She lifted her hand, palm up, and I felt a tug in my spirit. It dawned on me what she was offering to take, and I pulled my hand from hers, horrified. My gaze fired to Zane, but he was looking off.

“I’ll give it back in a little while,” Kaley promised. “But you need to cut off Eliot’s bond.”

“And Zane’s in the process!” I called back, unable to fathom this idea.

“Yes,” Zane finally spoke, dragging his electric eyes to me. “And mine.”

“How can you even…” I shook my head, clasping my fingers around the orb that had belonged to me for three of the most important years of my life.

“Trite, as long as Eliot is pledged to the Beast, he’s a link between you and Nightflesh.” Zane bit his lip, reaching to push my messy hair out of my eyes. “I need to fix you, Helen. This is how I do it.” He dropped his hand.

“Edward said that the greatest form of love is to lay down one’s life for their brother—or sister. You’ve been taking care of me long enough. For once, let me take care of you,” Kaley said, open palm waiting.

In my mind’s eye, I saw the Queen of the Pines’s door between worlds, creaking open and letting the light of Sylvia’s hallway spill through. I didn’t know if it had been real or an illusion, but if she had offered to give me that door, I would have taken it. Shame on me, I knew I would have.

Stinging warmed my eyes. I felt like I had years of sleep ahead of me to make up for the months I’d lost. I lifted the glass orb whose gold and ivory centre brushed up the sides, still blemished by that dark, smoky crack from the collapse of Wentchester Cove.

“I just want to sleep,” I admitted.

“I know,” Zane whispered.

I stared at my sister’s outstretched hand. And all the tension I had stored up in my shoulders began to drain. Though it felt like giving away a part of me, I unclasped the necklace and passed over the important treasure that Harmony Hucklebunk-Reyes had once given to me.

“This transfer of responsibility is official,” I rasped, recalling those first words a Rime Folk had said to me in the streets of Waterloo.

Kaley’s fingers wrapped around the glass sphere. Her brows tilted in, her eyes becoming distant. She whispered something, and I looked at Zane, then back at her. I leaned in to try and hear. “Kaley?” I didn’t know what she was doing, or what she was looking at. It was like she forgot where she was. But a second later, her eyes darted back to me, and she blinked. Then, she smiled.