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“Help her! She’s in pain!” Bastien calls from his cell, his hands clenching the bars that trap him inside.

“Pennie,” Archie roars, “get to her now!”

I don’t slow as I move toward the cell bars, melting them instantly and continuing through the next cell, while Archie rips his cell door from its hinges and tosses it aside with a thundering crash.

I reach our Bianca, where she lies on the bed in such a small ball for one who possesses the mightiest spirit of anyone I’ve ever known. She clutches her stomach, her body flinching as waves of agony seem to assault her.

“Bianca, what is it?” My hands are outstretched, but I’m afraid to touch her until I understand what’s happening to her.

Her breath hitches as her eyes open, revealing how bloodshot they are, how overcome with desolation she is. “Something hurt me, Pennie.” She holds up one quivering hand and my horror knows no bounds as I observe the blood covering her palm.

“Let me see you,” I command more fiercely than I intend, but she’s not afraid of me, though there’s a distance in her eyes that tells me she’s going into shock.

Bianca swallows roughly and whimpers as she moves her other hand, while rolling to her back and unfurling her body for my inspection.

I gape at the blood soaking through her dress… so much blood, a mortal wound. Without her time in my pool, she would already be gone. The scorching blaze inside me sends billows of steam all around me, which prevents me from touching her until I can restrain the heat. Maybe I could cauterize her wound, but the pain might kill her.

“WHAT IS THIS?!” Archie storms, his voice shaking the rusty bars and summoning the guards to move with greater speed.

Bastien, freed by Archie, rushes to his mistress, his body shaking from more than fear. Her pain is his, his magnificent colors already dimming. If we lose her, we’ll lose him. We’ll lose everything.

Bianca stares up at me, her trembling hand reaching toward me. I finally control my fever enough to claim it, feeling her shudders as she raggedly whispers, “Do you believe me now?”

“Yes, my love.”

I hear and then feel Remy’s presence behind me. “What happened to her?”

Bianca’s eyes flash with blue fire. “Exactly what’s happening to Nico, you jackass.”

“What?!” Remy stammers. “No, you must be mistaken. That’s not possible. It’s madness to consider it.”

Bianca groans. “Dude, loosen those shiny pants so some oxygen gets to your tiny brain or pull your antlered head out of your ass! Whatever’s preventing you from embracing reality!” She sneers at him. “What?! You think I stabbed myself in the stomach forfun? No! I’m connected to Nico. I love Nico. Andthishappened!”

Mournfully, her voice breaking, she says, “He’s forgetting us… I think he’s forgotten all of you, but he still remembers me. I don’t want him to forget where he came from and that he’s loved. We need him backnow.”

Remy and Archie detonate at each other in shouted commands, denials, and death threats, while I hold Bianca’s gaze and force myself to confront the truth of our impossible situation. As repellent as the concept of impossibility is to our Lady, I have no choice but to embrace its power. The future of our family depends on something that is beyond my control. What a vile thing to face after living forever but only recently feeling alive.

My harsh voice cuts through all others, as my jaws will do if they don’t heed me. “Has the queen secured any gems from my region?”

“The gems, yes,” Remy answers instantly, already knowing the direction of my thoughts. “But you and your kind hide yourselves well, so she’s never been able to acquire a pool like yours. If I had known you were hiding at Clumberton Castle, you would have been summoned years ago.”

Bianca wails as her body jerks from the impact of another weapon that’s not even in this realm. Her connection to Nico remains—whatever happens to himwillhappen to her frail body.

“No,” Remy breathes, “it’s not possible.”

Bianca squeezes her eyes shut, gripping my hand with all her strength. When her eyes open again, they reveal true terror. “Am I going to die? Am I really never going to be held by Nico again?”

I scoop Bianca into my arms and stand. “No, my love, you’re going to live forever.” To Remy, I growl, “Take me to the gems and the place that’s prepared for them.Now.”

Remy bellows orders to his knights and then leads us from the dungeon to an even deeper level.

Bianca moans and buries her face against my chest. I know she’d prefer Nico’s arms around her, his scent of love, his furry protection, but that truth doesn’t wound me at all. We all have our own unique roles to play and I’m more grateful than ever for my abilities that are the only thing that stands between her life and her death—but only if the queen has acquired enough gems.

I curse myself for not being prepared. I should have brought some, but it’s been so long since I left Clumberton Castle and we were in a rush. And the gems are quite heavy, laden as they are with much more than just their healing essence. But no excuses will ever absolve me of the guilt I will carry forever if I can’t save our beloved Bianca.

Bastien walks beside me, one hand on my arm and the other resting on his mistress’s leg. He’s unsteady but holding himself together for her. Archie follows just behind us, his muttered, indelicate swearing proof that he’s about to forego all decorum and tear this place and everyone in it to pieces.

When our Lady is healthy, I’ll join him. If we can’t save her, nothing will remain of this city or the leader whose indiscriminate retribution endangered the love I’ve been waiting for all my treacherously long life. The love that might even inspire my kind to return and embrace life in this realm again. The queen bemoans how rare Pendragons are, but her abiding grief is why they abandoned this place, leaving me as their lone watchman to search for a compelling reason to stay away or to come home.