She leaned against the beadboard wall, gasping for breath. After a few seconds, she took a washcloth and pulled the glowing-hot metal chain of the stopper out of the tub; what little water hadn’t been evaporated began to drain away, leaving trails of glittery quartz dust behind. She wiped it up, then used the washcloth to undo the lock on the bathroom door.

Elizabeth knew. I wasn’t even all the way into the spell, but she still knew. She nearly boiled me to death.

She would have killed me, and this spell—it was so little—

Somehow Nadia struggled into her robe and managed to stay on her feet as she walked out of the bathroom. In the hallway she passed her father, who gave her a look. “Honey, there’s steam halfway down the hall. I know girls like their baths, but running the hot-water heater costs money, okay?”

She couldn’t give him any answer but a nod.

Elizabeth pulled her hand from the candle. The flesh had been charred away deeply enough in spots for her to see the bone.

You scare me, Asa said. And I’m from hell.

“Silence, beast.”

She flexed her fingers, ignoring the stark pain this earned her. As Elizabeth watched, the flesh began to bubble, and the skin lightened from black to a charred tan back to its natural pink. The wounds closed over again, restoring her hand to what it had been before.

Immortality had burdened her for so long, but it had its benefits.

Nadia Caldani still lived—Elizabeth could sense that much—but a warning had been delivered. Perhaps it would be heeded, and these pointless distractions would stop. Surely her threat had been clear enough that she needed to take no further action at this time.

Still, she hung Verlaine’s bracelet on a hook near the stove, keeping it close, just in case.

“You should have called me,” Mateo said. He knew he was repeating himself, but he was almost too freaked out to think straight. “You’re safe now. You’re okay.”

“I’m okay.” Nadia’s voice trembled. “But I’m not safe. None of us are.”

The three of them were sitting on one of the outside picnic tables, theoretically eating lunch outside despite the chill, but their food lay there, ignored. The thought of Elizabeth somehow reaching across town to hurt Nadia, to try to kill her—“I never dreamed about her attacking you that way.”

“You weren’t with me. That must be why. You can only dream of the future you’re going to see.” Nadia was trying hard to sound like she was in control again, but he knew better. Besides, what she was saying was no comfort whatsoever. He dreamed of Nadia in constant peril; it was even worse to think that she faced other dangers he’d never see, never have the chance to warn her against.

Verlaine sat across the table from them, huddled in a fake leopard-skin coat with a wide black collar. “How did Elizabeth know you were trying the spell?”