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“They’re new.I don’t have the passwords—”

Alphonse swore some more.

“Can you reach Rhea?”I asked Bodil.“Send her a message and let her know we’re here?”

The dark head shook.“I… have never met her.I cannot… make a link with someone… I have never set eyes on.”

“If we don’t go now, there won’t be time to get away,” Alphonse pointed out, and while Mircea didn’t agree, he didn’t correct him, either.None of them did.

Instead, they all looked at me, as if I was supposed to fix this somehow, when I didn’t have any more left in the tank than they did.But I’d brought them here.This had been my decision, and was now my choice.

Again.

“Go,” I said.“I’ll make it to Rhea on my own—”

“Like hell!”

“Bullshit!”

“You won’t even make it up the stairs!”

“No, Lady Cassandra is right.”That last, surprisingly, was Æsubrand.“The rest of you go, and get as far from the casino as possible.The gods are coming here; the peripheries of the city should be largely unguarded—”

“What do you mean, the rest of you?”Enid said, frowning.

“—and prepare to try again later if she fails—”

Enid grabbed his arm.“What are you talking about?What are you going to do?”

“I do not have time to argue with you,” he said sharply, and she flushed puce, the hazel eyes snapping.But then, to my surprise, he took her hand off his arm and held it in his, and his touch was more gentle than I’d ever seen him be with anybody.“You must trust me,” he said softly.“I candothis.I can get her there.”

“How?”That was Pritkin, sounding sharper than usual.

“You know how.”

“No, in fact, I don’t.”

“I don’t, either!”Alphonse said.

“What a surprise,” Gray Curls snapped, causing Alphonse to snarl at her.It did not appear to faze the old woman.

“What is it?”Enid demanded, but was already looking like she knew she wouldn’t like the answer.

The silver prince glanced around our group, as if hoping for a way to avoid this, but I guessed he didn’t find it.“There is a reason the gods didn’t want the fey to combine magics,” he finally said.“Why they worked so hard to keep the elements from mixing, and why any triskelion they found, they killed.”He paused, and then came out with it.“Triskelion isn’t just a symbol, it’s a spell.One that kills the caster.”

“What?”Enid said politely, as if assuming she had misunderstood.

“Along with anything else in the vicinity, even gods,” Æsubrand continued.“Several lost their lives to it in the past, which is why mixing bloodlines was forbidden.Only those of us who possess at least three of the four elements can cast it—”

“Which includes me,” Pritkin said, looking shocked.Because I guessed that was one spell he didn’t know.

But Æsubrand only smiled.“After what I just saw?No.You are needed for the final battle, all three of you, whilst I… am not.”

Enid had something to say about that, had a LOT to say, in some language I didn’t understand because my translator was acting up.But I didn’t need to.It was all over her face, in the rapidity of her conversation, in the way she raged and clutched his arms and shook him hard.

It was in her terror and her tears.

She wouldn’t leave him.I knew she wouldn’t.And Æsubrand knew it, too.