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‘Does that mean you can unbind me, too?’ she added, voice soaring, before I could figure out how to respond. ‘Can you unbindallof us?’

‘I have the magic.’ Zera help me, I hated to admit it to her – to any of them, with their hungry eyes and their vicious pompousness. ‘And I have the physical objects in which the bindings are contained. The one thing we do not yet have for most of those objects is the identification – we cannot determine which binding belongs to which person. Once we have figured out that last step, I’ll be able to unbind you all.’

Khailan had sagged to his knees before me, hands grabbing over his shoulders as if to confirm the charred silk his unchecked magic had left behind. He didn’t seem to hear a word of what I was saying, his eyes glazed over with delirious shock.

‘How long will that take?’ Drusa said hoarsely in his place.

‘I’m not sure,’ I admitted. ‘But I can promise you – and I’m willing to make a bargain on it, too – that as soon as I have a means of identification, I will prioritise phoenix bindings, except when individuals of other peoples urgently need their magic for strategic reasons. It’s up to you whether that is enough to convince you.’

They were wavering. I could see it in their eyes, shooting back and forth between me and Khailan’s smouldering figure – hope, doubt. Shock, joy. Greed, and again … fear.

‘Of course,’ I added, ‘if you decide to sit back and wait to see who wins the war first, I will likely prioritise everyone else before I have time to unbind you. And I cannot guarantee the bindings will remain whole in the process. The Mother will probably destroy what she can as soon as she hears what I’m able to do, which means we may run out of time at some point.’

Thyvle gasped, a sound that made her look even younger than her fourteen or fifteen physical years. ‘And that would mean the magic is lost?’

I shrugged. ‘Yes. And everything she made you sacrifice, too.’

‘But then …’ She had a deceptively gentle voice, like spring flowers and freshly spun wool – a sound far too sweet for the blistering panic rising in it. ‘But then we’ll be taking an enormous risk, allying with you! Ofcoursethe Mother will find out – do you really think you can keep a secret like this for long enough to unbind hundreds of thousands of people? And as soon as she knows, we’ll be lost. We’ll belost, do you understand?’

The atmosphere turned so swiftly the words evaporated on my lips. ‘Wait. No, I didn’t mean—’

‘You don’t understand!’ she interrupted shrilly, swinging a hand at the blackened wall behind Khailan. ‘You’re alargerdanger to us if you’re godsworn and able to unbind us. Without that power, you would just be an ally we couldn’t trust. Now,you may just be a reason for the Mother to destroy our last hope once and for all – have you even thought about that at all, Lady Emelin?’

‘No,’ I tried again, not sure where I was going, ‘please, that’s not—'

Drusa snapped something in their own language, rattling on too fast for me to catch more than loose shreds of words I thought I might understand. And at once they were all shouting and gesticulating wildly at each other, as if I was no longer even there – my offer forgotten, my bargain magic reduced to yet another threat.

Fuck.

Fuck, fuck,fuck.

It was happening too fast, all of it, my careful plan turned on its head with such merciless terror that for two breathless moments I could only just stand and stare at them, my mind a blank sheet. What to say? What to do? The facts wouldn’t reassure them, not when they were so stubbornly determined to think the very worst of me – and hell, were they even wrong about the facts? Itwasa risk, joining the Alliance. And as much as I needed them to take that risk, could I in all honesty try to convince them they would be safe as newborn babes on our side?

So what was I supposed to say now?

Did I have any tricks left to play, if they’d just decided my most valuable trump card was a losing bet?

‘Please,’ I tried again, not sure what the next word would be but well aware I would soon be out of opportunities to use any words at all. ‘Please, listen—’

‘I’d say wehavelistened to you a great deal, Lady Emelin,’ Drusa bit out without even looking my way. Her white hair was escaping its pins, loose tendrils falling messily around her face. ‘And all you have done is shown us what a grave danger we’re infrom the side of those who claim they wish to save us. So thank you, and we know what to do – we knowexactlywhat to do.’

Which wasn’t joining the cause, judging by the sideways glances they sent me, the undeniable spite in their gazes.

Which meant …

Oh, gods. They did not havethatmany alternatives.

Run straight to the Mother.I stood paralysed below that mosaic dome, the memory of Lyn’s voice barraging over me – but if they did that, if they waited for me to turn my back and flew straight to the Crimson Court the moment they thought we wouldn’t notice or realise …

They knew I could break bindings, now.

And if they told the Mother, they’d doom every other magical creature in the archipelago to extinction in their eagerness to save themselves.

Would they be that mad? Lyn had thought them that mad, and who was I to think I knew better after all the years she’d spent in their artful company?

‘No,’ I managed.

Drusa merely scoffed. ‘No? We aren’t asking for your permission, girl.’