The Seal didn’t look any different from the last time I was here. Still cold. Still choked in mist. Still frozen in a silence that felt too heavy to breathe through. But this time, it wasn’t just me and a few others creeping in to find out the truth. This time, we were all here. Every one of us who had fought to get to this moment. The ones who’d trained, who’d questioned, who’d followed the clues of a friend we refused to lose.

Our boots scraped over stone as we filed into the chamber. The air didn’t just bite. It clung, thick and sticky, threaded with so much magic that it made my teeth buzz. I couldn’t read most of it, only the Fire magic, but from Shara, Aster, and Rielle, we knew there was Water, Wood, and Moon magic. I’m willing to bet there was Air magic as well, considering Isa froze Halven. As an Ice Dragon, she controlled Water and Air.

Halven stood just as we left him. Frozen. One hand against the ice wall like my buddy had reached out to warn us before he disappeared. The ice held him upright, unnaturally still, like it had frozen his very breath.

Only now there were others in the room with him.

As I looked around at all of us, the students and Lady Isa, Veyn, and Neir, all of the elemental magic of our world stood there. Garnexis and Orivian with their Metal and Elio with his Sun and Earth as a Stone Dragon completed the final three.

If we couldn’t save him, what would?

Isa and Veyn stood near the desk, close to the center, heads bowed together in discussion. Neir lingered on the far side of the chamber. Barefoot, shirtless, his golden skin paler in the cold but his expression unchanged. Watching everything. Watching us.

Aster stood beside me as we stepped to our spot along the curve of the ice wall—even though she wasn’t paired with me.

We’d all been paired off, each of us having a place and purpose. Isa had explained that Binding was easiest when cast in pairs, especially for magic users without deep training. The focus was simpler that way, the flow more manageable. Any more than two, and the chances of splintered intent or mismatched rhythms became too high.

We’d been briefed. We knew the theory of Binding magic to nature and had been practicing. But learning new spells that our ancestors didn’t know was a monumental task, and now it was time to see if we could actually pull it off.

I didn’t look at anyone else. Just kept my eyes on Halven, on the hand that reached out for something we still didn’t understand. After the last time I stood here, I swore I’d save him.

Now I didn’t know if that was even possible. But we were here. Together. And if this was the day we failed, it wouldn’t be because I held anything back.

Isa’s voice broke the silence, soft at first, but it carried across the stone chamber, threading through the mist and tension like silk through frost.

“You already know your parts. You’ve practiced the theory. You’ve honed the spells. This is not new ground. But what lies ahead is harder than anything we’ve done before, not because you are unprepared, but because what we are attempting is not a simple a spell.”

She paused, letting that sink in, her eyes sweeping over each of us. I nodded.

“You will feel the strain,” she continued. “You will doubt yourselves. And when the Binding begins to resist you, you may even think you’re failing. But you are not. The entities will push back. But together we are stronger than them.”

“Yes!” I said.

No one else said anything, shuffling their feet at my outburst but I could only sheepishly smile. We were powerful, and no one else could tell us otherwise.

Isa’s voice dropped into something more personal. “This isn’t about perfection. It is about intent. Shared, steady, and real. Hold to it. Breathe into it. Let it anchor you. Let each other anchor you. Once you’ve achieved a true Binding with each other, then the designated stronger magic user will guide your Binding to me so that I can use it to bind the entities to the ice once more. Then Neir will be able to put them to sleep again.”

Her gaze moved to each of us, all the students, softening slightly as she added, “You are all here because of Halven. An extraordinary young man, who has extraordinary friends. Hold on to that. Trust each other. And most of all, trust yourselves. You are not alone in this.”

She nodded once.

“Get into place.”

We broke into our assigned pairs. Rielle stepped beside me, quiet but steady. Her Moon magic flickered softly under her skin as a silver glow. She gave me a brief glance. I nodded back.

The others took their positions. Aster was already facing the ice, her hand lifted but not yet touching. Garnexis stood beside her, muttering something with a smirk that didn’t quite reach her eyes. I watched Aster for a moment longer than I should have. Once this was over, once Halven was free, I could stop dividing my focus. I could finally let myself want something with everything in my heart. Want her.

Rielle shifted, drawing my attention. Right. Time to begin.

I placed my hand flat on the ice wall. Gods, I hate the cold. But as the stronger magic user, I would ground our bound magic to nature, then guide the Binding to Isa.

I gritted my teeth over the irony that my heart belonged to a beautiful but icy fae.

Rielle’s hand settled over mine, and I shivered. No warmth in her skin, either.

Then we both took a deep breath just as Isa said, “Begin.”

With our exhalation, we murmured the words together, just loud enough to echo between us. To join the soft echoes of the others around us: “We bind this power to nature, our anchor. Let it hold what cannot be held. Let it steady what would shatter. Together.”

Magic stirred beneath my skin. I closed my eyes, delving into my center of magic. My ancestors responded with questions. Always with questions lately because they didn’t understand this spell. Hells, I barely understood it, but I drew Fire from my center and tapped into fire around the room, the two flickering torches, the candles, and from the fissure in the lakebed.

I pulled it all together with a shared intention to join with Rielle, and I hoped it would be enough.

Magic surged in the room.

I opened my eyes as Fire leapt through my veins, rising fast. My skin shimmered with light as vein-like cracks rippled outward, glowing ember red across my arms. Heat rolled off me, my hair flaring higher, casting flickers of light across the ice wall.

I turned to Rielle.

Her eyes had gone pale, soft with mist, then bloomed into something far stranger. Ethereal. Opal hues shimmered in her irises, shifting with every flicker of energy. Her magic coiled around her fingers in silver-blue ripples, graceful and calm, but brimming with power. The way it moved across her hands reminded me of moonlight on still water.

Together, our energy funneled into the ice. My fire curved into her glow, forming threads of red and silver that slipped into the lake like woven light.

I kept my eyes on her.

Our voices came low and even, in practiced unison.

We bind this power to nature, our anchor. Let it hold what cannot be held. Let it steady what would shatter. Together.

Isa was there, her power humming around us even if I couldn’t read it. I recognized Veyn’s aural magic combined with hers, and realized they were performing their own Binding spell, with Isa grounding it in the lake.

Within the ice, we handed over our bound magic so the Grand Magister could bind all the elements together.

When the spell moved outward, toward the largest source of power in the lake, quiet anticipation filled us.

The ice allowed our magic to slip through and start binding to it, using it as the overall anchor.

Every brush of magic against mine, every organic touch from the lake, sent chills through me. I’d never been around such a large congregation of magic before.

I wondered if this is how it felt for Chaos when they first created their children, the eight gods. So much magic, so much power.

We were powerful. The spell was going to save Halven, and for one breathless moment, I knew this to be the truth.

A small crack split the ice beneath my palm. At first it hissed, soft, like a groan. I did not stop. I focused, drawing on fire, building on the rhythm Rielle and I had practiced. Her magic met mine, fluid and steady, a silver-blue thread twisting with my red one. Our shared intent was holding.

Then Halven’s body began to glow, just under the surface. Pale at first. Then stronger. Magic stirred around him.

Then the shadows moved.

Deep inside the frozen wall, something writhed. And then fire. Not mine. Not anything I had summoned. A searing spiral lit up from within the lake itself, lancing toward our thread like a spear of molten lightning.

I tried to hold it back, to redirect it, to shape the flame into submission. It ignored me completely and burned through my magic like my fire was nothing more than a single line in a spider web.

The Binding ignited and hissed, then exploded into a hundred shards of light.

Rielle screamed.

The fire slammed into her chest and flung her backward. I lost her hand. She crumpled to the stone, smoke curling from her robes, her body twitching from the surge.

“Rielle!” I leapt toward her, flame gathering in my palms, not for offense, but to shield her.

A rush of heat pressed against my skin, not from within me but from the wall. Water hissed and steamed, dripping in heavy trails, vapor bursting from every crack. The air became too thick, choking with heat and steam.

A second rupture cracked through the wall. Water exploded outward, steam blasting against my face. Aster cried out behind me. Garnexis’s also yelled.

“Drop the spell!” Veyn’s voice snapped through the chaos.

Isa’s hands lifted, her magic slicing through the magic pouring out of the ice wall. A veil of mist doused the fire and pushed the water back.

All the magical threads collapsed. The chamber dimmed. But the fury behind the ice still thrashed, a pulsing thing of magic, red, silver, blue, and even black.

For a moment, no one moved. The chamber felt hollow, like something sacred had cracked and fallen through the floor. The mist thickened across the stone. Rielle’s scream still echoed in my ears.

I moved first, dropping beside Rielle where she sat, propped against the back rocky wall, breath shallow. She guarded her left arm where fire had eaten through her robes and her dress, burning the flesh beneath. Purplish angry skin with black singed edges and the congealing of blue blood contrasted to paleness of the rest of her. Tears slipped from tightly closed eyes, pain twisting her delicate features.

I barely had a chance to catalogue her injuries before Neir knelt on her other side, a look of fear flushing his face.

He cleared his emotions after swallowing hard, one hand raised toward Rielle, but not touching her. “Little Moon, look at me.”

Surprise made my chest warm. For all of his history with Isa, it was obvious Neir cared for Rielle. And from the utterance of his first syllable, Rielle’s head had already tilted toward the werewolf. She cared for him as well, looked for him in time of need.

Rielle opened her eyes, their blue depths clouded with wetness and pain. “Neir, it hurts.”

“I know, Little Moon.”

Then Aster was there, scooting me aside to wedge herself closer to Rielle. She hovered a hand over the burn. Water magic glowed beneath her palm, spreading out from her body to Rielle’s. Steam rose from the wound, and Rielle’s body arched. But it lasted only a moment, before she fell back against the cave wall with a sigh. Her face relaxed.

Aster drew her hands away, her magical glow fading. The wound had closed, the skin sealed as if it had never been broken. Only the smear of blue blood left any evidence Rielle had ever been hurt.

A lump stuck in my throat.

For once, I was without words.

Rielle, my partner, had been hurt because I couldn’t protect from the Fire in the ice. It took Aster, my heart, to save her.

How could my heart survive knowing I wasn’t good enough?

I backed away even though I wanted to ask Rielle how she felt. But she didn’t need that question from me.

She tested her arm with an incredulous look, and finding it whole, threw herself into Neir’s arms. The werewolf held her, whispering something to her, and they looked like they belonged together.

Not like me and Aster.

Aster.

A woman like no other I had ever known. Someone bold and confident. One who never made mistakes like I did.

How could I make her mine when I could fail her as I just failed Rielle?

But the doubts and questions didn’t stop my gaze from rising to meet Aster’s. A thin line of blue blood streaked her cheek, just under the eye. A small scratch.

I closed the space between us and wiped the blood from her face with my thumb. “You all right?”

Her violet eyes remained calm. “It’s nothing.”

In the next breath, she healed the cut. Always calm, steady, unshaken.

Around us, the others shifted around the chamber in a haze of leftover mist. Lo held onto Elio’s arm, holding him back while my buddy looking both defeated and angry. What was happening with him?

Then I realized Elio was looking past Lo to Garnexis, laid out on the ground, unconscious, both Orivian and Isa on either side of her.

Now I remembered Garnexis yelling, too, but I hadn’t seen what happened.

“You can’t do anything for her, dragon,” Orivian said, anger sharp in his tone.

Elio literally growled at the Metal Fae. “And you think she wants to see your face after what you said to her?”

“Elio.” Lo’s voice was soft, but there was so much unsaid in his name, like the fact that fate hadn’t chosen his name to be Garnexis’s mate.

Did the dragon have a thing for Garnexis?

I hadn’t noticed and now that made me feel like a bad friend.

I prayed Isa could heal Garnexis as her Water magic sunk into Garnexis’s body.

“He’s still trapped.” Shara’s declaration took my attention away from them.

Shara had her arms around her own waist, quiet, staring at Halven, who remained frozen, still locked in the ice. All the magical threads were gone and only hairline fractures spidering through the frozen wall remained.

Elio growled low in his throat. The sound sent a ripple through the quiet and I wondered if he meant to pick a fight with Orivian until he spoke. “Why did fire come from the lake? They attacked with both Fire and Water.”

They.

I looked at Isa, who stood, wiping her hands on her dress. Would she deny the attacks came from the entities?

To forestall any lies she might feel the need to say, I added my own thoughts. “I felt their Fire magic. Before. When we first came here.”

Shara’s arms crossed. “What kind of magic do these entities even have?”

Isa looked toward the fractured ice, appearing tired than I noticed before. Her voice was low. “We failed. That’s all you need to know.”

So, no lies, just avoidance.

I wasn’t willing to accept any of it. “Why not tell us the truth?”

Isa crossed the space to the ice wall, trailing fingers across it. She sighed, quite audibly before turning back to us. “There are truths that are not my own to tell. I have no right to interfere in edicts of the gods.”

The gods???

I couldn’t help but to stare at the ice wall again. Did Wintermere trap gods in the depths of its waters?

How did one contain gods?

For some reason, that reminded me of the Firebird. He was a god, contained in the abandoned conservatory. What had he said?

Take them. You need to keep them sleeping.

But that was what we were trying to do. What else could it mean.

I shook my head, unable to digest that information. Then another thought came to mind.

We hadn’t failed. Not yet.

“What if Binding isn’t enough?” I said aloud, voice carrying. “What if we try Fusion too? To trap the entities’ magic before it can react? We create a containment with Fusion to control their magic, then try the Binding spell.”

Heads turned toward me. Aster’s hand brushed mine. Her eyes held a glimmer of emotion. Pride?

I hope so.

Veyn and Isa shared a look.

Veyn’s brow furrowed, his voice low and sharp when he spoke. “Isa, this is too dangerous. We nearly lost two of them already.”

Isa’s jaw tensed, but her tone stayed level. “Fusion may offer the stabilization we lacked. We will control it.”

“Control?” Neir stepped forward now, his voice colder than the mist rising at our feet. “You speak of control, but one student was nearly burned alive and the other crushed. This spell should not involve them at all. They should never have been here.”

Isa turned to him fully. “They are my students, Neir. And I will not deny them this. Not when they came to save the one we failed to protect.”

“You’re risking them.”

“They know the risk,” Isa said, her voice gaining strength. “And if they choose to go on, I will allow it.”

Neir’s gaze flicked to Rielle, then darkened. His silence said more than any words.

Veyn blew out a breath, rubbing his forehead, then finally looked at me. “You believe this will work?”

I nodded once.

He sighed. “Fine. We try again. Three pairs for the Binding Spell. As before, Isa and I will add our magic to anchor the Binding on the entities. While Ardorion and...”

“Aster,” Ardorion said. “We’ve practiced Fusion already, and the entities used both Water and Fire magic to attack us. Aster and I are perfect for combatting the attack with a containment made of our Fusion.”

Veyn nodded again while looking me, a twinkle in his eye that told me he saw me in a new light, one that surprised him. “Then we proceed. Ardorion and Aster will contain the entities’ magic through Fusion. But if the entities break through again, we drop the spell immediately. No hesitation.”

Isa turned slightly, addressing all of us now with a lift of her chin. “Choose the partner whose magic aligns best with yours. Trust is essential. Find the pair you can hold your intent with.”

Before anyone else could speak, Garnexis raised a hand and cut the air with it. “I claim Elio.”

Her voice echoed with finality. Not a request. A declaration.

Across the room, Orivian jolted. His mouth curled into something sharp, and with a sudden snap, he slammed his hand against the desk. Loose pages scattered like leaves in a storm. Then he turned, not waiting for a reaction, and stalked across the room, his shoulders rigid as steel.

I blinked. So did half the others.

Garnexis only tilted her head. “Really? Throwing tantrums now? Someone get the baby a blanket.”

Elio tried not to smile. He failed.

Isa said nothing, only turned to the rest of us as if nothing had happened. Her silence said it all. We had minutes, not moments. Choose, act, move forward.

For myself, I knew Aster was mine.

My partner for this, and maybe for all time.

Feeling more confident, I stepped back up to the ice wall, this time with Aster at my side. The air between us sparked with heat and cold, the residual clash of what we carried inside. Her eyes met mine once, and that was enough. No shared intent this time, no ritual phrase to recite. This was about balance. Fire and Water, opposites meant to cancel or consume, somehow learning to hold.

“Are you ready to try this again?” What I was really asking was if she was ready to try us again.

She smiled. One of those rare genuine smiles, and that was all I needed. I lifted my hands. She mirrored me. We linked our fingers together.

The fire in me surged like a second heartbeat, pulsing just beneath my skin. My hair flared higher, flames licking at the edges of my vision. Across from me, Aster’s magic poured from her fingertips in soft blue streams, fluid and precise. Water curled through the air, cooling the heat I emitted but never extinguishing it.

“Let’s use our magic to alternatively heat and cool the lakebed, creating blocks whenever they lash out.”

Great, now I was saying they.

Aster nodded, pleased. “I like defense better than offense.”

I shrugged with a grin, remembering the one time we tried this I had us create a weapon to strike with. Then both of our smiles slipped away as the others, now paired off, chanted their intentions. Magical auras filled the chamber.

Then Aster and my magic joined the power in the chamber. Fire danced around the edges of her water. Steam hissed in quiet bursts. Then it settled. A spiral. A rhythm. Not domination. Not submission. Just movement. Just balance.

Together, we directed the fusion spell toward the fractures in the ice, aiming for the lakebed. My flames traced the fissures with precision, warming the outer lines. Aster followed behind with cool pressure, sealing the gaps my fire had opened.

Inside the lake, light shifted. The deeper layers of ice took on a glow, threads of Fire and Water curling into the cracks, forcing them to still as we raised the bottom of lake in small sections. The lines no longer spread. Instead, they held.

Out of the corner of my eye, Neir placed a hand on the icy wall. His Moon magic moved in concentric rings, like ripples through the light of a dream. Pale silver folding outward from his hands.

We were holding the line. For now.

Magic gathered like breath.

With the Fusion spell in place, the entities’ presence recoiled, stunned by the containment. The pressure in the lake shifted. I felt it like a heartbeat, slowing for the first time since we’d entered the Seal. All of us—Aster and I, the three Binding pairs, Isa, Veyn, even Neir—were pulling toward the same focus. The magic stopped spiraling wild. It held.

For now.

Threads of light stretched outward, collecting across the ice wall. They bent toward Halven’s block, flowing like veins to a single point. The Binding spell bloomed fully for the first time, radiant and orderly.

Veyn raised his hands, guiding the threads this time as both he and Isa breathed more freely. He took the Binding spells and pushed into the frozen lake, toward the source of all the power we felt, the entities. A greenish gold aura pulsed around his body in time with the Binding.

At the same time, Isa stepped back from the outer edge and moved to Halven. She placed both palms against the icy wall just outside his icy prison. Water and Air shimmered in a spiral around her wrists. Her magic twisted inward, gently unraveling the older spell that had sealed Halven to the lake. Frost cracked softly beneath her fingers.

Then Neir moved.

He joined her, silent and deliberate, placing both hands on the ice. Moonlight flared across his arms as a blast of silvery-white magic as a second spell began to form. A spell no one here would be able to read except Rielle, but we knew he was supposed to put the entities to sleep. Lulling them back into their slumber like some predator taming its prey.

The light across the chamber dimmed slightly as Halven’s ice dulled. The magic hadn’t weakened, though. It was working.

I could feel it.

We were winning.

Then, beneath the layered light and magic, a crack deepened.

It was soft at first. Barely audible.

But I saw it.

A single fissure spidered across the bottom left corner of the ice wall. Then another. Water trickled from the lowest seam like a tear.

My stomach dropped.

“No,” I whispered, mostly to myself.

The ice cracked again.

This time louder.

And from within the lake, the screams began.

Howls emerged from the cracks. An eerie sound that made the hair raise on my arms.

More white-hot fractures spread across the wall of ice like a spiderweb catching flame, each line flaring wider, deeper. Steam hissed through the hairline gaps, curling around my ankles. More wails releasing. The lake behind the wall was no longer still. It pulsed with pressure, shadows and light coiling beneath its surface like something ancient had woken up angry.

A drop of water struck my arm. Then another. Cold, but not gentle.

Aster’s voice rose beside me. “Steady. Match me.”

I grit my teeth, adjusted my stance, and raised my arms from where they’d fallen. My fire magic spun tighter, trying to braid itself around hers, the searing threads lashing through the cold in curling ribbons. Fire and water, always fighting. Always needing to agree not to destroy each other. My skin stung with the heat of my own spell, but I held it. We had to keep the containment steady.

We had to protect everyone from the entities’ magical backlashes.

Then a single scream that burst above all the rest. A sound so sharp and raw it carved into my spine. It echoed like a thousand dying gods, and the air cracked open with a surge of power. I felt it before I saw it—waves of elemental backlash that punched outward from the ice. Fire. Water. Moon. All of it out of sync. All of it bursting like it wanted to rip us apart.

My magic buckled.

Aster’s did too.

Our fusion wavered. Aster cried out, and I reached for her, instinct overriding thought. Her hand brushed mine for a heartbeat before she stumbled back, eyes wide with horror as the ice wall exploded in a lattice of new cracks.

“Break the spell! Break it now!” Isa’s voice, sharp and terrified, rang out.

But we were too late.

The ice convulsed. A rush of raw force hurtled toward us.

Then Neir moved.

He stepped forward like a storm given legs. With both hands raised, his eyes went silver-white, and a dome of pressure shimmered into existence. His Moon magic swept wide and deep, casting a translucent barrier over the entire ice wall. The backlash hit it like a battering ram. The dome flared, groaned, and nearly split. Neir dropped to one knee, his whole body shaking.

I wanted to help. I did. But I was out of breath, magic drained. My fire guttered at my fingertips like a dying match.

Then I saw her.

Rielle. Unsteady, still raw from the first attempt. She dropped to her knees beside Neir and placed her hand against his back.

She whispered something I couldn’t hear.

Her magic pulsed as a silver aura around her, her eyes like opal galaxies. Her magical glow passed from her into him, soft but steady. My eyes widened. Transference. This was one of the first spells we learned, to give up our magic to someone else’s control. It was essential for some of the higher-level spells we would learn, a way for faculty to protect us should something go wrong.

Enhanced by Rielle’s magic, Neir’s dome flared brighter. It held.

Behind them, Isa faltered. Her face was pale, hair clinging to her damp brow as she tried to stabilize the lake. Her hands moved, but slower now, shaking with exhaustion.

Aster turned without hesitation. She moved to Isa’s side and pressed her palm to the older woman’s shoulder. She surrendered her Water magic, and the minute Isa gained control, the force of their magics blasted frost up from the base of the wall.

The cracks hissed, blue light filling their edges, freezing solid once more.

Then came Lo, offering her Air magic to Isa.

Then Shara, who surrendered her magic to Veyn.

The rest of us could only watch, unable to help with anything but prayer. We pray for our elders to last long enough to save us, all of us at the Academy, from the entities trying to break free.

Even if we couldn’t save Halven.

One by one, the support casters continued the surrender of their magic. Until the lake was completely refrozen, everything behind the wall grew still. Neir released his combined magics and Rielle fainted after being released. He caught her to him, then backed away as Isa and Veyn turned their attention to Halven.

The light had dimmed within his ice block, the overall shape having changed as it melted. Pain etched across his face.

Lo gasped, her magic flaring for a moment. “Their killing him, trying to strip him of his magic.”

“Not for long.” Isa’s voice was strained, beyond tired, but with both Lo and Aster touching her and offering their magic, the Grand Magister began a new Binding spell. With a hand linked with Shara and her magic, Veyn joined the Binding spell and they muttered their intent, focusing on the spell structure.

It was like weaving a tapestry out of exhaustion and will.

The threads shimmered. The icy prison reformed. Halven’s obvious agony eased.

And finally... everything stopped.

The ice wall no longer glowed with fractures, only a soft, constant light like moon on untouched snow. The last of the light from the Binding spell dissolved, bathing the room in only the cool hues from the lake and the warmth of torchlight.

Silence dropped into the room like a snowfall.

Mist curled low over the stone. The air remained frigid.

It was as if we had done nothing.

Because we hadn’t done anything that made a difference.

I took a step back and nearly tripped. My hands trembled with cold. Across the chamber, Elio wrapped his cloak around his shoulders, and Garnexis pulled her arms tight over her chest. Even Lo looked like the chill had gotten into her bones. Rielle, now awake, sheltered in Neir’s arms. And Veyn held Shara’s hand.

The cold was too much now. Not just from the ice. From what it cost us.

Someone whispered something. I couldn’t tell what. Maybe asking what to do now. Maybe asking if Halven would be okay. Another voice followed. “Should we find more magic users?” Then, quieter, “Can we even save him?”

Shara left Veyn and paced toward Halven, then away. Redness flushed her skin. “We accomplished nothing!”

We didn’t answer.

We just looked at the ice prison. At the boy sealed inside.

Our friend.

Isa straightened, though she still looked exhausted. “We’ve done what we could—”

“What did we do exactly?” Lo asked. Tears wet her cheeks.

Isa shook her head. “Some things are just more powerful than what we have the ability to control. This is one of those things.”

“I can’t accept that.” Rielle’s soft statement echoed in the chamber.

“You don’t have to.”

The one who spoke those words was not anyone we knew in the room. We all turned toward the door.

The mist parted.

And a shadow stepped forward.

Bare feet. Skin like ice touched by starlight. Nearly transparent. She was a blue wraith, a ghost that both moved the mist and allowed the mist to move through her.

And a breath of cold preceded her, something more chilling than anything found among the living.

A woman. The Kōri-onna.

She stepped forward, and every hair on my body stood on end.

Her voice came as the mist curled around her ankles. “I can help you, but someone will die.”