Sera was surprised to feel a stab of defensiveness. Of course she had hated Xavier McLellan and his evil schemes, but the planet was not all bad. She had loved the days on the open sea learning how to sail. She loved not quite knowing what was going to happen when she woke up every morning. She had made friends who were just as different as she was and struggling to find where they belonged, all sorts of unusual friends.

She would not see a male again once she returned to the City, she realized with a start. She hadn’t quite considered that. It made her sad to think she would never have the sort of romantic love she desired in her City—she would have to give that up completely. For a fraction of a second she wondered if there were others like her in the City Above the Sky, with longings and desires that didn’t fit with what was considered the traditional Cerulean mold. But she dismissed the thought before it had a chance to blossom. No one else in the City had ever seemed as different as her, and wouldn’t she have noticed if someone had?

Besides, she would have her mothers and Leela back. Surely that would be enough.

“How are we able to speak, though?” Sera asked.

“The moonstone,” Leela replied. “I’m sure of it. It contains so much power that has been forgotten over the centuries. But Cerulean had to get down to the planet somehow, didn’t they? Before the Great Sadness, I mean. I think perhaps the pendant I gave you saved your life.”

“But then, why can it not return me? Why not take me back now?”

Leela frowned. “Well, I think it sort of has. You are here, but also not here. Perhaps this cone of moonstone is connected to all moonstone. Maybe this is the place where Cerulean would talk to those who were visiting the planets in the days of old.” She rubbed her temples. “I don’t know, Sera. I don’t have all the answers.”

“No,” Sera said grimly. “But the High Priestess does.”

“I do not think she will relinquish her secrets easily.”

Sera agreed. How strange that her world had turned upside down and yet she accepted it without hesitation. But then, it was almost a relief, to think that there had been some reason that the ceremony had failed, some purpose to this no matter how dark.

“How are you to prove her lies to the City?” Sera asked. “What is your plan to . . . to . . . overthrow her?”

Leela’s eyebrows knit together. “I had not thought of it like that. I do not—I am not doing this to rule. My only goal is to set this City right. It is up to someone older and wiser than me to lead it.”