The stage was a nacreous ivory, buffed and polished so that the light bounced off it and illuminated the great hall in hoops of rainbow. One lone figure adorned the stage: Adeline, bare shouldered and shivering in a pure white tutu. She teetered atop what Kane first mistook for stilts. He stifled a gasp. Satin ribbons crisscrossed Adeline’s thighs, weaving down her muscular legs and into ballet pointe shoes at her feet. But they didn’t end in blunted tips like they should. Instead, they continued into elegant blades as long as swords, forcing Adeline to pitch backward for balance as their points glanced off the stage’s smooth face. The crowd leaned closer, hungry to see her fall.

“You’re here for a reason,” Sophia called out. “Tell me the truth this time.”

“Sophia, please. It’s Adeline. You—” Adeline pitched sideways, catching herself barely. “You know me. We’re friends, from the conservatory—”

Sophia winced, sending a ripple through the ballroom. It caught Adeline, maneuvering her body into a pirouette atop one blade. She spun slowly, perfectly balanced.

“You can’t lie here,” Sophia said. “You can’t lie. She tried to lie, and it killed her. Just snapped her apart.” She pointed at Poesy’s crumpled form before turning desperate eyes to Adeline. “Please. I don’t want to see you hurt. Please, don’t lie to me.”

Adeline turned, rigid and barely able to nod.

Her face relaxed as Sophia slumped back, relieved. “You know my brother. You need to tell me where he is. He wants to hurt my kingdom, doesn’t he? That’s what the witch told me. He wants to bring the Doom home to us.”

Worlds overlapped, the reveries intertwined in her mind, but Kane understood. In the mess of converging story lines clawing at her identity, she hadn’t lost focus of the betrayals he had inflicted on her. And even here, barely holding on to her sanity, she still understood that Kane had run away into a darkness he couldn’t defeat and had brought it back with him to destroy their home.

“Kane can help you,” Adeline said through her teeth. “He’s not going to hurt you.”

“You’re lying again.” Sophia clutched her head, another ripple boiling over her. Dolls of alabaster rose up from the stage in perfect imitation of Adeline, balanced atop the same lethal blades. Sophia groaned hopelessly as they spun. Like a music box, Adeline danced within their orbiting choreography, the blades flashing by her without striking. Kane understood the trap. If Adeline resisted—if she moved so much as a centimeter out of step—those blades would find her skin.

Etherea crackled in Kane’s fist, but he shook it away. He couldn’t fight yet. He would only have one chance.