“Belle, no!” I cried out as the fairy, poised at the top of the hanging rack, gathered herself to jump on Newt.

“Immolerate!” Newt snarled, without even looking back.

A wave of force pushed from her, and I squinted as the air was pressed from my lungs. Belle was gone, and I panicked. I couldn’t move my legs, and they felt like they were on fire.

“I have to kill you now,” the crazed demon said, and I choked as she pressed into my throat. “And I was doing so well. If I don’t, they’ll believe that I’m responsible for all of this!”

“Fine. Great. But don’t hurt my friends,” I gasped, my hands trying to shove her off me. “Please.”

The muscles of her jaw smoothed, and her shoulders eased. “Don’t hurt your friends?”

“Please,” I wheezed, my grasping fingers brushing the tips of her hair. If it had been an inch longer, I could have pulled her off balance. “My friends. Belle, she’s the fairy—she’s a great warrior. She protects the pixy children who live here. Jenks needs to be alive to help Ivy. Ivy is trying to live with her guilt. Please don’t ruin her. She’s so beautiful inside.”

The fervor of her eyes diminishing, Newt eased up, clearly confused, and I took a grateful gasp of air. “And help Bis,” I said, my hands dropping to her staff, trying to push just an inch more of space between us and failing. My arms, too, felt like they were on fire. “If you have to kill me, will you help Bis? Will you do that for me? He deserves better than to be with Ku’Sox the rest of his life. He’s just a baby.”

“Bis?”

She was confused, and I forged ahead. “And take Al his chrysalis.” My eyes darted to the window. I couldn’t see it; the angle was wrong. “It’s right there on the sill,” I said, wishing she would turn to look. “He thinks he can’t love anymore, but I know he can. Tell him he was right. He used to have wings. They were like stretched moonlight. Tell him I’m sorry.”

Newt took a step back, her grip falling from me. “You know what we looked like?”

Slowly I sat up against the table and rubbed my throat. Ivy was still out. So was Jenks. Belle was standing guard over him, fierce and determined. I didn’t know where Nick was. I didn’t care. “I saw the pools of shallow water, the moss green branches overhead,” I said, voice ragged. “The fog that muffled and soothed the sun.” Newt dropped back another step, her hands loose on her ebony staff, confusion in her eyes. I coughed, sending ribbons of fire to flare and die in my limbs. “The ever-after was a paradise. What happened?”

“We killed it.”