“Hey, stranger.” The voice was hardly more than a whisper, but it was definitely Verlaine.

“Oh, my God. You’re okay!” Nadia could have wept. At least one thing had gone right. “What—where are you?”

“Still in the hospital. Can’t talk long.” Verlaine’s tremulous words made it clear she could hardly talk. “Couple hours ago—just woke up.”

“How?” Elizabeth wouldn’t have released Verlaine from the spell she’d used to attack her—

—unless she was already beginning. Bit by bit, she was undoing her own magic. A spell here, a spell there, until the great collapse came.

“Managed one thing,” Verlaine said. “My dads are here in Wakefield with me, not in Captive’s Sound. Tonight—you and Mateo—”

“Elizabeth has Mateo. I have to get to him, now. But I’m so glad you’re all right.” At least one of them got out okay. At least in this one small way, Elizabeth hadn’t won.

Or—had she? Verlaine’s survival, amazing and wonderful as it was, might be only a sign that Elizabeth’s final plan was under way, and the end was even closer than Nadia had feared.

But Verlaine was safe. Her dads were safe. Her own father and brother were safe. Gratitude for at least that much flooded through Nadia, giving her courage, pushing back the exhaustion until she knew she could run again.

Verlaine whispered, “Nadia, be careful.”

“Good-bye,” Nadia said, and hung up. She couldn’t have answered any other way. What she had to do now, to go against Elizabeth—careful couldn’t have anything to do with it.

“Do you know, I’ve never been to this carnival before?”

Mateo remembered being with her at the Halloween carnival when they were little kids. Remembered them riding the same carousel horse. Giving her his cotton candy. Each memory was just one more of her lies.

He and Elizabeth walked through the carnival, hand in hand. The mere touch of her skin repulsed him, but over the course of the last day, he’d learned how futile it was to try to pull back.

(“You consented to the binding spell,” she’d told him sweetly as he’d struggled against her on the beach, his clothes soaked and freezing. “The spells you consent to are always stronger for it.”)

They’d dried off by now. To anyone else, they probably looked like a happy couple. He had on his letter jacket and jeans; Elizabeth wore her usual white dress, carefree of the cold. Twinkling lights had been strung from tent to tent, laced around the tree trunks and branches so that they stood out in the darkening twilight. All the little kids and about half of the adults were in costumes—vampires, Transformers, Disney princesses, a couple of ghosts here and there. People were munching on popcorn balls, drinking sodas out of “collector’s cups.” It was the exact same cheesy carnival it had always been, except this time Elizabeth was here, and she meant to kill them all.

“You think I’m ruthless, don’t you?”

“I know you are.” He could use his voice when he wasn’t trying to defy her; Mateo had learned that today, too.

“If anything less could kill me, I’d do that instead. But it won’t. The One Beneath has released me, but the spell’s magic isn’t that easily undone.”

“Wait. You’re telling me this whole disaster is just so you can die? This is a murder/suicide?”

“Partly.”

“Then what’s the other part?”

Elizabeth gave him a sidelong glance, more openly flirtatious than he’d ever seen her before. “And ruin the surprise?”

“Oh, hey, Mateo. Hey, Elizabeth.” Kendall gave them a wave; she was wearing something very form-fitting, very short, and very green. “So, Mateo, I want you to know that I thought really hard about what you said about racism and stuff, and, like, perspective is incredibly valuable, and so I didn’t go for the sexy geisha thing, and instead I went for sexy Robin Hood.”

“You look wonderful,” Elizabeth gushed. Why had he never heard the mockery behind her “sweet” voice before?

Kendall preened, striking faux-sexy poses that she probably memorized from the package. “Well, it’s sexy girl Robin Hood, obviously. Not that there’s a whole lot of difference, because really Robin Hood was wearing girl clothes back in the day, and I know they all dressed differently then, but get real, the guy had on leggings.”

Mateo wanted to tell her to run. If he could save only one person from this mess, even if that person were Kendall Bender, it would be something. But Elizabeth’s spell held his tongue.

“So where are you guys headed?” Kendall said. Her eyes darted down to their joined hands; no doubt she thought this was the gossip scoop of the year.

“The haunted house.” Elizabeth leaned against Mateo’s shoulder, probably just for the pleasure of knowing how touching her would disgust him. “I like a good scare.”

From Rodman High, at least from the top of the football-field bleachers, the carnival in Swindoll Park glittered on the far hill like a swarm of fireflies.

Asa sat on the highest rung of the stands, watching the party far away. He would have felt bad for the people celebrating, if there were any point. At least he didn’t have to watch them die.

No, his work would keep him right here.

His gaze drifted down to the main school building, specifically to one spot that he’d been told was the location of the chemistry lab.