The appeal to her logic seemed to work, and she grabbed my arm. “Run that way and find Sheriff Brackenberry. Tell him what you told me.” She pointed to the other pyre in the distance. To Selene, Eli, and Paul she said, “You three stay here. We’ll need your help.” Without a word, I took off at a run, leaving my friends behind. By the time I reached Brackenberry, I was panting so hard I could barely breathe. He gaped at me, completely taken by surprise, but that didn’t prevent him from listening as I relayed the story once more, whispering low. I kept glancing at the Will Guard as I spoke, afraid they would know what I was doing and attack.

Brackenberry’s expression hardened. He didn’t ask me any questions or express any doubt. His faith stunned me as he immediately turned to the deputies next to him and spoke some low instructions to them. The message slid down the line among his men.

“You want to get back,” Brackenberry told me. I did, walking backward, too afraid to turn around. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the Will Guards starting to retreat as well. At first I thought it was in response to Brackenberry’s men closing in on them, but then I realized the truth.

“It’s going to blow!” I screamed.

I turned and started running. A second later a deafening noise rent the air as the ground split in half. The force of it flung me forward. I landed a dozen feet away, arms and face first. I blinked away the stars clouding my vision and struggled to my feet, afraid to turn around and see what was left and what wasn’t.

Brackenberry and the nearest of his men had made it, but everyone on the other side of the bonfire had not. All that remained where they’d been was a deep fissure in the earth, like some kind of portal opening up into hell.

The Will Guard had made it as well, but Brackenberry and his men regained their focus quickly. A barrage of spells soared through the air at the three guards, taking them out in seconds. Then Brackenberry shouted at his men to stop the other Will Guard at the last bonfire—the last fail-safe that would keep the island afloat.

I ran with them, wanting to help. But by the time we arrived, the remaining Will Guard had been captured. I slowed down, hope returning at last. Surely, the destruction could be turned back and the damage undone.

As soon as she saw me, Lady Elaine waved me toward her. “Dusty!” Selene, Eli, and Paul were still with her.

I jogged over to her.

Lady Elaine grabbed me by the arms and gave me a shake. “You’ve got to go back to Senate Hall and climb to the top of the watchtower.”

I didn’t know what to say, certain for a moment that the pressure of the situation had addled her mind.

She scowled, understanding the look on my face perfectly. “We won’t be able to stop the Telluric Rods from sinking the island. The best we can do is delay them long enough for most of us to evacuate.”

I gulped. Most of us. How many wouldn’t make it? I glanced at the pyre and the people surrounding it, holding the explosion at bay with their magic. The moment they stopped fighting it, the last rod would engage and the entire island would go down.

“But you can stop it, Dusty,” Lady Elaine said. “You can save all of us and the island itself.”

I rocked back on my heels. “What? How?”

Lady Elaine leaned toward me, piercing me with her gaze. “The sword. The Will sword is on top of the tower, and only you can use it.”

“That can’t be true,” Selene said from my right. “It was supposed to be destroyed.”

“It can’t be destroyed.” Lady Elaine shook her head. “But you can use it to absorb the power of the Telluric Rod and deflect it.”

If The Will sword, Excalibur of legend, was still around, it could definitely do what she was saying. But … “Why me?”

“Your dream,” Lady Elaine said through clenched teeth. “The one with the plinth and the tower.”

My head spun so hard at this news I almost lost my balance. I turned my gaze toward Senate Hall and the watchtower perched so high above it. The plinth. The tower.

The name.

“It’s known as Excalibur, although that’s not its true name,” my mom had told me once.

True name.

B E L L A N A

It wasn’t the ghost of Marrow or Rosemary or Nimue. It was the true name of The Will sword. The name that would give me command over it.

But I didn’t know the last letter.

And now, it really was too late.

33

The Naming

“Let’s go.” Selene grabbed my arm and started pulling me toward the hall. I didn’t protest. I was too afraid to admit that I didn’t know the sword’s name, that I wouldn’t be able to command it the way that Marrow had. But I had to try. This was our only chance.

“I’m coming, too,” Eli said, falling in step beside us.

I glanced back at Paul, expecting him to say the same, but he looked ready to collapse.

“I won’t be any help to you, Dusty.”

I turned and touched his hand. “I understand. Do what you can here.”

He nodded, swallowing. “I guess it’s your turn to promise to stay alive.”

I exhaled, my emotions threatening to choke me. “I will.”

Then I turned away from him, hoping with all my heart that it was a promise I could keep.

I broke into a run, Eli and Selene keeping pace beside me. The going was hard as the ground continued to tremble beneath our feet, almost rocking back and forth as if the island were nothing but a massive ship in a turbulent sea.