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I reached for the bond between us. It felt less like a tether, like the Blood Treaty’s magick had, and more like a seam. Something that could be torn open.

“Let me make one thing very clear,” Dominique said, intruding on my thoughts. “Even if he escapes and they help you remove the ward, there is no getting rid of me. My fate is your fate. We are tied together. If you thought I was an annoyance before, you’re about to find out how troublesome I can be.” She gestured to my bleeding hand. “That was only the beginning.”

Dominique had been using her powers of dominion to make me do things since the first night she appeared as my mother. She’d steered me to Valemer. She’d ensured I’d made it to The Drowned Goose. She’d shown me the shade of Honora and her daughter in room seventy-three.

There was no doubt she had wanted me to see Honora’s spell, but the question was why? Why go to all this trouble? Was she working with The Devouring, as I had suspected my mother’s ghost to be?

If she was, she needed the Horn of Gorrath to complete Honora’s spell. I had to ensure she didn’t get it.

There were only two ways to do that.

One, I took her to the Underworld with me.

The other…

I looked toward the door, wanting Yves so badly I almost called his name, but knew it would do no good.

Dominique had made me hurt myself while I was supposed to be protecting his son. I couldn’t know what she would make me do next, or who would be standing close enough to suffer for it.

I understood that, and I still wanted more time.

I wanted to wake up beside Yves often enough that neither of us would be surprised to find the other there. I wanted Adrien knocking on our door with a question that apparently couldn’t wait, and Yves trying to persuade him it could. I wanted to know how it felt to make plans for the following year with the certainty that I would still be part of their lives.

I had barely allowed myself to imagine any of it. Now I couldn’t stop.

I drew a breath that hurt all the way down and returned my attention to the demon.

“What if we made a deal?”

Dominique narrowed her black eyes. “Go on.”

“I’ll let you into my body,” I said. “But you must leave Adrien, Della, and Yves alone. You can’t hurt them, and you can’t use me to hurt them either.”

Dominique studied me with an expression that made me want to withdraw the offer before she could accept it. Her gaze drifted toward Adrien, who was still crouched beside the desk, and I stepped into her line of sight.

She scoffed. “How fiercely you defend a family you’ve only just found.”

The entry door rattled on its hinges, and Adrien let out a quiet cheer.

“I think it’s working,” he told Della, who had fluttered protectively onto his shoulder.

“Adrien? Cora?” My chest tightened at the sound of Yves’s voice. I hadn’t realized how badly I’d wanted to hear it until he was there, close enough that I could hear him trying to get inside.

“Are you alright? Why can’t I open the door?”

The red light brightened around the doorframe, illuminating the chalk marks I’d helped Adrien draw, which were keeping him locked out.

“I’m all right!” Adrien called to his father. “The wards are keeping us inside because there’s a demon.”

There was a brief silence, and the guilt of being the one who put his son in danger nearly ate me alive.

I could hear Yves tell someone to stand aside before another blow shook the door. I looked toward the burning salt at my feet. I’d put so much care into making this room safe that even he couldn’t get into it.

Dominique watched my distress with a faint smile. “Perhaps you should ask him what he thinks of your offer.”

I tightened my grip on my wand, wishing I could curse her back to the Underworld and be done with it. But selfishly, I didn’t want to leave Adrien and Yves. Not just yet. I’d tasted a future with them, and I had to trust it would be waiting for me when I was done ensuring this demon never got an immortal body.

I lowered myself to my knees and placed the grimoire on the floor. The lead box lay open a short distance away, its broken lid resting crookedly against the boards. Above it, the piece of snowflake obsidian turned slowly in the air.