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instincts, a base set of feelings like curiosity and fear, as if they were infants. It confused her enough to go back and forth between thinking of them as the actual people who had died or as just spirits lacking mind and body.
    Alex’s rage was the first sign there might be more to them than instincts.
    She didn’t know why it comforted her to have found his spirit, but she realized she wanted to keep him intact as well. Fortunately, he didn’t need her support. He had the will to stay alive.
    Unfinished business, surely.

 
     
     
    CHAPTER FIVE
     
    “Sanya?” Someone was shaking her shoulder. “Sanya.”
    Weakened by the crippling drowsiness, she could only manage to grumble. Soon she had the strength to crack open one eye and found Alabell standing over her bed.
    “Bastial hell, I was worried. I couldn’t wake you. Are you sick?”
    Sanya groaned as she sat up. “No. You worry too much. Why’d you wake me?”
    When Alabell stepped back in alarm, Sanya realized what sound she’d let out of her throat. In her unguarded state, her old voice had come out. It was shrill and grating with a deeply annoyed undertone.
    “I’m sorry,” Alabell said, clearly surprised. “I just wanted to tell you that Cleve and Reela are outside Basen’s house. I’m going over there to speak with them for a little while, but I didn’t want to leave you alone without you knowing. You certainly sleep deeply. I practically had to hit you before you awoke.”
    Sanya laid her heavy head down, breathing out her tension. “Go ahead,” she uttered in her friendly voice. “I might meet you there soon if I don’t fall back asleep.”
    As she struggled to stay awake against the safli potion’s lasting effects, she watched Alabell regard her nervously before leaving her room. Sanya heard their front door open and then shut, and then came the lock.
    Sanya chuckled at the healer’s overabundance of caution. Basen’s house was next to theirs, just twenty yards away. She went to her window and watched Alabell approach Cleve and Reela. What were the most skilled warrior and psychic of the academy doing there?
    Sanya’s heart fell as she realized the answer. Guarding Basen so he can sleep.
    She tried to think of a new plan as she went to investigate her secret compartment. The wooden panel seemed to be just as she’d left it. If any of the searchers had found it, they’d returned it to its original state. She hid her silver dagger and remaining safli potion there, then disrupted the bastial energy from the akorell bracelet in her pocket before putting it in as well. They might search her when she tried to get into Basen’s room, so she couldn’t bring any weapons. She knew he had a dagger and a sword somewhere in his room. She just had to be alone with him.
    Sanya changed into her nightgown and threw on a fur coat over it. She went before the mirror in her room, fluffed her ash-brown hair and then rubbed her amber eyes. She’d used psyche on Basen every time she noticed him looking into her eyes, and now they gave him a sense of comfort, of home. Even if he’d grown suspicious of her, she knew she could find a way to regain his trust. It was getting past Cleve and Reela that would be difficult.
    She’d spoken to Cleve about psyche and learned that he’d encountered one of the strongest psychics in the world in Greenedge, the only known continent across The Starving Ocean. Because of constant training with one of Reela’s brothers, he was able to resist the psychic’s spells enough to escape with his life. Part of his tale wasn’t true, but she was familiar enough with Cleve to know he wouldn’t exaggerate or boast. She figured that instead of escaping, he’d probably killed the psychic and didn’t wish to talk about it.
    Reela was likely to be better than Cleve at resisting psyche. As a half Elf who grew up with Ovira’s most powerful psychic, she had the best chance against Sanya if it came to a duel. But Sanya would never