Julia squeezes my hand again, and when I glance down at her, I know she can’t speak anymore. I don’t hesitate. I need to act and trust that my friends, and kind-of-enemies, can take down our bigger enemy.

I launch myself through the wall of flames, past the confused stares of my troupe, and toward the vines Lucius has slipped into. I’m about to step into the garden when a hand grabs my elbow. Twisting, I ready my power, only to call it off when I meet Annalise’s gray eyes. Fierceness flickers in them, and I can see the woman she used to be—the person who attracted the toxic interest of Lucius. Raising her trembling hands, she fumbles with the tie of my mother’s necklace, and my heart feels like it pounds a million times in the second it takes her to undo it. We don’t have time. Who’s already dead? Xander? Reina? I don’t look back to see.

The necklace falls from her neck and crunches into the stones.

I grab it. Ignoring the way my fingers slip on the blood, I slide it around my neck as I move past the first row of dripping bodies. The five jewels pierce my skin in a ring around my throat, and it’s like the last barrier between me and the magic in this place has been obliterated. It roars through me like a lion let out of its cage, pushing and clawing at my skin. I stumble, catching myself on a vine weaving in and out of a girl’s arm. Lucy. I barely look at her, but as I propel myself forward I make her a promise that I’ll get her out.

I’m moving fast enough that the thorns rip me to pieces, drinking me in like the rest of the people here, but it doesn’t slow me. I’m paying the tithe. I’m using the magic I want to end, so it seems fitting.

His white suit is easy enough to spot. He turns to face me just as I send a vine bursting from the ground to wrap around both his legs. I send other vines too, the ones already growing through flesh. I make them reach out to him, running along his arms and tying him to the very people he doomed. One of the vines curves around his throat, and a red rose blooms on the end. I want to smile at him, taunt him just a little. I’m not the only one taking my revenge. My mom’s with me, Annalise is with me, my troupe, Roman, everyone trapped in this forsaken garden, and not to mention the magic itself.

He strains, and his eyes widen and then land on the necklace at my throat.

“Ahh.” His brow furrows. “I didn’t know she had anything left in her to betray me with.” He looks almost impressed.