Home, Sera thought with purpose, and her magic stirred in a way it never had before. The word was more than just a wishful thought. It held the power of a command.

Then the world was spinning and her feet left the ground in a disorienting whirl of color at first, then fire, then she was in space and the stars were bigger and brighter than she remembered them. Leela was beside her, encased in a pearly mist, and Sera realized she was too. She hadn’t noticed it forming, hadn’t been able to make sense of anything. On her other side, the tether glinted and they were following its brilliant line, shooting upward at an incredible speed. It was the opposite of falling. It was like flying.

But she had left them. Leo. Agnes. She had left them behind.

Then she caught sight of the City, its cold stalactites reaching out for them, and they burst through the pool she had appeared in when she first spoke to Leela, landing on the icy floor and gasping for breath.

She was back. She was home.

But this was not the home she knew, this cold underground garden with Cerulean imprisoned beneath circles of ice.

Leela helped her to her feet and hugged her close. “We’re back,” she cried.

But Sera found she could not melt into the embrace. This was not the homecoming she had expected. This was not how it was meant to be. She was supposed to be happy, not torn. She was meant to feel as if her upside-down world had righted itself.

“Leela!” Elorin’s voice cut through the silence. Sera turned and Elorin’s mouth fell open. “Sera,” she gasped. “You’re here. You’re here! Oh, but you both must come quick. The High Priestess has called for another choosing, and this time there was no ceremony. She has chosen you, Leela, to be sacrificed. She is saying you caused the sleeping sickness! She has called the congregation back to the temple, to announce it—even the purple mothers and midwives from the birthing houses. I only just snuck out. I was hoping I would find you here.”

A piece of Sera’s heart was still back on the planet, but her own City needed her too. “We have to show them I’m alive,” she said. “Leela, we must show them the memories the way Wyllin showed us, all of them, hers and yours and mine . . . the memories that live inside us now. We can share them. Every Cerulean in this City must see the truth.”