“No,” Aurora snapped. Then, softer, she said, “No. Novaya has suffered too long for my mistakes. I am not leaving without her.” She hitched her mother higher, and began the long trek down the cramped tunnel. She had to hunch because she was too tall. She’d been hunching in this particular tunnel since she was twelve years old and hit a particularly strong growth spurt. But everything was different this time. Her ears were attuned to every sound, and she could feel each scrape of her mother’s unresponsive feet against the stone as if they were her own.

“So … dungeons next?” Jinx asked. “Do you know how to get there?”

Aurora pulled in a quick breath, ashamed. She did know where the dungeons were, having explored the location on a few occasions as a child in an effort to do something scary, but she did not know how to get there using unseen passageways. At some point, they would have to take to the main halls, which would leave them vulnerable.

“I do. But it won’t be easy. I still think we should split up. You could stay with the queen, and I—”

“I said no, Roar.”

Rora’s breath caught at the name, at the familiarity in Jinx’s voice. She wanted so badly to keep both versions of herself, both lives. But she did not know if it was possible. She shook the thoughts away, one thing at a time.

“Then we might need to hide my mother somewhere safe, and come back for her after we retrieve Nova. Otherwise, we’re too conspicuous.”

“Is there somewhere safe?”

That was a question with no answer. The tunnel led to the storm shelter, which even now could be in use by the Locke family. The tunnel itself could be safe, but it was impossible to know. There had been unused rooms and studies, but how much had changed in Aurora’s absence? A great deal politically. She couldn’t be sure how much had changed around the castle.

“I don’t know.”

“Then I’ll go alone.”

Aurora readjusted her mother’s weight, pulling her limp arm farther across her shoulder, and shook her head. “No. You don’t know who you are looking for or where you are going or who not to be seen by. I won’t have you being caught because of me.”

Jinx gave that wild-eyed, witchy smile and said, “Together it is, then.”

The two moved as fast as they were able down the tunnel with the queen’s weight between them, and found the storm shelter at the end deserted. They took a chance, and left her in one of the bedrooms there. Aurora chose a small maid’s room, not one of the larger royal rooms, hoping that if someone did come looking they would not think to check there.