Which you must not do.

Magic was powerful. And the temptation to become someone of power, whether that power came from magic or not, would always lead down a dangerous pathway.

Those who wish to win wars will stop at nothing to use magical artifacts for evil purposes.

Isaac knew the consequences of giving in to Moloch, as clearly as if he’d been gifted with Leo’s foresight. As clearly as if his father was there, lecturing him yet again on right and wrong. Or his grandfather on making a choice.

Because the right thing is not always the easiest.

He knew what he, or anyone given such power, could become. He must not relinquish the key. He must become a hero, but not the kind that Moloch wanted.

Isaac needed to be the kind of hero who stands up for what is right and not for what is easy, or self-gratifying.

Moloch said, “Come, now. It’s all over for you and your friends anyway. Come with me. The fae realm can be . . . lovely.”

“Then why don’t you go back?” Isaac said with effort. “Stay with your Unseelie friends?”

Moloch narrowed his one eye. “They aren’t my friends,” he snarled. “They are my servants.”

Ah. Servants.

Not friends.

Isaac fought against the power of Moloch and remembered he was supposed to have some kind of special knife, a knife he would have picked up on his first time travel in the ring of stones had he not botched it. Maybe if he tried again now . . . He reached in his pocket for the watch.

But the watch wasn’t there. He’d left the watch in the Vault. Another mistake.

Colin was somewhere up in the night storm in the claws of the dragon. Amelie and Bedwyr were at the mercy of the knights, with poisonous snakes surrounding Amelie. Leo was flat on his back under the weight of the wolf, and Kat was frozen, her hand outstretched, fist clenched, a blue light slipping from between her fingers.

A blue light.

At the same moment that Isaac saw the light, Leo said, in a strangled voice, “Chatelaine. Use the—” before the wolf growled and snapped.

The chatelaine. The chatelaine held dark magic. A witch’s soul was imprisoned inside the thimble. The chatelaine held dark magic, so maybe, just maybe, since he was already channeling dark magic, maybe he could turn it on Moloch.

Isaac concentrated all the power he had on Kat’s chatelaine.

But it was more than all, because he also felt a surge of energy from his friends, a positive energy. Isaac used it against the dark magic, channeling the bright, good magic through his heart.

He knew what was needed to win over the darkness. The power of good magic. The bright energy of friendship.

Isaac, unlike Moloch, had friends.