Chapter 28: Baz

At dawn, Baz finds Emory resolved to return to Dovermere on the new moon, believing the site’s wards block her from sensing Romie in the sleepscape. She asks Baz to come to pause time if the tide turns, and despite fear—and their unresolved intimacy—Baz agrees.

They hike to the cave, uneasy and feeling watched. In the Belly of the Beast, they reach the Hourglass, a silver-veined conjoined stalactite-stalagmite marked with the spiral on Emory’s hand. Emory nearly touches it, but Baz stops her, recalling the prior deaths and disappearances. With four hours to high tide, Baz injects Emory with a sleeping drug to enter the sleepscape.

While Emory sleeps, Baz paces, battling dread as time warps unpredictably. Feeling the cavern’s old magic beckon, he cautiously extends his time ability toward the Hourglass but finds a tangled mechanism of threads beyond his skill. He resolves to wake Emory soon if needed.

Emory murmurs Romie’s name, then screams. Baz wakes her, but the terror does not end: darkness from the sleepscape erupts around them, spilling nightmares into the cave and turning their risky attempt into an immediate waking threat.