I have to let go of all of this—the revenge, the magic, everything. For Mom.

When I push my way out of the room, I expect to be in the same hallway as before. I expect to see the photos of Mom one last time, but I’m in a hallway with no doors and generic paisley wallpaper that looks like it came out of a motel that hasn’t been updated since the nineties.

I focus on what I want as I walk, but it doesn’t shift again. I run, but there are no doors no matter how far I go. I stop as panic bubbles up inside me, and once I stop, I can feel it. The magic in this place tugs at my skin like I’m walking through thorns. It knows what I want, but it doesn’t want me to have it, like it’s begging me to stay, clawing at me to keep me here. But it can’t. I slam my fist into the wall, and it crumbles away. I make my own door.

I step into a hallway of pale lavender and stop. It feels familiar. It takes me a second to realize it’s the exact shade of my bedroom at Deb’s—that warm, calming color I never really liked. The magic’s trying to trick me. I want to be at Deb’s, so it’s trying to give me Deb’s instead of letting me out. At least this hallway has a door in it—that looks exactly like my bedroom door at Deb’s house. I push through it, a tiny part of me hoping to find my silly, shabby-chic room on the other side. What I get is a hallway covered in the same floral wallpaper as Deb’s stairway.

I put my hand on a fading mauve bloom. It’s so real, but this isn’t where I want to be. It’s not about the paint or wallpaper. I need Parker. I think his name as I push a wave of power from me. I don’t even smash the wall. I walk right through it onto the brick pathway lined with fog-drenched roses. I glance behind me at the mansion, all stone and moss and darkness, and wish I could have said goodbye to Roman, but when I start forward, I don’t look back.

The path is straight. It doesn’t try to wind and trick me. I keep calling my power, pushing it out ahead of me with my desire to leave, and then I’m through the iron gate and at the thick tree line. I look back, expecting to see the whole place having disappeared, hidden again behind the spell, but it’s still there, looming and pulsing. Strange, but I don’t have time to think about it. I don’t have a car, and I need to reach the main road before nightfall.