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The little liars,hissed the curse.

“The little liars,” said Celestyna.

“Who?” asked Lord Dellier. “What children are you talking about?”

She stalked away from him and flew down the main stairs. Lord Dellier followed, his midnight-blue dressing gown glittering with torchlight.

At the bottom of the stairs, Celestyna faced four more bewildered guards and showed them her ruined black fist.

She clenched it, tugged it down sharply through the air.

Punch the beast. Pound him and kick him and shove him down, down, down.

Keep us safe.

The castle quaked; the framed portraits of her ancestors rattled against the walls.

Down from the night air drifted a furious, faint roar.

The curse carved a smile across Celestyna’s face.

Her guards stepped away from her.

“There are fourteen stormwitches and one lying human girl running through the basement of my castle,” Celestyna snapped. “Somehow they got past your idiot compatriots at the perimeter of the castle grounds—and don’t think I won’t punish you for that.” She stared them down. “The more quickly you bring these children to my throne room, the less severe your punishment will be. Go.”

Without a word, the guards unsheathed their swords andhurried away. Celestyna, watching them go, felt Lord Dellier’s worried gaze upon her.

He’s confused,informed the curse, in that slick feathery voice.And afraid. Ignore him.

Celestyna’s glee tugged a laugh from her throat. She could hardly feel the collar anymore. How funny, that her old, dotty adviser thought this little necklace could stop a curse. She touched the back of the collar with her blackened hand, and the collar fell to the floor, singed and half melted.

Celestyna closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The curse flooded back through her veins, even stronger and sharper than before. Shivering, she kicked the ruined collar into the shadows.

Lord Dellier was aghast. “Your Majesty, why did you do that?”

“Wait,” she called out to her guards.

They turned, eyes wide.

“I don’t care about the witches,” Celestyna told them. “Hurt them if you must. But the girl, the liar—Brier Skystone. Bring her to me unharmed.”

“Brier Skystone?” Lord Dellier approached her slowly. “But, Your Majesty, you sent Brier to Estar—”

She whirled around and struck his face with the back ofher ruined hand. The curse bumped up her throat with a slight sizzling burn. Without the collar, there was nothing left to obstruct it. Celestyna smiled widely, her eyes full of shadows.

“Don’t speak of what you don’t understand,” Celestyna told him. “And never question me in front of my soldiers again, or I’ll tear out your tongue and throw it into the Break.”

Sword in hand, she hurried down the hidden stairs to her throne room. Lord Dellier stumbled after her. Maybe he was having trouble keeping up with her.

Or maybe, Celestyna thought, delighted, he was afraid of what would happen to him, should he fall too far behind.

.34.

The Climb to the Castle

Quicksilver showed them out of the forest to a wooded hill. From the top they could see across the Star Lands to the distant towering shapes of the mountains that divided the Star Lands from the Vale.

The mountains that pointed the way home.