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My thumb brushed against her cheek. It grew warm under my touch.

She loved me. This,thiswas what it meant to be happy.

I would have done anything to keep her forever.

“I may not have a sword,” I said, “but I’m clever. I infiltrated the palace to find you today.” I swept my fingertip against the bridge of her nose and delighted at how it made her smile. “Nothing will be impossible for us.”

Ofelia stood on her toes and kissed me again. My head swirled and my heart batted and I didn’t want anything else in the world, just her arms fastened around my middle forever.

Sagesse approached me, her head held high like a queen’s. She laid a hand against my arm. After decades in the Below, I imagined that her skin would be cold. But it was as warm as anyone’s.

She slipped a gold bracelet off her arm and onto mine. “Give this to my daughter until I see her again... in case... in case your mission should prove too great,” she said. The seer turned back toward the Shadow King. “Sire, you were able to create a mirror that showed the king this world. I humbly ask that you make one more mirror, a smaller one, so that my daughter can see me when she pleases.”

He cocked his head. “What will you give me for it?”

Ofelia balled her fists. “Sagesse has given you everything already,” she snapped. “Her stories, her life, her years. All she wants is a way to see her daughter more. Is that so horrible? Can’t you be generous, just for once?”

“I can be,” he said, almost defensively. “But, dear Ofelia, what good is a bargain of mine if I give treasures away to mortals with no price?”

“It’s something humans do,” she replied. The fearlessness in her voice was like a perfect, harmonizing note within me. It made my blood sing with delight. “Humans give without asking for anything in return.”

“Why?” asked the monster.

“Kindness,” she replied. As if it was a concept this beast should understand. Ofelia swept Sagesse’s hands in hers. “Please, sire. You are powerful. You’ve created this palace and the moon and those clouds. It would be easy for you to make such a trinket for Sagesse.”

The Shadow King pulled his hand close to his heart, tightening his grasp into a fist. Then, when he unfurled his long fingers, two silver mirrors lay within, each about the size of my hand, with small, thin handles. He offered them to Sagesse.

She took them in her hands and curtsied before the monster. “Thank you, sire.”

“That was very kind,” Ofelia noted.

“Creating mirrors is a simple thing.” His neck twisted, his head bending toward me. His eyes, two white stars, focused unwaveringly on mine.

Sagesse pressed one of the little hand mirrors into my grasp. “Please give this to Eglantine,” she said. Her eyes crinkled behind her spectacles. “I look forward to seeing her again.”

“You will,” I vowed, and kept the mirror firmly in my left hand. With my right hand, I grasped the hand of the Shadow King.

“Our bargain is struck,” I said.

He bent low, his cold voice slithering into my ear. “If you try to trick or betray me... there will be punishment.”

I blinked, and suddenly I was pressed up against the door through which I’d entered this world. The castle was gone, the Shadows were gone, Sagesse and Mirabelle and Ofelia—all back in that castle, hidden in the moonbeam far beyond where I could see.

Part of me wished I had been given the chance to wish Ofelia farewell.

But perhaps this was better. After all, this was no goodbye.

We’d be together—just as soon as I captured the king.

27

Lope

How beautiful the song of my blade through the air!

How lovely it is to accompany such music.

How sweet to be the hand that can hold the pen