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“The one you gave me?” D.C. asked. “I haven’t had the chance to thank you for it. It’s beautiful.”

“Never mind that now,” Alex said. “Tell me that you’re wearing it?”

“I never take it off.”

Alex breathed out in a rush. “It’s Meyarin. I didn’t realise.”

“Of course!” D.C. said, understanding immediately. “It was always so pretty but I never even thought that it might be made from Myrox. It’s such a rare metal outside of Meya.”

“Will it work?” Alex asked desperately.

“It should,” D.C. said, excited now. “Can you reach the clasp?”

It was difficult with their hands tied so tightly together, but with some uncoordinated wiggling, Alex managed to grasp the bracelet and turn it until she could undo the clip.

“Got it,” she said as it opened and fell into her hands. She manoeuvred it between their bonds and used the little leverage she had to start sawing through the metal.

It was amazing how quickly the Moxyreel surrendered to the Myrox bracelet; only a few seconds passed before the bonds broke with a resolutesnap. Both girls groaned when their hands were free, and Alex massaged out the pain as her circulation returned. Her shoulder throbbed uncomfortably and she had to grit her teeth until the aching eased.

“Hurry,” D.C. urged, prompting Alex to cut the bonds around her ankles and hand the bracelet over so she could do the same.

After they stood unsteadily to their feet, D.C. reclasped the bracelet around her wrist and Alex noticed that it wasn’t damaged in the slightest.

“Remarkable,” she murmured.

“I’ll say,” D.C. agreed. “Now let’s get out of here.”

“A commendable effort, but I’m afraid you’re too late.”

Consumed by their rush to free themselves, neither Alex nor D.C. had noticed Aven and Gerald re-enter the dungeon.

“Both of you put your hands out where we can see them. We don’t want any accidents, now, do we?”

“I’ll give you an accident,” D.C. muttered, too low for him to hear. Or, it should have been too low for him to hear, if he was human. But he wasn’t.

“Now, now, Princess,” Aven tsked. “From one royal to another, surely you can understand the position I’m in.”

“If you think I’m going to sympathise with you, then you have another thing coming.” D.C.’s voice rose in anger. “I won’t allow you to kill my people.”

“Nor will I,” Alex agreed, crossing her arms.

“I’m not giving either of you a choice,” Aven said.

“You have to give me one,” Alex said. “I have to let you through that doorway out of my own free will, remember? Otherwise you can’t get through.”

Aven smiled at her. It was a dark, sinister look. “You’re mistaken, Alexandra. Again, it would seem. Ididneed the willing permission of a Chosen one in order to pass through the doorway into the inner Library, but you gave me that when you opened the book and entered first, leading me through. Now you just have to open the last door for me, thereby allowing my entrance. That part need not be out of your own free will.”

Alex felt her blood freeze as she grasped his intended meaning, but she held her ground.

“If you want to use her to get to Meya, you’ll have to go through me first.” D.C. crossed her arms in imitation of Alex. Side by side they stood, neither one willing to back down.

“Do you mean to intimidate me, little princess? I’m truly trembling within.”

D.C. glared at him, but Aven just smiled at her as if indulging a child.

“Don’t worry, Delucia. Your role in all this is not yet over. You shall be an example to your race. A royal martyr. Surely there’s no higher honour than to die for your people. Your death will be the first of many, showing your pitiful human subjects exactly what is to come with my rise to power. I will rule Meya, and with it all of Medora. And your people will be rounded up and exterminated like the vermin they are.”

Alex could feel the tension radiating off D.C., but she had to give the other girl credit when she didn’t react. He’d just made a declaration to commit genocide, after all.