I ignore them, kneeling behind Oliver to undo the ties that bind his bruised hands. One of the boys lays a hand on my shoulder, but with one quick flick of my magic, I have him stumbling backward. Rage has always made casting easier and it’s coming off me in waves right now.

“Frances!” Finn exclaims, then, strangely, kneels to help me with Oliver’s ropes. “You have to believe me, I didn’t ask for this.”

Finn pulls the rag from Oliver’s mouth. He stutters a breath. “Didn’t stop your friends from jumping me in my dorm and dragging me here.”

I reach out and slap Finn square across the face. He pulls back, eyes watering and face stunned.

“I’d give you worse if you weren’t already bleeding.” If you didn’t just nearly sacrifice your own life for Oliver’s. I pull the key from my pocket, it glints against the dark ripple of the veil. “We’re ending this now.” I still don’t know what to do with the key, but I have to try something.

“No—no, not yet, I still have to…,” he sputters, and looks between the three boys and Oliver and me.

The one I flung against the wall is still catching his breath, and the other looks like he’s debating whether or not a go at me is worth it. Pascal looks conflicted.

He pulls another knife from his breast pocket. It glints, terrible and sharp in the flickering torchlight.

In a flash, he magicks it toward me, aimed directly at my heart. With my own power, I force it to the ground, where it lands with a clatter.

I levitate the knife up off the dirt floor and send it careening in the direction of Pascal’s knee. I don’t want to kill him, but one good wound to the leg should slow him down enough for us to overpower him and end this.

But my aim is off and he sidesteps my attack.

“Stop her!” the taller one shouts at Finn. “Let’s just kill them both, two birds, one stone, eh?”

“We’re not killing either of them,” Finn spits. “That’s not the plan.”

At that moment, a clatter of footsteps from behind startles me. I turn my head to see the source of the noise, but immediately pay for my lapse in judgment. One of the bones from the wall, an arm bone if I had to guess, comes flying at me, smacking me square in the chest. I fall backward, landing flat on the dirt floor, all the air pushed from my lungs.

A hand reaches through the darkness, sure and steady, and rights me on my feet. I look up through the dim torchlight to find Maxine. She’s panting, her blond hair plastered to her forehead with sweat, Lena right beside her looking equally winded.

“How did you know where to find me?” I gasp.