I looked up to see Newt lost in a memory.

“Both the elves and us in our war,” she said, her grip going white on her staff. “Together we killed the ever-after. They could flee. We were left to wallow in our shared war waste. We make it worse with every curse, but we have no choice. To survive, we must set things even more out of balance.”

Somehow I wasn’t surprised that the elf-demon war was to blame. “I’m sorry.”

Newt’s focus sharpened, and her long face grew tight again. “I didn’t want to kill you. They made me do it.”

“I’m not dead quite yet.” Still holding my throat, I slid to the edge of the table and cautiously slipped off. Pinpricks of fire like the stars of returning circulation burst against my skin and vanished. Newt shifted her staff, and I eyed her sourly. Clearly she was having a bad Newt day. “Since when does anyone make you do anything?”

I crouched to feel for a pulse at Ivy’s wrist, and Newt’s face was ugly when I turned back. “They think I’m plotting with you,” she said angrily. “Because I petitioned for time for you. Because my rooms are no longer shrinking. Al has been imprisoned, but I was told to kill you. If I do, they’ll not only let me live another day, but they might listen to me.”

Al was in jail? Crap on toast, it was down to Quen and me.

“Ku’Sox is at fault,” Newt admitted bitterly. “It’s easier to blame you. Killing him is impossible. Killing you is merely hard.”

That was kind of nice. Killing me being hard, not easy.

Jenks was sitting up and holding his head, wings askew. Belle crouched beside him, whispering in his ear as her eyes never left Newt. “If you kill me,” I said, cautiously moving to sit in my chair, “you’ll all only live another week, tops.” I gestured helplessly. “The reason your rooms aren’t shrinking is because I fixed your line. That’s why it is the only one that sounds right anymore. If I had Bis, I could fix them all. Can you get him back for me? Now?”

Newt backed up, confusion in her stance and apparently not knowing what to do if I didn’t attack her. “No. You make it sound easy, not killing you.”