“No,” I say softly. “No, no, no.” As if repeating the word will change reality. But it won’t. It can’t.

I thought I understood Latham’s plan. He needed to kill and collect the bones from three generations of Bone Charmers. He has Gran’s bones. He has my mother’s. Now all he needs are mine, and he’ll have unimaginable power.

So what is all this? What is he doing?

And why steal my blood instead of killing me? What is he waiting for?

“Is he doing readings on you?” Tessa asks.

I touch the pendant at my neck, grateful I’ve continued to wear it. “He must be.”

Talon shuffles his feet. “What do you need us to do?”

But I can’t form the words to answer him. My gaze keeps darting back to Gran’s bones—dozens of them—broken and suspended in nutrient solution. I think of the horrified expression on my mother’s face when just one of Gran’s bones fractured, of her desperation to find a way to heal it before both of my paths disappeared. Is that what Latham is doing? Trying to make people disappear? But who?

And why?

“Saskia?” Bram says. “What do you need?”

“I need some air.” I push past him and hurry outside. I lean against the side of the building and slide to ground. The backs of my eyes burn, but I don’t shed a single tear. I can’t. The sight of that shop has burned through me and tears aren’t nearly powerful enough for what I’m feeling. I’m just a dry, angry husk, ready for revenge.

Tessa comes outside and sits beside me. “You don’t have to do this today.”

I massage my temples. “Yes, I do. We’re running out of time.”

She rubs small circles on my back with the heel of her hand. “So let’s go back to our room and figure out where to go from here.”

She thinks I’m saying we need to get to Ivory Hall before all the other apprentices wake—and we do—but it’s not what I meant.

“I have to face this now. Latham will catch up with me soon. He’ll kill me.”

Her face registers surprise and then anger. “No, he won’t.”

She’s wrong, but I don’t have time to tell her because Talon and Bram both come out of the shop. Jacey and Niklas see them, and jog over to join us.

“You’ve been gone a long time,” Talon says. “We thought we’d better check on you.”

“Everything all right?” Bram asks.

The question turns my spine to steel. “No,” I say, “but it will be. One way or another, Latham is going to pay for this.”