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“Yes, the very one.” Annelise still refused to meet her sister’s gaze.

“Whatever is done can be undone. If magic has been siphoned, even if it wasn’t the same spell from our grimoire, it can be returned to the source.” Amiyah nodded as she spoke, as if trying to convince herself, too.

Maybe we could save Isaac too.

Save all the innocents Donika turned into Noctani.

“And what will happen when the magic is returned to the source?” I asked, my nails still digging into the table.

Amiyah shook her head. “There’s no way to be certain all will go back to normal.”

“But there is a chance,” I said, the words coming out as a statement more than a question.

“Yes, there is a chance,” she replied.

Saanvi spoke up for the first time from across the table, hope sparking her autumn gaze as her lips curled into a smirk. “Looks like we’re going back to Prins.”

Ihad enjoyed what little time we had spent at the seaside cabin and was sad to be leaving it behind so soon. We hadn’t brought anything with us, and the pack that Amiyah offered me was light. There was only enough room for some food and water, along with a change of clothes. I strapped Stormslayer back onto my thigh and swung the pack over my shoulder, heading into the living room to meet with the others.

I wasn’t ready to face the tension with Annelise yet. She was staying behind with her sister. We would see her upon our return with the antidote spell, in hand.

Hopefully.

Zion agreed to stay with her as well. That left Tess, Puck, Saanvi, Kenna and me to make the trek back to Prins. I was counting all my lucky stars and praying to the Mother abovethat Alastir would know of the spell we sought—or at the least—where we could find it.

Kenna had turned into the black raven, soaring ahead of us to guide our path and search for any obstructions or trouble we might encounter on the way. Her black wings unfurled as she took flight, but that wasn’t the last we had seen of her. She continued to circle back over and over, as if to say we were moving too slowly.

I was thankful for the watcher and felt safer on the journey with her gliding through the cloudless sky ahead of us. The last thing we needed was another ambush from Donika, or to run into any of her other monsters. The thought sent a shiver down my spine with the acknowledgment that Nikolai was now one of them.

I swallowed back the grief that threatened to grip me and pushed it down once more. I couldn’t retreat back into myself again and forget about recent events. My friends were counting on me.

Istmerewas counting on me.

I couldn’t let them down.

I hadn’t remembered the journey to the seaside cabin taking us this long when we initially came, but then I recounted how I had slipped into unconsciousness for more than half of it. By the time the sun had sunken behind the horizon we had only made it past the first river crossing. We set up camp for the night and Kenna returned to us. We took shifts keeping watch through the darkness. By the time the sun crested the horizon in the morning I was thoroughly sore from a long night of sleeping on the cold, damp forest floor.

It had to be mid-morning by the time we made it to the second river crossing and traversed the empty plains towards the main city of Prins. I was both nervous and excited to be closer to the prospect of an antidote, and prayed we weren’t being sent on a pointless mission. Tess walked ahead with Puck; their heads bent together as they spoke. We stepped onto the city streets and headed towards The Shadow. As she had the first time we crossed, Saanvi seamlessly turned into a lithe black cat—an emerald hanging from her collar—to guide us through.

She slipped down the staircase and into The Shadow, glancing at us over her shoulder to ensure we followed closely behind. We had crossed The Shadow so many times at this point I no longer needed a guide, but we kept our heads down and our mouths shut all the same.

Donika could have spies in the city and we needed to remain off her radar. I made a mental note to pick up some glamours when we visited Alastir, though I didn’t have any coin on me and doubted the others did, either.

Saanvi led us through the darkened tunnel and the spelled door beyond it that led us up and out before turning back into her regal human form and slipping into step beside me.

“Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be a Nightshade, and what my animal form might be,” I told her.

“Something fierce,” Saanvi replied, nodding to herself as she thought. “Maybe a lion… or a jaguar?”

“Or a honey badger,” I mused with a laugh.

Saanvi smiled, turning towards me as we continued to walk. “Sure, you can be a honey badger, My Queen.”

Her use of my title surprised me, my foot catching in the space between two cobbles, momentarily tripping me before I regained my balance.

“Please, call me Diana.”

I had been jealous when I had first met Saanvi, thinking there was something more going on between her and Nik. Those thoughts were quickly quelched when I saw the camaraderie between them. Saanvi was smart and loyal—I was thankful to call her a friend and to have her at my side.