“Katherine!” Helena said, relieved.

“Get away from him, you whore,” slurred Adeline.

Helena froze. Kane waved frantically, but Adeline’s focus was tremendous. Unlike Elliot, she was a talented actor.

“That’s right, I know all about what you’ve done,” she said. “Who you really are. And to think you would try to run off, and leave your own family behind? You disgust me. You’re a disgrace upon your family’s name.”

Helena looked small enough to come apart in the wind.

“Why are you saying these things?”

Adeline cackled. “Why, dear rival? Because Johan is mine. And I am his.”

“You’re lying.”

“Oh? Am I?” Adeline circled her, kicking the boot of the bound man. “I see you’ve hijacked the fireworks and disposed of your own poor servant. I’m sure your father will come momentarily. Who do you think he’ll believe? Me, or his delinquent daughter who is determined to steal off in the night, masquerading as a boy, to lay with the first man who finds her unintimidating enough to—”

It was fast. Adeline spun away, the champagne flute smashing. Helena had slapped her, hard.

Adeline righted herself and thrust out the broken stem, rushing Helena. “I’ll kill you!”

And then Elliot shot Adeline. A single shot, to the stomach. It blew her back and into a tree, where she slid down in a mess of bloodied cloth.

“She won’t hurt you ever again,” Elliot said gallantly, believing he had successfully seen them through to the reverie’s resolution. “Now, let’s leave this place forever, my love.”

Helena pushed him away, stumbling over her suitcase and falling. He reached for her, his face a gentle smile, but it twisted as an unseen force dragged him back.

“You—you—” Helena convulsed. Only her eyes stayed steady, locked on the corpse of Katherine. “You killed her!”

“So that we could be together, my love.”

Around Kane the reverie convulsed, too, pitching so suddenly that even Elliot felt it. He looked around, unsure.

“You ruined it,” Helena said, her voice cracking apart. She pointed at Elliot, and one of the metal tubes bent toward him. “You ruined everything!”

Elliot didn’t even have time to put his hands up before the mortar went off. The firework was a blazing rocket, aimed at Elliot’s head. The deafening explosion put wind and fire into the willows, and for ten seconds the courtyard was a riot of sparks. Then, through the smoke, a wavering pink light pulsed.

Kane wasn’t sure what would be left of Elliot. Some prince-shaped bits of body and no more. But there he stood, safe behind the curved dome of a vibrant magic shield, its source the girl at his side.

Ursula.

“Augustine,” Helena seethed. “I should have known.”