“Let me go,” she seethed, still struggling viciously. Frantic. Distraught. “Let me kill it—”

Anger flared hot and sudden. Tightening my grip, I dragged her back to my side and kept her there. “Stand down. I won’t ask again. This is Thierry. Remember? Thierry St. Martin.”

At his name, Thierry sagged with relief against the stone basin. I felt his presence in my mind—saw a picture of my own face—before he slurred a single word.

Reeeiddd.

I resisted the urge to go to him, to sling an arm around his shoulders for support. He looked likely to collapse. Lowering my voice, trying to soothe, I murmured, “I’m here. Everything will be all right. Lou recognizes you now. Isn’t that right, Lou?”

She finally, finally stopped struggling, and I relinquished my hold on her. “Yes.” Voice soft, she looked between Thierry and me for a long moment. I stood perfectly still, wary of the odd gleam in her eyes—savage and bright, like that of a cornered animal. “Yes, I recognize him.”

Then she turned and fled.

Barreling into the others, knocking them aside, Lou didn’t slow as she reached the door. Célie pinwheeled backward on impact, but Coco caught her elbow before she free-fell down the stairs. Swearing viciously in response, Beau hurled insults after Lou, but she didn’t stop. The shadows closed around her as she raced out of sight.

Thierry lifted a weak hand. Two of his fingers appeared broken. Voice hitched with urgency, slow with concentration, he said, Caaatch . . . her.

I didn’t stop to think. To hesitate. To consider the resolve hardening in my chest. This sensation—this fiery sense of justice, of righteousness—it felt familiar. Unsettlingly so.

She darted down the stairs below me with unnatural swiftness, already near the ground floor. In seconds, she’d be out the door. “Lou!” My shout reverberated with unexpected fury. I didn’t understand why my hands shook or my teeth clenched. I didn’t understand why I needed to catch her. But I did. I needed to catch her like I needed to breathe. Beau had been right—something was wrong here. Terribly, terribly wrong. It went beyond her magic. It went beyond Ansel’s death. Beyond mourning.

Like fruit left in the sun to rot, Lou had split open, and something foul had grown inside.

Perhaps it’d happened during La Mascarade des Crânes. Perhaps before, perhaps after. It didn’t matter. It had happened, and though my instincts had tried to warn me, I’d ignored them. Now they propelled my feet forward faster. Faster still. They told me if Lou reached the door—if she disappeared into the cliffs beyond—I’d never see her again. That could not happen. If I could just catch her, talk to her, I could make things right. I could make her right. It didn’t make any sense, but there it was. This chase had suddenly become the most important of my life. And I wouldn’t ignore my instincts any longer.

When she cleared the last stair, I took a deep breath.

Then I gripped the spiral railing and vaulted over it.

Dank air roared in my ears as I plunged to the ground. Eyes widening over her shoulder, Lou bolted for the door. “Fu—” Her expletive ended in a shriek as I landed on top of her. Twisting onto her back, she clawed at my face, my eyes, but I seized her wrists and pinned them to the floor. When she continued to buck and thrash, I straddled her waist, broken glass tearing into my knees as we grappled. My weight kept her restrained, however. Immobilized. She smashed her head into my jaw instead. Grinding my teeth, I pushed my forehead against hers. Hard. “Stop it,” I snarled, flattening myself against her. The others descended the stairs in a cacophony of shouts. “What is wrong with you? Why are you running?”

“The cauchemar.” She struggled harder, panting feverishly. “It—it transformed into—into Thierry—” But the lie crumbled in her mouth as Thierry limped forward. In the shards of mirrors, his very real hatred refracted from every angle. His very real injuries. Coco followed, dropping to the floor beside us. She thrust her bloody forearm to the air above Lou’s mouth, the unspoken threat clear. “Don’t make me do it, Lou.”

Lou’s chest rose and fell rapidly beneath mine. Sensing the battle lost, she bared her teeth in a saccharine smile. “Is this how you treat a friend, Cosette? A sister?”

“Why did you run?” Coco repeated. No warmth lingered in her expression as she gazed at her friend. Her sister. Instead, Coco’s eyes glittered with frigid, impenetrable cold. The two could’ve been perfect strangers. No—enemies. “Why did you attack him?”

Lou sneered. “We all attacked him.”

“Not after we’d seen his face.”

“He startled me. Look at the state of him—”

At this, Thierry’s hands curled into fists. Beau winced at his purple fingers. “Perhaps we should return to the chapel, procure supplies,” he suggested. “You need medical attention—”

Herrrr, Thierry interrupted, the word strained, breathless inside our minds.

Célie gasped at the mental intrusion, her eyes flicking wildly between Thierry and me.

“Her, who?” I asked. “What happened to you?” My voice echoed too loud in the dilapidated room, my flushed cheeks and corded neck reflecting back at me in the broken mirrors. I looked unbalanced. Out of control. “Where have you been?”

But it seemed he couldn’t answer. Pictures flickered wildly again, each more incoherent than the last. When his black gaze fixed pointedly on Lou, my stomach plummeted. My hands turned to ice. Sick with trepidation, with regret, I spoke through gritted teeth. “Tell me, Thierry. Please.”

He moaned and slumped against the balustrade. Her.

Célie shook her head as if trying to dislodge an irksome fly. She couldn’t shake his voice from her mind, however. Couldn’t impede his magic. Dazed, she stammered, “But—but what does Louise have to do with”—she gaped at his various injuries before hastily looking away—“w-with your misfortunes?”

“He can’t answer you. Not yet.” Coco’s fierce gaze never wavered from Lou. “He’s exhausted and injured, and the magic required for speech is too much.”

“Was he—do you think he was tortured?”

“Yes.”

“But why?” Célie asked, clearly horrified. “By whom?”

Coco’s eyes narrowed. “He answered the last for us.”

As one, we all looked to Lou, but her attention remained fixed on Coco. They studied each other for what felt like an eternity—neither blinking, neither revealing a flicker of emotion—before a slow, uncanny grin split Lou’s face. “Two princesses fair, one gold and one red,” she sang, her voice familiar yet not. “They slipped into darkness. Now the gold one is dead.”

A chill snaked down my spine at the odd words. At her smile. And her eyes—something shifted in them as she stared back at us. Something . . . sinister. They flickered almost silver, like—

Like—

My mind viciously rejected the possibility.

Lou cackled.

Recoiling, Coco exhaled a breathless curse. “No.” She repeated the word like a mantra, her hand flying to her collar, tearing her mother’s necklace from her throat. “No, no, no, no, no—” When she slid the locket along her bloody forearm, it glowed briefly scarlet before clicking open. She thrust it toward me. “Lift her up. Lift her up now.”