Then Kane felt a sticky strand of hair loop over his ear. Swatting at it, his hand came away dotted in small orbs.

Pearls? They were clustered on a web of pinkish-gold wire, still warm from whatever had produced it.

Kane had one second to wonder: What else hatched from an egg?

He didn’t let himself look up. He just shot both hands directly upward, releasing a jet of rainbow etherea that collided instantly with something that had been looming just above him. Then he launched himself sideways, glimpsing the creatures many legs as they punched after him. Massive, its abdomen sat like a bulbous egg among the nest of eight lethal legs, its entire form furred and rose-gold-colored and shivering with pearls as it rounded on Kane.

“Helena, listen to me!” Kane cried. “I know you’re in there!”

The spider launched up into the spacious heights of the ballroom, nimble atop a network of wires that unspooled from its body. It gathered itself right above Kane, poised.

“Helena, please!”

It leapt downward, balling itself up and unclenching all at once, a hand meant to crush Kane. Kane didn’t want to, but he had to. Right before the spider landed on him, he unleashed a burst of ethereal energy using both hands. The magic burned from his entire body, stabbing up through the spider and ripping it apart.

Kane hissed, every nerve coursing with clarity. His body pulsed, especially his temples. He felt the raised lines of his burns, and in the remains of the mirror was his reflection, winged in ethereal light. It buoyed him, pulling him upward, as though he had mastered not just light, but lightness itself.

A rumbling pulled Kane back to earth, with just enough time to duck. The far wall exploded, and in crashed the beetle with Ursula riding atop it. The gargantuan bug slid and swung, but somehow Ursula stayed put. And somehow, so did her dress. She threw a shield out ahead of the beetle’s path, and the pair rocketed toward Kane.

“Kane! Jump!”

He tried to, but his new levitation was hard to control. The next thing he felt was something grab him—Ursula, he thought—and all at once he was clutching the beetle’s curved horn as it flailed. He held on for dear life.

“Don’t let go!” Ursula cried. The beetle screamed, and suddenly its shell popped open like a car hood. Clear wings veined in cerulean shot out, beating in rapid motion as the beetle took to the sky.

Kane closed his eyes, fighting not to vomit as the beetle flew straight up and through the ballroom’s skylight. A cloud of razored glass tore over him, but there wasn’t time to feel the pain before the beetle crashed back down, tossing him onto a roof eaten through by fire. Ursula was at his side a second later.

“Kane! Your powers! Can you fly?”

“Fly?”