I closed my eyes. This was for Nolan’s—Eamon’s—big scene. I stumbled into the melody. Almost there. Maybe two notes off. Be honest, keep going. Be honest, keep going. I pushed myself to the edge of that cliff, but I couldn’t make myself stay there. Couldn’t hold my ground. All I could think about was disappointing everyone, and the song broke apart.
I dug through my bag. “Last ditch effort, coming up.” I flipped through Dad’s worn copy of the Elementia trilogy to the page Ryder bookmarked. Maybe if I knew what this scene was about, I could figure out how to play it.
The night sky was muddy and violet. Sevyn had run for hours though the white, skeletal trees of Norgatia until she came to a river that followed the base of a snow-capped mountain. She ate soft, dark berries, washing them down with icy river water. Then she collapsed in the rubbery weeds, briefly longing for the confinement of her lonely tower, for the simplicity of a world that ignored her.
“I feel you, Sevyn,” I muttered. “It’s easier when no one wants anything from you.”
Unconsciousness came quickly, leaving her limp in the heart of a strange land. In the distance, beyond the outstretched arms of the Norgatia trees, an orange halo pulsed with the remains of Maedina’s still-burning tree.
Sevyn woke hours later, retching violently. Fever berries, she thought wildly. How could she have been so foolish? She gave another violent heave and her forehead pulsed. The smell made her stomach quake, and she crawled from it, curling up along the exposed roots of a giant, white tree.
Chills and fever pounded her body until her Birth Rite responded. White flame writhed to life inside her, yet it was not her lightning. It was white fire, quavering and fearful; it had no strength, only pain. It was Evyn.
Somehow.
From a great distance, her brother was screaming through her dreams.
Goose bumps ran from the back of my neck to my arms. I glanced at the countdown clock. Nine minutes left. Where was Nolan? Had Ryder given me the wrong scene?
Sevyn held on to the ancient tree, fever dreaming a black cave. Through a whisper of light, she looked to her hands, but they were not hers; they were frail, lithe, entirely unused. Evyn’s hands.
Evyn?
His head jerked. It was true then; she was inside her twin, and he could hear her. How was this possible? “Sister?”
I am here, Evyn. I can see through your eyes.
“Can you save me?” Urgency cramped his voice, but before she could respond, he added, “They come now. Save me, Sister!”
Through Evyn’s eyes, a dim light grew brighter as it approached. It was not a flame, but an orb of fiery essence. Sevyn recognized it as the power Evyn had been learning to summon on Cerul before his capture at the waterfall. A dark creature held the orb, and its slinking approach filled her with dread that was magnified by Evyn’s shaking. Where are you, Brother? You have to tell me!
“Thornbred,” Evyn whispered, his voice rattling the darkness.
The creature swept a silencing claw across Evyn’s face before pulling his head back by his hair. Sevyn’s brother gave the smallest cry as the creature bit down on his neck, taking long, sucking swallows of Evyn’s blood.
I cried out and threw the book at the padded wall. It’s binding split and pages fell out. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Stupid goddamn book. Stupid M. E. Goddamn Thorne. I pulled my hair over my face and yelled—anything to escape the mental image of Moss gnawing on Ryder’s neck.
“It’s just Julian acting with his tennis ball on a stick,” I chanted several times before I remembered the flashing red light. My outburst had been professionally recorded.
And Conor was back, sitting in his booth and watching through the glass. He flipped the switch when our eyes connected. “You okay, Iris?”
I shook my head.
“Don’t feel bad. You’re not the first person to get in there and freeze up.”
“How much was this session?” I asked. “Was it expensive?”
“You don’t want to know the answer to that, girl.” He gave me a small smile. “Do you want to play back what we recorded?”
I shook my head again, my hair falling in my eyes. This was bad. I’d taken money from Elementia’s exhausted budget. Had this come straight out of Cate’s wallet? “Conor? I want to pay for the hours.” I packed Annie in her case, swept the remains of Ryder’s book into my bag, and met Conor in the booth. I handed over my dad’s “Only for Emergencies” Visa and didn’t look at the total when I signed. Dad would be furious; he’d rip me apart for this. And Cate wouldn’t have a song for Eamon’s big scene.
Worst of all, I now had definitive, expensive proof.
I was not a songwriter.
IRIS & RYDER Film: Elementia
Director: Cate Collins
On Location: Day 6
Killykeen Forest Park, Ireland
Filming Notes:
Magic hour shoot—NOLAN and SEVYN’s first scene together.
DOWNWARD DOG AND OTHER MISERIES
I woke up early the next morning, finally over my jet lag. Laundry was strewn all over the trailer, and Ryder had taped up our film sides like a record of our attendance. I fixed his copy of the Elementia trilogy and placed it beside him. He was sleeping like a baby angel, and I had to get out of there before he woke up.
Because then I’d have to tell him I’d choked.
I threw on my running clothes and went for a jog beside the lake. The sun came up with a dazzle of yellow light, the water sparkling and reminding me of Shoshanna and Eamon giggling like flirt monsters on that rowboat. I tried to listen to some raging Florence, but I wasn’t feeling it. Vance Joy hit the spot instead, his moody
