But Scarlett stepped back, a worried line between her brows. “I’m sorry, Tella—I thought I could stay here with you and Julian, but I need to return to the Fallen Star.”

“What? No!” Tella’s voice was joined by Julian as he emerged from the servants’ quarters. “You can’t.”

Julian must have just cleaned up. His dark hair dripped water all over the overgrown path as Scarlett stepped closer to the estate and away from the servants’ open windows.

“I’m sorry,” Scarlett said. “But I have to do this. I think I might be the key to defeating the Fates.”

“Absolutely not!” Julian bellowed while Tella yelled, “Have you lost your mind? He killed our mother and threatened to turn you into a Fate. You can’t go back to him!”

“I don’t want to go back,” Scarlett said. “But I knew I had to as soon as I saw those servants. If they’d been left much longer, they wouldn’t have survived.”

“But how will your going back do anything to help other people like them?” Tella argued. She wanted the same thing as her sister. She wanted to find a way to kill the Fallen Star and protect everyone from the terror of him and his Fates. But this was not the way to do it. “The Vanished Market is one of the Fated places,” she said. “There are sisters there who sell secrets, and I think they might have one that will tell us how to kill the Fallen Star.”

“What if they don’t?” Scarlett argued.

“Then we’ll find another way,” Julian cut in.

“I think this is the other way,” Scarlett said. “The Fallen Star wants me to master my powers, and I think that might be the key to stopping him. There was another Fate there, the Lady Prisoner. She told me that to defeat the Fallen Star, I needed to become what he wanted.”

“Of course she’d say that,” Tella spat. “The Lady Prisoner is a Fate.”

“He has her locked in a cage; she can’t get out unless he dies. And even if she is trying to manipulate me, it doesn’t mean she’s wrong. What she told me makes sense. Tella, you said that if an immortal loves, they become human. If I conquer my powers, I could make him love. I could turn him human and then we could defeat him.”

“Or you could conquer your powers and turn into a Fate,” Tella said.

“And love doesn’t work that way,” Julian added. “Magic can do a lot of things, but I don’t think you can make someone love with it. This is too dangerous.”

“I’m not asking either of you to let me do this. It’s my choice, not yours. So I’m only asking you not to stop me. Unless we find another way to destroy him, I’m the only one who can do this, and I want to do this. Tella, you once told me there’s more to life than staying safe—”

“I was talking about having fun, not moving in with murderers!”

“Well, I don’t think any one of us will be having fun if the Fallen Star takes over the empire. And we both know you’d do the same thing.”

Scarlett enclosed her sister in another hug. She gave incredible hugs. She knew exactly how tight to hold, when to stay silent, and when to let go. But no matter when she let go of this hug, it would be too soon.

Tella held on tighter. She wanted to keep arguing. If she kept fighting, if she told Scarlett how terrified she was, if she went into details about Nicolas’s gruesome death and reminded her of the way the Fallen Star had killed their mother, Tella knew she could convince her to stay. Tella wanted to do that so much. But she’d just vowed to do whatever it took to defeat the Fallen Star, and she meant it. She just hadn’t thought it would take her sister.

She sagged against Scarlett as the sky finished darkening into a rippling black night. “Are you sure you don’t want to be selfish right now and just think about saving yourself?”

“Of course I want to do that. But I need to do this—for me, for you, for Julian, and for all the servants we just helped, who don’t have a chance at doing what I can. I can’t do nothing when I have the ability to do something. And I have the Reverie Key; if it gets too dangerous, I’ll escape.”

“Keys can be stolen,” Tella murmured.

“I’ll be cautious.” Scarlett hugged her sister tighter, until Tella finally pulled away. She hadn’t wanted to. But if Scarlett was going to go back to the Fallen Star she needed to do it soon, before anyone noticed her absence. Scarlett probably wanted a proper good-bye with Julian as well.

And by proper, Tella imagined it would be the sort of good-bye that the prying eyes of a sister weren’t meant to witness.

31

Scarlett

As Tella went into the guest quarters and tried to wash off all the dirt and sorrow and lingering traces of guilt from her person, Scarlett stood under a wedge of moonlight, preparing for another good-bye that she didn’t want to have.

Julian appeared to feel the same way. His brow furrowed, his lips were pressed tightly together, and when he wrapped his arms around Scarlett, there was nothing soft or tender in his touch. “I know you said this isn’t my choice, but you can’t tell me that you’ve chosen me and then give me absolutely no say in your life.”

“Is this your way of asking me again not to go?”

“No.” He held her closer, tucking her head to his chest. “In the future—because there will be a future for us—I just hope you can talk to me about things like this rather than telling me you’ve already made up your mind.”

“All right,” Scarlett conceded. “But I hope you do the same?”

“I wouldn’t ask it of you if I wasn’t planning on that.” Julian’s fingers clutched her waist, as if he could still find a way that didn’t involve letting her go.

Scarlett wished he could. She really didn’t want to go back to the Fallen Star. But in that moment, she was more worried about Julian. Like Tella, he was impulsive and ruled by his emotions, which Scarlett could see were gray as storm clouds and full of worry.

“What if I try to slip you letters every few days? I don’t think it will be safe to visit again.” And she didn’t think it would be safe to send him messages either, but she worried that if she couldn’t find a way to assure him she was all right, he would come after her eventually and put himself in danger. “I can open a door with the Reverie Key to send you notes to let you know I’m all right.”

“I still don’t like it,” Julian said.

“If you did, my feelings would probably be injured.”

He pressed a kiss to her forehead, and for a moment his lips stayed there. “Be careful, Crimson.”

“I’m always careful.”

“I don’t know…” He pulled away just enough for her to see his mouth twitch at the corner. “A careful girl wouldn’t say she loved me.”

“You’re wrong. I don’t think my heart could be safer than in your hands.” But even as she said it, her heart felt heavy.

Julian’s mouth was still forming half a smile, but his eyes were expressing something else. Scarlett always loved his eyes—they were brown and warm and full of all the emotion that drove him. Julian wasn’t always honest, but his eyes were, and right then he was looking at her as if he was afraid the next time he saw her she wouldn’t be the same.

“I’m going to come back to you,” she promised.

“That’s not the only thing I’m worried about.” His voice was hoarse. “I’ve spent most of my life around magic—my brother’s magic has brought me back to life more times than I can count. I’ve tried to walk away, but magic like that is difficult to leave. I know right now you think that if you can conquer your powers, you can control the Fallen Star, but your magic might end up controlling you instead.”

His eyes left hers to glance over her enchanted dress before landing on the Fated key in her hand. It shimmered silver-bright in the dusky light.

She hadn’t even realized she’d already taken it from her pocket. Relying on the key was becoming a habit, just like wearing her enchanted dress. But she didn’t want to depend on it, she only wanted to master it enough so that she could make the Fallen Star love her and turn him into a mortal. Then she’d be content to never use it again.

“You don’t have to worry about me.” Scarlett lifted her head and quickly gave Julian another kiss, wishing she could say more, but knowing it was past the time to return.

When she’d first used the key, she hadn’t planned on going back, so she’d not thought about how much time was passing. She hoped the Fallen Star wouldn’t pay another visit so soon. She also worried about the Lady Prisoner waking up.

After turning the Reverie Key, Scarlett kept her steps light. But once she entered her room in the Menagerie, she knew things were not as she’d left them.

The Lady Prisoner was awake, swinging silently on her perch as her lavender skirts brushed the polished floor of her gilded cage. “If you’re going to sneak out, you shouldn’t leave for so long. And don’t look so surprised; did you really think I didn’t know?” She affected a soft snore.