Immediately, Sanjeet’s face blossomed in my mind, followed by Dayo’s, Kirah’s, Mayazatyl’s, Ai Ling’s . . . I exhaled. I thought of my council siblings on the beach beneath Yorua Keep, doubled over with laughter as they splashed one another in the water. I let their loving voices hum through me, eleven harmonies filling the air in vibrant unison.

Tar is ours
Tar is ours
and Tar is enough.

Slowly, as though my joints were made of glass, I rose to my feet.

“One step,” Ye Eun whispered. “Just one step, Empress. And in the Underworld, the rest will follow.”

My lungs began to shut down, shriveling beneath the oppressive cold. Shadows crept at the edges of my vision. The ojiji apparitions had filled the room like fog, wheeling, keening.

Your siblings are gone. They left you. You didn’t deserve them anyway.
You can’t do anything right. Give in. Pay the price. Pay for our lives.

Truth and lies. Lies or truth . . . who could tell? Maybe the ojiji were right. I was so tired, so fed up with fighting for a better world. I could give them what they wanted—pay the ultimate price. But even in my haze of exhaustion, my family’s voices still rang in my ears, faint, but present all the same.

Tar is enough.

I stepped. Ye Eun made a swift gesture, and the ice water fell to the floor with a violent slap. My skin was miraculously dry, and beneath me, the water began to evaporate, rising into the air until Hwanghu regained their shimmering form. The emi-ehran looked smaller, now, and weaker. I wondered how many times the bird could disintegrate before dying altogether. But I chose to believe they would rise again, as all phoenixes were fated to do.

Though dry, my body still shook with cold. My hearing grew fuzzy . . . then without warning, my legs buckled.

Strong arms caught me before I hit the ground, and I peered up with bemusement at Bunmi’s tersely wrinkled face. My fevered brain jumbled her features, morphing them until I stared up at Sanjeet’s tea-colored eyes. He hadn’t left me after all. He had been here, all along, and I’d just been too silly to notice. He frowned in concern, but I smiled up at him, dreamily.

“If you’re not careful, Jeet of Dhyrma,” I giggled, “your face will freeze that way.”

“She’s going into shock,” said Sanjeet, though he sounded strangely like Bunmi. “Emperor Ekundayo—your Ray! Now!”

Heat surged through me as Dayo’s Ray united with mine, sending doubled power into each of my limbs. Ye Eun brought over one of the billowing dust sheets from the Children’s Palace furniture and tucked it around me. I sneezed. My fingers and toes prickled with pain as blood seeped back into them. Outside, my sprites began to glow again.

“Thank you,” I whispered to Bunmi, who looked like herself again. Then I lifted my head from her chest and found Ye Eun. “Again.”