Chapter 3: Emory

At sunset, Emory goes to the Cadence beach bonfires near Dovermere, determined to face the site of the drownings and find answers. She approaches Keiran Thornby, Virgil Dade, and Lizaveta Orlov, enduring their scrutiny and barbed curiosity about how she survived when stronger students drowned.

Prompted by their insinuations, Emory relives the night in the caves: eight students of each lunar phase bled onto a silver-veined “Hourglass” rock while praying. Drawn by a whisper, Emory joined uninvited; silver bound to her, etching the spiral on her wrist and Romie’s. The tide roared in, panic erupted, and Emory remembers only darkness and stars before awakening on the beach among bodies.

Back in the present, Nisha Zenara arrives with Ife, unsettling Emory. She withdraws, but Keiran follows; during a brief exchange about their matching spiral marks, a distant scream interrupts them. Students pull a body from the surf—Quince Travers—apparently intact and dressed as on the night he vanished.

Quince opens his eyes, then convulses. Keiran urges Emory to heal him; a drunken TA Healer, Louis, tries and fails. Emory’s healing slows the seizures, but Quince rapidly withers, his spiral blackening. Keiran calls Lizaveta, who bloodlets and amplifies Emory’s power.

The amplification rips Emory’s magic wide. Desperate to save Quince, she channels a surge that twists beyond healing: tendrils of light and darkness entwine, algae pulses, and powers not her own—Lightkeeper, Darkbearer, Sower, and unmistakably Reaper—flood through her. Unable to sever the connection, Emory’s unleashed, forbidden blend of magics threatens to still Quince’s heart.