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“Wecouldsay you came with me tonight,” said Alex, watching her. “Ifyou’ve agreed to my offer.”

Rune, standing on her tiptoes, was about to cover the upper left-hand corner of the map with the first piece of tracing paper.

“What offer?” she said, glancing over her shoulder. Her fox mask obscured her view of him. She would have pushed it back off her face, except both her hands were occupied.

“My offer to help you rescue Seraphine,” he said from where he leaned against the prison warden’s desk, looking at her. “I said I would help,ifyou agreed to come with me to Caelis for a month.”

Rune bristled, gripping the fountain pen hard in her hand. “Two weeks, we said.”

“It will take us three days to sail there, and three days to sail back. So: no. You’ll have to come for the full month.”

Why is he so adamant about this?

It wasn’t like him.

Rune returned to the map, pressing a little too hard on the tracing paper as she followed the lines showing through from behind. “You know I can’t leave. I have—”

“What happens when you succeed, Rune?”

“What do you mean?” she said, still tracing. There were seven concentric circles, each depicting a section of the prison. She was on the second section.

“What happens after you rescue every last witch from the purge?”

If Rune were honest with herself, deep down, she didn’t believe she could save them all. She hoped to save Seraphine, and more witches after that. But eventually, Rune expected to be caught. She was only one girl. And there were hundreds of witch hunters.

“I can’t rescue them all,” she admitted, staring at the untraced lines showing faintly through the translucent paper.

“For this exercise, let’s say you can. When it’s over, will you still hide yourself in plain sight, pretending to be what you despise? Resenting everyone around you? They will never change their minds about you, Rune. Don’t you want to be free of them? Of all of it?”

Rune lowered her pen. She didn’t want to think about this.

Because Alex was right.

Once, this island had been her home. It had been exactly where she belonged. But unless witches somehow seized power, it would never be that way again. And even if a new Reign of Witches were possible, there was no going back to her old life with Nan. That life ceased to exist the day they dragged her away to be purged.

Rune lifted her pen to the paper and kept tracing. She had three prison sections left to copy.

I’ll never succeed—not completely.Witches would always be in danger in the New Republic. So this little game ofWhat if?was a waste of time.

When her tracing was complete, Rune lowered the last piece of paper. It was then that she remembered what Alex had said around the bonfire outside.

All that’s left to do is sell Thornwood Hall.

“You’re leaving for good,” she realized aloud, turning to face him. “Not for a month, and not just to study. You’re going away forever.”

It felt like someone had pulled the chair out from under her.

She struggled to find words. “Does Gideon know?”

“I haven’t told him.” Alex glanced away. “I doubt he’ll care. In fact, I’m sure he’ll be relieved.”

Rune frowned. That made no sense.

Alex pushed away from the desk, walking toward her. He stopped in front of the chair she stood on, his masked face tilted to hers. “I want you to come with me.”

“For a month, yes. You said that.”

“Not for a month. I want you to leave with me and never come back. I want you to be free of this, Rune. You shouldn’t have to live in constant fear for your life.” He reached for her fingers again, sliding them gently through his. “But I’ll settle for only a month. For now. If I must.”