With a squeak of surprise, she sank to her knees, slipped sideways, and moved no more.

Behind us, Beau stood triumphant. Elinor stilled at his feet. “Did you see that?” Though he waved his Balisarda at the vengeful witch’s body, he glanced away quickly. He swallowed hard. “I saved your life.”

I blocked his view of their corpses. Knocked his shoulder with my own. Forced him to turn. “You also set me on fire.”

“Perhaps you could conjure some up for the rest of these—”

With another thunderous roar, Zenna swept into view. The sight of her wings against the sky, of her white-hot flame, stole the breath from my throat. And I remembered. A torch-lit stage. A starry cloak. And Zenna—Zenna weaving a heart-wrenching tale of dragon and maiden.

A magic chain, her kin doth wield to stay him on an even keel.

And when Tarasque did spiral down, her father felled him to the ground.

With Seraphine atop her back, Zenna dove low—too low—scouring the streets for persons unknown. When she saw us, she swooped even lower. She didn’t see the chain until it was too late.

“Wait! No, STOP!”

At the desperate wave of my arms, she banked, but her foot still caught the links. The chain moved of its own volition, slinging rapidly around her leg, up her haunch. With a bellow of rage, she began to fall, and as she did, her leg—it transformed into that of a human. Gruesomely. The witches descended like ants when she crashed to the ground. The impact threw Seraphine through the air with frightening speed. She collided with the trash cans nearest us.

“Oh my god,” Beau said. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.”

Zenna’s roars transitioned to screams as Seraphine struggled to move. I bolted toward her, kicking the trash cans aside. “Seraphine—”

She pushed my hands away with surprising strength. “Go.” Though Beau attempted to drag her upright, she shook him off too, unsheathing another sword from down her back. She swung both equally with surprising dexterity. “Find Claud and the others. Find Lou. He intervened.”

“What?” Beau asked, perplexed.

My gaze darted toward Zenna, who the witches had lashed and beaten with the chain. She’d fully transformed now. Human once more. Vulnerable. “Let us help—”

“I am no damsel.” Springing to her feet, she knocked us aside and streaked toward her mate. “Find Claud. Leave Zenna to me.”

The ground gave a mighty lurch in response, and we had no choice.

We sprinted up the street.

“Where are we going?” Though Beau’s shout tore through my senses, I ignored him, pressing harder. Faster. Blood roared in my ears as we followed the fissure, tracking its path through West End, past the Tremblays’ townhouse, and skidding to a halt outside Brindelle Park. Buildings crumbled now. Witches and melusines alike scattered.

Claud stood in the middle of the street, completely and carefully still. He faced the spindly Brindelle trees.

He faced Coco and Lou.

The fissure ran directly between them, cracking wide, forcing them to leap apart. “LOU!” Her name shredded my throat, but I shouted it louder. I shouted it crazed. When her face jerked up—her eyes meeting mine—a cold fist of fear gripped my heart. Though I cast for a golden pattern, none could’ve prevented this. None could’ve stopped it. She tried anyway, flinging both hands toward the ground. Her entire body strained. Trembled. The sharp scent of magic exploded over the grass, the rocks, the trees—stronger than ever before—but this fissure was stronger, deeper, older, than even La Dame des Sorcières.

Together, helpless, we watched as the earth broke open completely.

As Claud plummeted into its depths without a word.

As the fissure kept growing, kept spreading, until Brindelle Park—until half of the entire city—fractured from the rest, separated by a yawning chasm. Still it grew. Coco’s voice rose to join mine, and she backpedaled, preparing to take an impossible leap—

Beau caught her shirt at the last second. He ripped her toward him. “Are you crazy?”

“Let me go!” She pounded his chest, stomped on his feet, twisted to elbow him viciously. Only then did he release her with a gasp.

“Please, Coco, don’t—!”

But she didn’t leap this time. Instead she dove to the chasm’s edge, hands latching onto a blood witch’s wrist. Another. Screaming, they dangled hopelessly. Their nails clawed at rock, at Coco’s skin. Realizing her intent, Beau dashed to help, and together, they pulled the witches to safety, collapsing together in a heap.

When the dust settled, Beau, Coco, and I stood on one side of the chasm.

Lou and Célie clutched each on the other.

Behind them loomed Morgane le Blanc.

As We Started

Lou

The horror on Reid’s face, the absolute terror, was an image I’d never forget. Though he charged up and down the chasm’s edge, searching for the narrowest lip, for a pattern, for a miracle—it was better this way. Truly. Whatever happened now, it would be between my mother and me.

Just as we’d started.

In line with my thoughts, Morgane swept her hand in a burst of magic, and Célie soared through the air, crashing into a Brindelle tree. Two blood witches who’d been trapped here dropped to seize her, to—no. Hope burned savage and bright in my heart. To help her. They were helping her. In that split second, I thought of Manon, of Ismay, or Dame Blanche and Dame Rouge alike who’d been harmed by Morgane’s hatred. Who’d felt trapped between Church and coven. Who’d lived in fear as debilitating as mine.

Hope isn’t the sickness. It’s the cure.

Of all people, of course it had been Célie to find Morgane. To stalk her unseen as she slipped through the city. My mother never would’ve suspected it. She never would’ve believed such a pretty porcelain doll could grow teeth. If she thought Célie would shatter, however—if she thought I would—it would be the last mistake of her life.

This time, I wouldn’t hesitate.

“Lou! LOU! Célie!”

Reid, Coco, Beau, Jean Luc—they called our names in a frenzy, voices blending into one. Resolve hardened to a sharpened point in my chest as I looked at them. We’d already lost so much, each of us. Fathers and mothers and sisters and brothers. Our homes. Our hope. Our very hearts.