“Where would I go?” Eleanor asked, insulted, but Melia paid her no mind, striding off and vanishing through the gap in the wall. Eleanor blew out a huff of breath. Ash chuckled.

“She can be a bit slow to warm up to people,” he said.

“Yeah?”

“I’ve been trying to get on her good side for fourteen years and it hasn’t worked yet,” he explained, and Eleanor laughed despite herself.

Thea’s nose crinkled. “She’s Mother’s favorite. It’s hard for her,” she said. She’d pulled her knees up to her chest and was nervously plucking blades of violet grass.

Ash ruffled Thea’s hair. “I know. You’re right.”

Thea looked intently at Eleanor. “Mother makes her stay for all of the Emptying. Makes her do it, too. She hates it so much, but she doesn’t have a choice.”

“That’s why we’re getting out of here,” Ash told her reassuringly. The kitten-of-ashes sat by his foot and smacked the toe of his boot twice, insistently. He chuckled and scooped her up, turning her upside down in the crook of his arm. He tapped her nose affectionately. She sneezed sparks. “We’re bringing you, too, little pest. Don’t worry.”

Eleanor shook her head wonderingly. Of all the strange and bewildering things she’d encountered, this was the hardest to understand.

She watched Ash and Thea play with the kitten-of-ashes, and tried not to think about the monsters she knew they would become.

•   •   •

MELIA RETURNED A short while later with the hedgewitch’s bag slung over her shoulder. Eleanor leaped to her feet. “Where did you get that?” she asked.

“With the rest of the prisoners’ things,” Melia said. She had an excited gleam in her eye. “Who does it belong to?”

“My mother. Sort of,” Eleanor said.

“Is the spell to cross between worlds in here?” Melia said curiously.

“I’ll tell you how we’re leaving once we have my friends back,” Eleanor said. She didn’t want them getting the idea that they didn’t have to hold up their end of the bargain. In her time, the siblings were pretty strict about keeping their promises, but she didn’t know if it was the same now.

“Let’s get started, then,” Melia said. She beckoned them over, but Eleanor hung back. Now that it was time, the thought of being Emptied was suddenly terrifying.

“You’re sure it won’t be permanent?” Eleanor asked, flinching away.

Melia looked impatient. “I already told you. The only way to make it permanent is to Empty you all the way or if you Empty yourself.”

“Right. Okay,” Eleanor said. She drew forward. She’d agreed to go first, but now she was regretting it. What if this was a trap? What if they were only pretending to want to escape? What if—