Fifer crouched in place and covered her head to protect it. When everything stopped changing or moving, she rose, shocked and bewildered by what she’d just done. She’d killed Frieda Stubbs. Ended a life—an Unwanted’s life. The thought was horrifying. Fifer could hardly make sense of it.

The noise and confusion made everything worse. Fifer had never seen the magical world disappear before; she’d only read and heard about it.

“Thank the gods it’s still daylight,” someone nearby murmured, limping around bloodied and dazed. “This would be so much worse in the dead of night.”

Fifer couldn’t process any of it. A voice churned in her head. You killed an Unwanted. It made her sick. The satisfaction of doing something right was easily drowned out by the horror of doing something wrong. And now everything was complicated and overwhelming—what was Fifer supposed to do? She had to act before this scene got even further out of hand. After a second to gather her wits, she remembered the robe, which they’d need to restore the world. Fifer whirled around and located Florence, then went straight to the frozen statue and, in spite of her shaking limbs, climbed up on her back. She moved Florence’s arrows aside, then shoved her arm deep down into Florence’s quiver and pulled out the robe. She jumped to the ground and returned to the gray shack, searching the faces of the walking wounded as she went, desperate to see Aaron.

People were coming out of the doors and climbing through windows. “Is everyone okay?” Fifer called out. “Aaron! Is Aaron in there? Sky? Thisbe? Kaylee?” Her voice hitched with a sob. “Seth! Where are you?” Now that Frieda Stubbs was no longer, Fifer felt all the emotions and stress of her friends’ capture, combined with the fear and doubt of making the decision to take down Frieda Stubbs, come to the surface and let loose. She started shivering. “Ishibashi! Are you in there?”

In addition to Fifer’s indecision about what to do with Frieda had been deep worry that her dearest ones might not survive being trapped. Or that the dissenters had used permanent spells on them. If they were alive, would they be injured? Wondering how these next moments would play out was paralyzing Fifer. And where was Thisbe? What if she wasn’t okay? That thought sickened her more than ever. Their relationship had been in such a bad place. This couldn’t be the way it ended.

“Thisbe!” Fifer screamed. “Aaron!” She stumbled to another window and spotted Rohan working to help people out of it. Then Fifer spied a few of the black-eyed fighters and Maiven, limping out of the shack’s back door. “Thank goodness,” Fifer breathed. It was a relief to see them—they’d been the ones Thisbe was tending to in the classrooms and kitchen. Then Fifer spied Sky and Ishibashi coming out the door together looking shaken but safe. She saw Kaylee climbing up and over the wall of the roofless shack and down the outside while simultaneously calling out the same names that Fifer was shouting. Fifer ran over to her. “Have you seen anyone from the remote rooms?”