Madly by Amy Alward Page B

ears.Maybe I do. And I can’t keep holding on to these dreams without at least trying to make them come true.
    I jump up from the bed, feeling more confident than anyone should in their pajamas. Adrenaline floods my system: it’s impulsive, it’s rash, but if I take any more time to think about it, I’ll talk myself out of it. “Okay, I’ll do it. First thing tomorrow morning,” I tell Kirsty.
    â€œDo it now,” she says. “We need to plan for the first ingredient.”
    The clock on my bedside table reads 11:09 p.m. “It’s late . . . ,” I say, but then I know the royals won’t be sleeping. “Okay, give me a second.”
    â€œI won’t move a muscle,” she says with a grin.
    I tiptoe out into the hallway. The house is deathly quiet. When I was younger, Granddad used to make mixes deep into the night, but now he takes a sleeping draught at ten p.m. on the dot, so I know he won’t waken.
    When I reach the shop floor, I take a deep breath. The shop has an eerie appearance at night, the muted light from the street reflecting off the innumerable glass jars that line the back wall. The air is still. There’s a dark screen in the corner, our Summons, and I place my palm on the glass. It’s cool to my touch. I’ve never done this before, so I hope it works.
    â€œRenel Landry,” I say to the glass.
    Renel’s face appears beneath my hand, and I have to bite down on my tongue not to yell out in shock.
    â€œCutting it close, Samantha Kemi.” He reaches his hand through the glass. I take it and brace myself. He pulls me hard, and within a blink of an eye I’ve arrived in the palace. It’s not nearly as hard as last time.
    The surprise must show on my face as he tuts at my ignorance. “Once you’ve visited a place, it’s much easier to transport there again. You left an imprint of yourself along the magic streams.” He walks briskly over to Auden’s Horn, which appears to breathe in the flickering candlelight of the palace room.
    â€œYou know what to do,” he says.
    I step forward and place my finger on the screen. Just like it did with Zol and Zain, smoke pours from the mouth of the horn as if it is on fire. I feel heat on my face. “I’m in . . . but my grandfather isn’t,” I say.
    Renel raises an eyebrow. “No Ostanes? I will have to talk to the family about this.” For a moment I think they’ll refuse to let me enter on my own.
    But then he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a scroll. “Your Wilds pass, and the first ingredient,” he says, then turns me round and I fall sideways into the wall behind me. The wall bends and breaks, then I’m back on the shop floor, skidding on the stone slabs, panting heavily. The Summons screen goes dark.
    I take a few deep breaths, then run my finger along the edge of the scroll to break the seal. My heart stops.
    I might have already missed my shot.

Chapter Eleven
    Samantha
    â€œAT LEAST WE DIDN’T WAIT until tomorrow.” Kirsty looks down at the scroll. “I guess anyone who has to think too hard about whether to join the hunt is going to be out without a hope. This stuff is impossible to buy.”
    â€œAre we too late?”
    Her watch is a complicated device with several different interlocking faces showing time zones and moon phases and tides. “We should just make it. If we leave now.”
    â€œWhat’s going on here?” Mum stands in my bedroom doorway in her purple dressing gown. Dad is behind her, a beat-up paperback in his hand. I wasn’t exactly discreet, running upstairs from the shop floor. I would have woken the Sphinx with my stomping.
    As they stare at Kirsty and me, I know they’ve figured it out. But to my relief, they don’t look mad. Only tired.
    â€œOh, honey,” says Mum.
    â€œI’m sorry. But I want to do this. I need to do this.