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She chased after it, reaching for that pressure that was pushing against her now. Straining beneath her skin.

It was a familiar feeling. She recognized the shape it began to take.

The creature hit the threshold, but the power was spiraling out from her, like threads from a spindle. Threads that glittered in the air like some great golden web as she held out a hand...

And time in the solarium suddenly stopped.

Taly stood there for a moment with a hand still outstretched, panting.

She’d cast. She’d actually done it. Threads of magic ensnared the little beast, now motionless and hovering just off the ground in a leap for freedom. But she didn’t have room in her brain to care about that right now. Not as she rushed to the creature and gently plucked it from the web.

She kept her grip on the spell, loosening it just enough that time began to trickle by. The creature’s movements were slow, and its eyes blinked open, staring up at her with an emotion she instantly recognized.

Fear. But not just that. It was the feeling of being small and weak, helpless against those that were bigger and stronger. Who werealwaysgoingto be bigger and stronger. Those who allowed you to live by their grace alone.

She remembered that feeling. She had felt it every day of her life as a human.

“It’s alright,” she cooed softly, and the creature gave a little squeak. It moved like it had been dunked in molasses, every twitch of its legs exaggerated and slow. “I’m not going to hurt you.” She gave its ears a gentle scratch, and it blinked. It seemed to like that, so she did it again.

Moving away from the door and back to the table, she cleared the debris and set it down, still gentle, still keeping a hold on the spell in case it tried to run. When it didn’t, she released the spell entirely, watching as it gracelessly rolled back to its feet.

It stared at her.

She stared at it.

“Hello,” she said.

It gave a soft, trilling mew in return.

And just like that, she’d made a new friend.

Taly didn’t let herself worry about the solarium. The damage was done, and if Azura killed her, she figured that death was also an escape. One that seemed more likely, not to mention quicker, than earning her third seal.

What she worried about instead was bathing all the berry juice and soil from Calcifer and thenfixing him up with a bed that she’d made out of a teacup filled with fire crystals for warmth.

Calcifer—that’s what she had named the little creature. She’d also decided that it was ahe. She didn’t know why. Wasn’t even sure what the beast was or if it had a sex. But there was something about him that was distinctly goofy, something good-natured that reminded her of Skye, so she went with it.

“Hey now,” she chided gently, laughing when he swiped at her fingers. His claws clacked delicately against the wood of her dining room table. “I am not food. This—” She pushed a piece of ham in front of him. “This is food.”

But just like everything else she’d tried to feed him so far, he turned up his nose and went back to trying to gnaw on her fingers. She gave him the end of her braid instead, and he climbed up her hair like a rope, perching on top of her head.

She popped the ham in her mouth. “Not a carnivore then.” Or an anything else for that matter. She’d tried meat, vegetables, fish, fruit—he didn’t want any of it. “I hate to say it,” she said, shivering as Calcifer crawled down her neck to her shoulder, his needle-like claws scraping against her skin, “but I think I’m going to have to ask the Queen just what you are. Eventually, you’re going to get hungry.”

Calcifer’s ears twitched—his only reply as the main door to her tower apartment opened and closed.

“Taly,” Azura called. “Now, I’m not angry.” Funny, she sounded angry. “But the fairies said there was some kind of commotion, and then…” She stopped in the doorway to the dining room, face going pale.

Taly eyed the broken sugarberry branch clutched in the Queen’s hand. “I suppose it’s a bit cliché to say that it wasn’t me.”

Azura didn’t laugh, didn’t smile, didn’t frown. She just stood there, so deathly still. “Don’t move,” she breathed.

Taly immediately froze, though it was hard to keep from laughing as Calcifer’s tail began to tickle her ear. “Why?”

Like a beast freed from its leash, Azura snapped into action. She dropped the sugarberry branch, and her entire body began to glow. The air grew heavy, even the palace seemed to shake as she summoned her aether—summoned the power of the Time Shard in all its devastating glory.

Golden tendrils of magic began snaking forward, creeping across the marble like liquid vines, lifting up, rising from the floor and moving towards—

Taly jumped from the table, grabbing Calcifer and holding him protectively to her chest. “What are you doing?”