My father takes off up the stairs with a cheery “Goodbye!” Leaving me alone in the hallway with my hammering heart and racing thoughts.

My head buzzes the entire way home. The solution feels so close, so graspable, but there are still so many unanswered questions. The biggest looms heavy in my mind: Can I trust my father to protect me? I don’t know the answer. Disappeared forever. Would my father be willing to let me meet the same fate Ingrid did?

We have everything we need to close the veil except for the thing we need the most: information on how to use the key. It’s infuriating to feel as though the answer is just out of reach when we’ve come so far. It sounds as if by killing Mrs. Vykotsky I may have ruined any chance we have.

Every second that ticks by feels like borrowed time; eventually, another boy will be killed. I am sure of it. I just wish I knew how much time we had. The other bodies appeared about ten days apart. If the next sacrifice follows the same schedule, we have two or three days at most.

My father is hopeful about Florence, but I’m not confident she’ll have the answers. She is an immensely talented witch, but Mrs. Vykotsky was threatened by Florence’s powers and constrained her to the kitchens on purpose. It wouldn’t have been like her to share her secrets with anyone, let alone Florence. She wasn’t her choice of successor. If anyone were to know, it would be Helen, but she disappeared the night Mrs. Vykotsky died and hasn’t been heard from since. I wouldn’t even know where to begin looking.

All the walk home, I try to slow my breathing, think rationally. The last time I reacted on pure instinct, I ended up in the basement of the Sons of Saint Druon.

I open the front door of the flat to find Finn pacing in the entryway, a low cap pulled over his curls.

“Where have you been?” he greets me. I resist the urge to shove him out of my way and walk directly to my room.

“Why do you look so cagey?” I reply with a roll of my eyes.

“We’re late?”

“Excuse me, we?”

He nods. “Yes, for confession.”

I suddenly remember the church service from a few days ago. Finn said the priest told him to return on Wednesday for confession.

“Did you commit more sins you need to confess to?” I snap. It’s so pathetic to watch Finn’s little performance of redemption when we don’t have a moment to waste closing the veil. The duke could be finding his next victim at this very moment.

“Yes.”