He wouldn’t.

Would he?

My throat is closing, each breath shallower and more useless than the last.

Isolde’s face flashes with panic. Most people, looking at her large doe eyes and softly round cheeks, would have said she looked completely calm. I know her better than that, but she doesn’t let her voice give anything away, either. “Oh, calm down. I wasn’t going to hurt either of you.”

She looks down at Olani, who’s trying to reach for her staff again, and stomps down hard on her fingers. Olani takes in a sharp gasp of pain and says nothing.

“Not badly, at least,” Isolde amends.

“How kind of you,” Raze snorts. “But I’d be more inclined to believe you if you put down the knife.” His own blade digs harder into the exposed skin of my neck.

Isolde wears a sunny grin. “After you.”

I reach again for my magic. I can see that my twin is fading fast, that behind the wet curtain of her hair, her eyes are blurred with pain. She’s pretending to be strong, but she can’t keep it up much longer. And I can’t think straight with iron poking against my skin. The magic that’s always lingered just under the surface keeps slipping out of my grasp.

“Now,” Isolde continues, “I’ll make you a deal. You release my sister right now, and I’ll let you walk away with all your fingers.”

I shiver at the ice in my sister’s words. Raze doesn’t relax his hold on me for even a second. The cool glass of the vial I wear under my dress digs into my chest under the pressure of his arm. “How about this deal?” His voice lowers, but he never loses that faint note of affability. “You let Olani go, or I take your sister with me, claim whatever’s in the Mortal’s Keep for myself, and then kill her.”

Isolde hesitates, dark eyes flicking back and forth between his face and mine. She doesn’t know if he’s bluffing.

I think I feel resolve in his grip, but I’m not sure, either. Then the sting of cold iron on my sensitive skin reminds me: our brief flirtation at Leira Wildfall’s party means nothing to him. My life means nothing. I’m just a changeling. He’ll kill me, and whether he hesitates to do it or not won’t matter when I’m facedown in a pool of my own blood.

Isolde holds my gaze steadily, like she’s trying to tell me to do something. Her words are addressed to Raze, but she doesn’t look away for a second. I don’t know what she’s trying to tell me. My chest tightens. “She’s holding back now, but just wait—”

Her words are cut short by a sharp crack and a groan. Her eyes roll back in her head, and she crumples like a poorly pitched tent in a storm, falling hard to the ground.

Olani knew which of Isolde’s arms was injured and couldn’t maintain its grip. She was only waiting for the right moment to strike, and now she’s kneeling in the mud with her staff in her hands, looking down at Isolde’s unconscious body. I curse myself for not realizing what she was doing sooner. “Isolde!” I lunge against Raze, not caring if he’ll do it or not. I need to get away. I need to get to my sister.