Ursula didn’t talk back. She swung into a roundhouse kick and sent Poesy flying into one of the fallen aircraft. The machine ground backward with the impact. Before it even settled, Poesy shot out—an arrow of sparkling malevolence—and thrust her bladed nails toward Ursula’s throat.

Ursula got her hands up just in time, magenta energy blossoming between them as Poesy’s strike pressed her back. Ursula dug her heels into the ground, leaned into her defense. Her shield strained, redoubled, strained harder, but Poesy’s edge lost no momentum.

“Give…up…” Poesy hissed.

“Screw…you,” Ursula spat back.

With a shout, Ursula drove her shield over Poesy, throwing the sorceress away in a shattering of rosy light. The shock wave burst the windows of the nearby buildings, forcing Kane and Elliot to cower in the gazebo. When he finally looked, Ursula stood upright before Poesy, but barely. In another second she would be finished.

Though her glasses were bent, Poesy put them on her nose to assess. She snapped her fingers, and the teacup appeared.

“NO!” Kane screamed, struggling against Elliot.

Ursula burst forward, accompanied by a blur of gray—Adeline. Together they danced with Poesy. Ursula’s strength and Adeline’s speed kept pace with the sorceress, until Poesy shot into the sky with her teacup raised.

No.

Kane could feel it—the vicious magic that hid in the perfect porcelain bowl—as it liquefied the buildings of the plaza. Kane could feel it. The pull that would swallow Sophia and take her away forever.

Then, as silent as a blade of night, the Dreadmare appeared behind Poesy. For a moment they were framed beautifully against the patchwork sky, and then the Dreadmare snapped its beak over the drag queen’s arm, severing it at the elbow.

What happened next happened quickly.

First, the Dreadmare teleported away.

Second, Poesy fell and did not get up.

Third, Sophia snapped out of her stupor. “Kill them,” she ordered. The cowering soldiers swarmed into the wrecked courtyard and the airships turned their cannons downward.

The rest was chaos as the soldiers quickly overwhelmed the Others. Ursula tore through the battle to get to Kane, reaching him just as a hail of bullets pitted the ground. Her rosy shield dulled their racket, but Kane knew she was exhausted.

“Go!” she commanded.

“I’m not leaving you,” Kane shouted. The guns let up to reload, and Ursula backed up toward Kane. She was pushing them sideways, toward the black doors.

“Ursula, I’m not running!”

Ursula blocked another round of gunfire. “You’re our only hope of unraveling this. You need to recover. Regroup, and then—”

The soldiers had reached them, and they swarmed over Ursula. Kane went to help her but found she had placed a shield right between them.

“GO!” she yelled, her voice muffled.

Kane pounded the shield. “NO! Don’t do this!”