“Be silent.” Élise shoved me back against the wall, her hand against my mouth.

Half a dozen sets of feet ran by us, and both of us held our breath until they passed. Then I flung my arms around her neck. When the sound of the waterfall disappeared and I knew our voices were shielded, I whispered. “Thank you. How did you know I was here?”

“I saw you go into Pierre’s,” she said. “Your eye and skin color was altered, but I’d recognize the faces you make anywhere.” She squeezed my shoulders. “Is Tristan here?”

With one shaking hand, I pointed up at the moon hole. “He’s waiting to lift me out – I need to reach the perimeter, but I don’t know how I’m going to get by everyone who’s looking for me.”

Élise looked up at the roof, her face filled with a mix of emotion too complex to pick apart. “I’ll distract them. Give me your cloak.”

“You can’t! If they think you’re me, they’ll kill you.”

She shook her head. “The Duke will want to catch you first – and once they realize it’s me, they’ll let me go. I belong to the Queen and the Duchesse – no one will dare harm me.”

I didn’t want her to do it. I’d already lost Pierre today, and the thought of risking another friend’s life made me grit my teeth. But her logic was sound, and there was no other choice.

“We need to get you out of here alive,” she whispered. “Your husband owes me a favor, and I can’t collect on it if he’s dead.”

Reluctantly, I slid off my cloak and handed it to her. “Please be careful.”

“You too.” There were questions in her eyes – things I knew she wanted to ask. But we had no time. Pulling the hood up so that it obscured her face, she hugged me hard. “Go through this property – there is a gate at the rear.”

Then she was gone.

I stood frozen, part of me unwilling to leave her to our enemies. But that part of me was a fool, because Élise had given me the only chance I had. So I began to pick my way through the dark garden, moving as silently as I could to avoid detection from whatever trolls lived within. The gate in the wall was barely visible in the ambient light of the house and street lamps, and I was closing my fingers on the latch when I heard screams tear through the air. “Élise!” Her name forced its way through my lips, but I didn’t turn back.

Flinging open the gate, I ran. Ahead was the narrow pathway leading up to the perimeter, and I sprinted toward it, my boots slapping hard against the stones of the street. They were coming. I could hear them coming. The pathway seemed endless, the rocks marking the boundary of Trollus impossibly far away.

Then I was there. Skidding on the tiny fallen pebbles, I ran next to the stacked boulders of rock, my eyes fixed on the faint glow of the ropes of magic waiting for me.