Eleanor thought hard. She was the world-walker now. Pip was a skilled fighter, and Otto knew just about anything he wanted to, magical and otherwise—that had to add up to an advantage. “We can’t hurt the People Who Look Away. But when we beat Mrs. Prosper, we didn’t have to. We trapped her in the labyrinth,” she said.

“Temporarily,” Otto clarified. “She’s probably found her way out by now.”

“But temporarily is fine,” Pip said. She leaned back on her hands. “Right? The deal we made with them was that if they don’t get us, they don’t get to try again.”

Eleanor bit her lip. “What if that’s not enough? They broke time to make us fight them all at once, right? What if they find some other loophole? A way to make it Halloween again. Or a way to get to the Pallid Kingdom that isn’t that specific door or something.”

“They’ll never stop, will they?” Otto asked darkly. He sat against the windowsill, scowling.

“So we have to destroy them,” Pip said. She didn’t sound disappointed.

“It’s the only way to stop them for good,” Otto agreed. They looked at Eleanor.

Pip was right. The People Who Look Away would never stop trying to get to the Pallid Kingdom, even if they had to bend the rules to do it. The only way to save their world—to save all the worlds the Pallid Kingdom would conquer—was to stop Mr. January and Mrs. Prosper and Thea for good.

Not Thea, she reminded herself. Katie Rhodes. Thea was gone.

“Elle?” Pip prompted.

“We destroy them,” Eleanor agreed, and tried, as Wander had urged her what felt like a very long time ago, not to feel anything.

“But how?” Pip asked.

Eleanor stared at the far wall. “Thea told me that her parents could Empty entire worlds. I think that’s what happened to the gray world we were trapped in on Halloween. They Emptied it out except for the last scraps.”

“That’s terrifying,” Pip said with a shudder.

“Otto, does your hedgewitch knowledge know what would happen to someone if their world was Emptied completely?” Eleanor asked.

He blinked at her. Then got his focused expression. “If you Empty a world completely, it collapses. It stops existing, and so does everything inside of it. Including people.”

“What are you thinking?” Pip asked.

“We do to them what Mr. January tried to do to us,” Eleanor said. “We trap them in the gray world. And then we Empty it.”

“Is that—could we do that? Empty something?” Pip asked.

“Eleanor can,” Otto said, meeting her eyes, his expression serious.