His honesty breaks my heart. “My answer is still yes,” I say finally. “I’ll come with you when this is all over.” I hope it’s the last lie I ever have to tell him.

I don’t think I can bear another one.

Prince Caelan’s eyes light up, brighter than the moonlit sky.

We dance around the room in careful circles, eyes locked despite the ache in my chest, until he stops in front of me, gently taking both my hands in his.

“Until later,” he says, the apology hanging in his voice. He plants a kiss on the back of my hand and releases me like a petal in the wind.

The dancers around me are dizzying, making my head sway.

Caelan disappears into the crowd, and the last thing I see is the pure joy radiating from his face.

I tear myself away from the music and the twirling Residents, trying to find a quiet place to clear my mind. If I were allowed to be human, this is the moment I’d taste bile in the back of my throat.

Even death didn’t ache this much.

I know the moment the procession begins. Everyone glides toward the throne room like they’re following a siren’s call. The ballroom and gardens empty so quickly, I feel the absence of the Residents in the air like a harrowing mist, like I’m being haunted by the ghosts of my imagination.

I watch carefully from the back of the moving crowd as the Legion Guards leave their posts for the throne room, and I make my way through the hallway and toward the basement stairs. When I hear the sound of horns bellowing from above, I know the procession has begun.

It’s time.

I follow the corridors Annika showed me, taking precautions as often as I can, despite her asShurance that the only guards I’ll come across will be the final twelve. Still, I expect someone to be in the wrong place. Someone to catch me before I reach the Orb. Something to complicate our plans.

When I turn down the last hallway, I find the complication.

In front of the doors to the chamber where twelve guards should be, there are none.

I frown, hesitating at the end of the corridor.

Maybe Annika had it wrong—maybe the guards are inside guarding the Orb.

My footsteps send deep echoes cascading in every direction as I move further down the hall. I sense the Reaper on my wrist and prepare to use it at the first sign of Legion Guards.

I stop in front of the doors, pressing my fingers to the metal sheen.

This is it—our liberation.

I shove the doors open with one hard push, fingers stretched like I’m ready for a fight, eyes scanning the room for twelve Legion Guards dressed in white.

But I don’t find them here. And I don’t find the Orb.