His hold on me lessened, but he did not release me and his eyes still had a faint glow. I had not been imagining it.

“You think?” he asked, voice low, body rigid.

“Let. Me. Go,” I said through my teeth, and he released me, taking several steps away.

I stood and pulled on my robe, needing distance. I barely glanced at Adrian as I headed to the door, but the silence between us was heavy, and in a word, I could only describe Adrian as devastated.

“Isolde,” he said.

I paused, my hand on the door, but did not look at him.

“I’m sorry,” he said, and I wondered what was going through his mind and what exactly he was apologizing for—his words or the way he had attempted to work out his anger through me.

I turned my head a little and spoke. I could not see him, but I felt his gaze burning into my back, just as fierce as my turbulent feelings.

“Perhaps you should reflect on why you are always apologizing to me,” I said. “And change.”

I left our room. Normally at this hour, I would return to my own quarters, but I was too wired, too shaken by what had taken place in Cel Ceredi and Adrian’s rage. I decided to return to the secret library Ana had brought me to earlier. On the heels of everything that had occurred since she had taken me there, it seemed even more urgent that we learn how to stop Ravena.

When I arrived, however, Ana was already there.

She sat, bent over the desk piled high with open books and a set of notes. The candles were lit and had waned to almost nothing.

As I came down the stairs, she looked up, dark circles pooling heavily beneath her eyes.

“Have you slept?” I asked.

“A little,” she said. “But I think I have found a spell for the mist.”

“Show me,” I said, approaching the table.

She turned the book toward me and tapped on a page that was beautifully illustrated. Whoever had taken the time to write these spells had also been an artist.

“This spell is for containment,” I said. “Should we not look to banish?”

“If we banish it, we risk sending the mist to another plane. If we contain it, at least we know where it is.”

“We need a vessel for containment,” I said.

“I think one of us should be the vessel,” Ana said.

I had never heard her be so sure about anything before.

“Ana—” I began, uncertain.

“You said you were preparing for war. Is the mist not a weapon?”

It was true that it was a weapon, but was it one we wanted to use? I had seen the horror it had created in my villages. Then again, the horror of war was no different, and I would bring it about to many people.

“Which of us will carry it?” I asked.