“Don’t you dare thank me, Ines. You’re not dying,” Aarya says stubbornly.

But Ines’s breathing is getting progressively more labored. “Thank you…for being my sister.”

Aarya opens her mouth to respond, but Ines’s eyes flutter and close, her body going limp in Aarya’s arms.

Aarya touches Ines’s face. “Ines?” she breathes. “Ines?” But Ines is gone, and by the way Aarya’s face crumbles, she knows it. She folds over her friend, squeezing Ines into her body, her pain so visceral that I feel it in my own chest.

I pull at my shirt, like I can’t get air, like it was all sucked out of the room, my breath fast and stilted. But deep down inside, anger is forming, small and tight and hot, like a red coal from a dying fire. My hand clenches around my knife and before I can even form the thought, I’m looking for Jag, ready to avenge my friend, to guarantee he never hurts anyone ever again. But when I look back toward the throne, he’s gone, and not only him, but Rose and Brendan as well. I do a fast scan of the room, scared I won’t find him and scared of what I might be capable of when I do.

“There,” Layla says, and points. Jag is already halfway across the room, heading for the door.

My dad drops the guard he’s fighting with a fast kick and immediately turns to me. He follows my sight line to Jag just as Jag slips out of the great hall.

“Nova—” my dad starts, but looks again after Jag. “Stay here. Stay safe.” And with a heavy expression, he leaves me to hunt down his father. I know he has to follow him, that he can’t let Jag slip away, but I can’t, either.

“I’m coming with you,” Ash says, his eyes strained with the same conflict of chasing Jag or staying to fight with Layla and Aarya.

“No, just me,” I say. “We can’t leave Aarya by herself.”

“Go, November. You’ll lose them if you don’t,” Layla insists, and I do.

Chapter Twenty-eight

I RUN AFTER Jag and my dad, weaving around fighting Strategia and dead bodies. The heavy door is half open and the guards previously stationed at it are either missing or dead. I run out of the great hall into a mostly bare foyer hung with tapestries. Luckily there is only one hallway to choose from. But before I can run for it, I hear boots pounding straight for me. And out of the shadows at the end of the hall charges a man dressed all in black. He locks eyes with me and I recognize him as the guard who held the knife to Aarya’s throat last night in the dungeon. He unsheathes a sword.