“I don’t think many people have,” Sophie said. “I discovered it when you were taking your Gemmer lessons— Don’t give me that look! I wasn’t snooping. A goat got stuck down here. Anyway,” Sophie said, giving a dignified tug to the narrow sleeve of her gown, “it just seemed like a place I could be alone and, you know, try to do magic.” She nodded toward the statue’s base, where Claire could just make out a pile of loose jewels as well as some books, remnants of a time when Sophie didn’t know she was a Spinner or what the unicorn had done to her.

“It’s a pretty place,” Claire said, moving farther away from the entrance to stand next to her sister.

“It’s even more beautiful in the daytime. The stained glass is amazing.”

Claire hadn’t noticed the windows in the dark, but now she saw that all the walls except for the one she’d entered from had a large stained glass window. But without the sun, it was hard to see their images.

“What do they show?” she asked.

“Unicorns, mostly,” Sophie said with a small smile. “Come look.” Picking up the Gemglows, Sophie moved closer and Claire followed. The windows did show unicorns—unicorns in gardens, next to rivers, on cliffs, under waterfalls—but that wasn’t all. They also showed humans, men and women and children in jewel-toned cloaks and with smiling faces, standing peacefully with the unicorns.

“This one’s my favorite,” Sophie said, nodding to an image of a unicorn approaching a girl in a sunset meadow. She’d pulled her ponytail to the top of her head. Now she let go, and it slid easily back into place. As easily, Claire thought with sudden panic, as Sophie had slid into Arden.

“I also like this one, too.” Sophie pointed to the border. “Do you see how the page boy is pretending to be a unicorn with a pine cone? That’s totally something I would— Hey.” She broke off as she turned to look at Claire. “Is something wrong?”

Claire wasn’t sure what to say. For a moment, she stood quietly, the sounds of the war preparation outside nothing more than a distant growl.

“There are creatures out there that are after you. Estelle is after you,” Claire said at last. “Aren’t you scared? Even a little?”

“Me?” Sophie let out a small laugh, and it was so unexpected, Claire almost jumped. “Clairina, I’m scared of everything. I’m scared of losing everything. But I’ve lived with that fear since long before I was in the center of a magical war.”

Her illness. If Sophie did turn back into just a girl, would that mean … would she still be sick? Magic couldn’t fix everything. Was she destined to lose her sister either way?