“Ella, no,” I say, my voice sharp. Five told me about the twisted Loric Charm that Setrákus Ra used on himself and Ella, the one that binds them together so we’ll have to kill her to get at him. “We’ll figure out a way to break the charm. There’s gotta be a weakness.”

Ella shakes her head, not believing me. Or maybe already knowing that I’m wrong.

“I’m not putting myself before the whole world, John. I wanted to see a future where Setrákus Ra is killed, no matter the consequences.” Now she looks right at me, fire in her eyes. “I wanted to see a future where someone has the guts to do what needs to be done.”

I swallow hard. I’m not sure if I really want to know the details of Ella’s visions, but I can’t stop myself from asking.

“What . . . what did you see?”

“Lots of things,” Ella says, calming down. She gets a distant look in her eyes as she tries to explain what seeing the future is like. “The visions start out as blurry possibilities. There are millions of them, I think. Some of them are more solid than others—those are the ones I can see. The ones that seem . . . I dunno. Likely? But even that’s not a guarantee. You remember that future we saw in Chicago. It felt real, impossible to escape, clear as day. It’s gone completely now. The future has changed too much. And it keeps changing.”

My head hurts. I feel half crazy just listening to Ella. We need a Cêpan, someone who could help her get control of these mental Legacies before they drive her insane. At least we’ve avoided the bleak future I witnessed. But what did we trade it for?

“Ella, did you see yourself die?”

She hesitates, and a knot of dread tightens in my stomach.

“Yes,” she says. Her body shakes and I realize it’s from holding in a sob. I crouch down in front of her and put my hands on her shoulders.

“It won’t happen,” I insist, my voice as firm as I can make it. “We’ll change the future.”

“But we win, John.”

Ella grabs my hands. Tears stream freely down her cheeks. I realize something, the way she’s looking at me, the way she’s squeezing my hands. Ella’s not feeling sorry for herself.

She’s feeling sorry for me.

“It’s going to hurt you so much, John,” she says, her voice cracking. “You have to be strong.”

“It’s me?” I don’t believe it. “Am I the one that—?”

I can’t even finish the question. I yank my hands away from Ella. I’d never hurt her, not even if it meant ending this war.

“There has to be another way,” I say. “Use your Legacy and find us a better future.”