“You heard me. Go fuck yourself. And while you do?” Ricky took a step back and lowered himself against the wall. “I’ll be right here.”

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

“They told you no,” I said to Imogen as she returned.

As I rose from the floor, she flung her arm out, pointing at me. Down I went, my legs giving out, pain ripping through my back as she undid my cure.

I took a deep breath, trying not to panic, as a voice in my head screamed for me not to antagonize her. To remember she could do this.

Yes, she could. And if she did? That was my choice. This was what I’d offered in trade. I’d meant it. I would sacrifice my cure before I’d sacrifice Ricky or Gabriel.

As for antagonizing her, I had to silence the primal fear that screamed at me to stop. I had to antagonize her. Push, push, and push some more, no matter how far that took me. Be prepared for it to take me all the way.

That’s what the ghost had counseled, if not in those exact words. He’d warned that this was a battle I could not physically win. I was the puny human against the ancient dragon. Whatever meager powers I possessed, they weren’t going to help me here.

One way to win.

A million ways to die trying.

Not the best odds, but I’d never been all that good at math.

I sat there, my teeth gritted against the pain until I could speak, and then I said, “You tried to set them against one another. Gave them the chance to take out the competition and win the fair maiden. Well, actually, you offered the chance to survive themselves, but the other version sounds much more romantic.”

She glanced toward the stairs, as if expecting to see an ally who’d turned on her.

“No one told me your plan,” I said. “It’s the obvious one. That’s the inherent weakness in triangles. You only need to get one side to buckle, and the whole thing collapses. But it didn’t, did it? So now you’re taking me up on my own offer. Withdrawing my cure.”

A flick of her hand and feeling returned to my legs, the pain in my back ebbing.

“Thanks.” I got to my feet. “That’ll make this part easier.”

I walked toward the belfry balcony. Part of the railing had been ripped away. I touched the broken and jagged edges.

“Did you see this?” I said. “It should have reminded you not to bother going after Gabriel. Tristan already tried that. He was working with you, right? Tristan. Like Walter and Jack.”

“No one works with—”