I go straight to my room, but it’s hours before I fall asleep. I vacillate between thinking about Bram, about what we had on my other path—what we don’t have here—and imagining embracing my mother again. Hearing her laugh. Listening to her stories.

There’s nothing I can do about Bram, but I could see my mother again. I could bring her back.

But she didn’t raise me to be that selfish.

I wish I’d never seen that path. Having to make the choice to let her go is like losing her all over again. And I’ve lost far too much. A surge of anger swells in my chest. Latham stole my mother from me twice, and I’m not sure any amount of vengeance I inflict would be enough to satisfy me.

But I’m going to try.

Getting my hands on a set of Bone Mending books turns out to be more difficult than Tessa and I thought. Rasmus is watching us all the time, and ever since the librarian found me in an unauthorized area, she’s especially vigilant whenever any of us step foot among the stacks.

“We’ll have to get someone else to loan you the books,” Tessa says, “but I still don’t understand why you need to learn. Why can’t I just heal the bone for you?”

“Just trust me,” I say.

I don’t tell her the truth. Latham is closing in on me. I can feel it like a hot breath against my neck. When he catches me, I don’t want my friends to be anywhere close. Besides, I’ve seen myself dying in a dozen visions, and Tessa wasn’t there in any of them. She won’t be able to help me in the end. This is something I need to do alone. If I’m going to stop Latham, I need to learn how to mend bones.

Tessa worries her bottom lip with her teeth. “Give me some time and I’ll find a way.”

And she does.

I’m leaving the workshop the next day when someone taps me on the shoulder. I spin around to find a Healer. He’s short and slight with a pair of thick-rimmed spectacles that have slid halfway down the bridge of his nose. It makes him look years younger than the rest of the apprentices—he looks seven instead of seventeen.

“Saskia, right?”

“Yes,” I say, “and you are?”

“Tessa asked me to find you. She said you might want some help from me?” He struggles to keep pace beside me as I climb the stairs.

“Oh, you must be a Mending Healer.”

He nods. “So what kind of help were you looking for exactly? Tessa didn’t really say.”

“I want to learn everything there is to know about mending bones.”