick,” Pritch said. “They call me that because I want them to! They call me that because they love me out there! At least they did! Until you came along and ruined it!”

  “I’ll never call you that,” I promised.

  “Of course you wouldn’t! Nothing so crass as that from Elias! You could barely stand to look at me, let alone acknowledge me,” She spat.

  “What do you want from me, Livia?” I muttered. I was so tired of being confused. “I thought I gave you what you wanted? I thought you wanted to be rid of me!”

  “I just wanted you to act like being my partner wasn’t a burden,” She admitted.

  “Is that how I made you feel?” I asked. That possibility had never even entered my mind. “That wasn’t my intention. It didn’t even occur to me.”

  “How could it? You’re always so wrapped up in your own head! You’re a coward, Elias. A selfish coward.” She accused.

  She was right.

  “I’m trying to make amends,” I offered.

  “I don’t want your apologies. I want you to change.” She said.

  “You aren’t a burden, Livia. You saved my life back there in the chamber. You’re a better partner than I deserve.” I confessed.

  “You’ve got that fucking right for once,” She hissed. “I am a gift to you!”

  “I don’t think so. You can typically return a gift if you try hard enough.” I said, unable to hide my smile.

  Pritch leaned in closer to me and whispered in my ear. “I’m so happy to hear you say that.”

  I felt her lips brush against my ear as she spoke.

  “Why?” I wondered aloud.

  “It makes this next part much easier,” She explained.

  I was confused again. I wanted to ask what Pritch meant. I didn’t get the chance before she slammed me back into the window, shattering it completely. I sailed out into the blinding glow of the city lights. The last thing I saw of Pritch was the kiss she blew to me.