She knew when she had first spied the knight across the river, she ought to turn away. But if she could go back to that moment, she would do it again. She would shatter again. Because such love was worth shattering for, always.

Katie’s hands went slack around her throat. Katie’s face was pale, her breath quick.

Once upon a time, there had been three children. They weren’t evil. Not yet. But their world, and their parents, taught them to be.

Taught them to hide their true faces. To lie. To turn on each other. To stop themselves from caring, because everyone they cared about was just another weakness to exploit. They’d been shattered, every one of them. But being shattered wasn’t the end.

“You don’t have to be this way,” Eleanor whispered raggedly. “I know you, Thea. I know who you were supposed to be, and this isn’t it.”

A tear glittered down Katie’s cheek. “I remember you,” she whispered. “But it was so long ago, Eleanor.”

“It was only a few hours ago,” Eleanor replied, half-pleading.

A fragile thread stretched from Eleanor to Katie. It was a strange thing, three strands wound together. Two gray and cold. But one, holding the faintest shimmer of gold.

“People are complicated. They can contain lots of stories. That’s just one of them,” Eleanor said. “You can choose who you want to be. You’re not just Katie Rhodes. You’re Thea, too. And you’re the girl who shattered, and kept going.”

Katie touched a hand to her chest as if to feel the beating of her own heart. “I’m still the Katie who hunted you. I have been wicked, in my life,” Katie said, her expression blank and lost.

“You get to choose your story,” Eleanor said insistently.

Katie fell back a step. She looked upward, tears leaving glimmering streaks down her cheeks. “I don’t want this to be my story. Anger and fear and cruelty.”

“Then change it,” Eleanor said fiercely. “Choose something else.”

“But what will you choose, Eleanor?” Katie asked, looking at her with a distant expression. “You were about to destroy this world. And all of us in it.”

“It’s the only way,” Eleanor said.

Katie drew close. She reached out slowly, and took Eleanor’s hands in her own, staring down at them. “You aren’t that person, Eleanor. You aren’t a destroyer of worlds. This isn’t the ending you’re meant for. If I get to choose my story, so do you.”

Eleanor gazed up at the massive door that loomed behind them. Twelve locks hung open. Only the thirteenth remained. An idea sparked in her mind, and she sucked in a little breath. Once, she had wondered if the way to stop the People Who Look Away wasn’t to beat them, but to help them. Maybe she’d been right after all.

“Eleanor?” Katie asked quietly.