“A small life, in exchange for a very big one.” The duke levitates the stretcher and the body on it to waist height using magic and places his hand on the boy’s forehead.

My knees threaten to buckle under me. I’m light-headed and the buzzing, the awful, incessant buzzing grows louder. I look to where Finn stands. He closes his eyes and sways just a little, then reaches out to grasp on to Oliver’s elbow for balance. Oliver recoils, but lets him hold on.

The duke begins to chant. It starts as a low rumble in his chest, then it gets louder, until he’s shouting. It’s in a language I don’t understand, maybe Latin? I’ll ask Oliver later.

The veil flickers, shifting more and more rapidly, like the surface of the sea in a storm.

The noise in my head roars. A voice in the back of my head screams at me to run.

The duke pulls a sword from where it hangs at his belt.

He raises it above his head. The point glints in the firelight, poised directly over the sleeping boy’s chest.

And then—it’s as if I’m being stabbed. As if every part of me is being torn apart. The soles of my feet, the back of my knees, my hips, the space behind my rib cage, my fingernails, my wrists, my collarbones, the crown of my head—all being ripped apart by white-hot fire.

I open my eyes just in time to see Finn collapse.

Then everything goes black.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

I come to, still in the basement, my back propped up against the stone wall of the cellar, with Maxine and Lena standing over me, out of breath and sweaty.

Maxine braces her hands on her knees and huffs in and out, her cheeks flushed. Lena doesn’t look much better. She leans against the stone wall and tilts her head back as she struggles to catch her breath.

The golden gate is hanging open, the heart lock still unlatched. The single light bulb above us flickers and swings back and forth.

“What—” I say weakly.

I’ve never seen Maxine look so scared, not even the night Finn and the Sons of Saint Druon attacked Haxahaven.

“Not now,” she says. “Can you move? I don’t think we’re strong enough to carry you any farther.”

“You carried me?”

“You can thank us later,” Maxine replies between gasps.

I wiggle my toes. I feel weak, but the searing pain is gone. I push myself up. “What about Oliver?” I won’t leave without him. This is another mess I’ve drawn him into; I won’t leave him alone in it.

Lena shakes her head. “He’s with Finn.”

Panic rises in me. “That doesn’t mean he’s safe!”

“Yes, but we don’t have time,” Lena argues.