I let out a sigh.

  “Get some rest while you can,” I said, reaching back onto the floorboards in the backseat and grabbing one of the blankets I’d put back there when Jackson and I first set up the car. Back then, I’d assumed it would be the two of us running away from trouble together.

  I certainly never dreamed I’d be handing this blanket over to someone who should have been my enemy. And yet, somehow, I felt sorry for her.

  “Magda?” I asked softly.

  She opened her eyes a little and looked at me. “Yes?”

  “You were the one who came to me, remember? If I’m going to help you and put an end to the Order of Shadows, you’re going to have to tell me what really happened to you and your sisters. I need to know everything you know. We can’t afford to wait much longer.”

  She looked away, taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly as she settled back against the door.

  “I can only deny fate for so long.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean, Magda? What does fate have to do with the past?”

  She smiled and her eyes filled with tears.

  “When the time comes, I’ll tell you everything I know, and then for you, just like for me, nothing will ever be the same again.”

  I had no idea what she was talking about or if it was just the exhaustion taking over, but there was a hopelessness in her voice that chilled me to the bone.

  A Very Specific Combination Of Choices

  Harper

  As much as I wanted to drive straight through the night, keeping whoever might be following far behind us, it wasn’t going to do anyone any good for me to fall asleep at the wheel.

  Rend’s potion had kept me flying at the top of my speed for hours earlier, but now that we were driving, I was losing it. After the third time I’d had to practically slap myself across the face to keep my eyes from drooping, I had to admit defeat.

  I finally pulled off the highway and into the parking lot of the nearest motel.

  It wasn’t a fancy place by any means, but on this less-populated stretch of highway, tired beggars couldn’t be choosers. Besides, the more out-of-the-way we could be at this point, the better.

  Magda groaned and stretched, rubbing her eyes.

  “Where are we?” she asked.

  As she woke up enough to see more clearly, she cut her eyes toward me and shook her head.

  “No,” she said. “I am not staying in a place called the Roadside Motel. That sounds like the kind of place where people get murdered.”

  I hid a smile. Magda had probably never stayed in a motel in her life, not that I’d had much experience with it myself. A few road trips when I was really young, but right now, I wasn’t exactly trying to be picky.

  “You’re welcome to sleep in the car, if you prefer,” I said, gathering my things.

  “I have a strict three-star and above hotel policy.” Magda followed me toward the office, despite her protests. “We’re travelling on a major interstate. There has to be a nicer hotel close by.”

  “I honestly didn’t look, and since I don’t have a cell phone with me, I couldn’t GPS it,” I said. “Besides, I wasn’t going to make it much further without getting in an accident, and this place only has two cars outside.”

  “So?”

  “So, that means there aren’t a lot of people here to notice us or give any kind of description of us if someone comes asking,” I explained. “The more we can stay under the radar, the better, and you know as well as I do that we shouldn’t use glamours right now. They’ll be looking for any magical signature, and since you’ve got a piece of the Order literally inside your chest right now, I have a feeling they could track us if they really wanted to.”

  Magda sighed and straightened her blouse.

  “Fine but this better just be for a few hours until you feel rested enough to keep going.”

  We stepped into the front office, which was little more than a tiny square box with a high desk inside. The guy sitting behind it was on his phone, and when he heard us come in, he quickly extinguished a cigarette and waved his hand around in the air, as if he honestly thought we wouldn’t notice.

  I didn’t care what he did in here, though, as long as he could get us into a room as quickly as possible without too many questions.

  “How can I help you?” he asked, turning his ball cap around and pushing his glasses up higher on his nose.

  “We’d like a room with two beds for the night, please.”

  “No problem,” he said, tapping some keys on what looked like an extremely outdated computer system. “I just need to see some ID and a credit card. Queen rooms are fifty bucks for the night. Internet and cable are free. No restaurant nearby, but there’s a gas station with a few things just up the road and a handful of vending machines there by the ice machine. Those only take cash, though.”

  I handed over the fake ID I had stashed in the duffel bag and a few twenty-dollar bills.

  “Cash okay for the room?” I asked.

  The guy frowned. “We’re not supposed to take cash only,” he said. “Manager likes to have a credit card on file in case there’s any damage to the room or calls made, that kind of thing.”

  He looked from me to Magda, his eyes dipping to the ruby necklace Magda wore.

  I should have made her take that off. It was obviously a custom piece that someone would easily remember with its snake features and gigantic ruby. Magda, however, didn’t seem to notice. She was too busy rubbing her fingers along surfaces and mumbling to herself.

  I gently kicked her leg, and she frowned, turning her back to me and checking out the coffee machine and TV on the other side of the small box of a room.

  I had a prepaid card in the bag, but I didn’t want to leave a paper trail behind us if I could help it.

  “Look, I understand the policy, but I promise we’ll leave the room as tidy as we found it,” I said, smiling and leaning a bit over the counter. “I’ve been having a bit of a rough time, and I honestly don’t know if I’ve got any money in my bank account right now. I would really appreciate it if you’d let it slide just this one time. We’ll be out of here first thing in the morning, and it will be like we were never here. I promise.”

  The guy looked from me to Magda again, probably trying to figure out exactly what our story was. She was obviously older than me, and even though she was a bit disheveled compared to her usually put-together self, she looked like someone with money.

  Thankfully, though, his phone dinged with another text message, and he seemed much more interested in getting back to that conversation than standing here talking to us.

  “Yeah, alright,” he said, typing in some information, swiping a key card, and then sliding it across the counter. “Room seven. You can park right in front if you want. Ring me up if you need anything.”

  “Thank you so much.”

  I grabbed the key, and tapped Magda on the shoulder.

  She waved a hand toward the guy at the counter, but he’d already gone back to his phone. He already had a fresh cigarette in his mouth, too.

  “Next time, you stay in the car,” I said.

  “Did you see how filthy that place was?” she asked, rubbing her fingers together and shaking her head. “I can’t imagine this is going to be a very nice room, Harper.”

  “Probably not, your highness, but I think you’ll survive.”

  “Tasteless, really,” she mumbled.

  I laughed and handed her the room key. “Number seven. I’ll pull the car around.”

  When I got to the room, Magda had already claimed the bed farthest away from the door and disappeared into the bathroom.

  I kicked off my shoes and jeans, then rummaged through the duffle bag for one of Jackson’s t-shirts, shamelessly burying my face in it, hoping for just the slightest hint of his smell. It had been freshly washed when we’d put it in here, though, so it just smelled like laundry detergent, which was a huge disappointment.

  I took off my tank top and bra and slipped into the t-shirt, wishing Jackson was here with me now. I just couldn’t bring myself to believe he might be stuck inside a barrier of storms like the one we saw at Blackwood earlier today.

  Was it even possible to survive inside of a storm like that? How was he going to get home?

  I climbed into bed, holding the shirt close to my body and missing him more than ever.

  I had to believe we would find a way. We always did, didn’t we?

  “I don’t know that I’ve ever seen two people so in love,” Magda said when she emerged from the bathroom, freshly showered and wearing some of my clothes she’d grabbed from the bag.

  She ran a small white towel across her hair.

  “Well, you’re both demons, I suppose, but still. I have more experience with people. Over the years, I’ve studied the witches from my gates. I’ve witnessed love before, of course, but usually there are ulterior motives involved. More money or power. Better social standing. More attractive children or a nicer house on the right side of town. It’s rare to see a couple who loves each other so thoroughly they’d sacrifice everything for each other.”

  I didn’t exactly know how to respond to that.

  “I think we had a strong connection the moment we first laid eyes on each other,” I said, then kind of corrected myself. “Well, except when I was a baby and he took me away from Peachville, but neither of us remembered that moment. When I first came to Peachville a few years ago, though, I saw him outside, standing under my window, and it was like a part of me just knew he was mine. It felt like fate.”

  “I have spent a lot of time pondering fate,” Magda said, sitting down on the edge of her bed, one finger running along the snake’s tail of her necklace before she set it on the side table between us. “Are our lives already written for us? Or can we change things? Make different choices for ourselves, even when it seems things are heading in one certain direction?”

  An interesting question for a priestess of the Order of Shadows to be asking herself. How many choices had she made that she regretted in her life?

  “There’s not much we can do about choices we made in the past, but I think we are always free to make whatever choices we want for our future,” I said.

  “Maybe,” she said. “Or maybe there are certain things we’re destined to experience no matter what choices we make or how hard we try to avoid it.”

  “What is this about?” I asked.

  “I just want to know your thoughts. Like, what about your demon’s vision for the two of you?” she asked. “In the garden someday, a little silver-eyed shadowling playing in the roses at your feet? Is that your fate? Or the result of a very specific combination of choices?”

  I turned my eyes on her.

  “How do you know about that vision?” I asked.

  “I thought you said you were aware of my eavesdropping,” she said.

  “I don’t even remember discussing that anywhere you might have been able to hear it,” I said, pulling the covers over my legs and leaning back against the pillows.

  Magda casually shrugged. “No, but you think about it an awful lot.”

  I nearly choked.

  “What?” I asked, sitting up. “Please do not tell me you can hear my thoughts, too.”

  I’d known enough to block her from listening in on certain aspects of our meetings and conversations in the castle, but my thoughts? That was something I never dreamed I needed to block.

  “Don’t worry. It’s not like I’m constantly listening in,” she said. “Sometimes, I’m not even meaning to listen, but with your thoughts about Jackson, they are often so intense and emotionally charged, I can hear them even when I’m not trying to.”

  I put my hand over my forehead, as if the motion could somehow block her from hearing my thoughts.

  “Why didn’t you tell me about this before?” I asked.

  Illana had been able to put dreams into my mind, but I’d never known anyone with the power to hear my thoughts. It was disturbing.

  “Oh, god, are you listening to my thoughts right now?” I asked, placing both hands on the side of my temples. “This is insane.”

  She laughed. “I’m not,” she said. “I do respect you, Harper. I promise I haven’t been listening in and invading your privacy very often. More so in the beginning, when I wanted to be certain I could trust you not to rip my heart out.”

  “Well, that’s comforting,” I mumbled. “Why tell me about it now, then?”

  She smiled and tossed a book on the bed in front of me. “Because fate has caught up with me, I’m afraid, and I need your help.”

  Frowning, I reached for the book and opened it, flipping through the pages again.

  “The roster for the amethyst gates?” I asked. “What does this have to do with anything? I don’t understand.”

  “Flip to the most recent names,” she said. “What do you notice?”

  I turned to the end of the book, my hands trembling.

  The book was nearly filled to completion with only about three pages left in the antique roster. Each name had been filled in with a beautiful cursive script, handwritten by magic itself.

  The most recent initiate was from just a few weeks ago. A sixteen-year-old girl named Robin from South Dakota. Despite her young age, though, her name had a line going through it with a death date noted in the final column.

  “This poor girl died three days ago,” I said, my heart racing as I flipped to the page before it to see every witch’s name crossed off.

  “Wait. All of these names are crossed out,” I said, flipping faster.

  I was five full pages in before I found a name that wasn’t crossed off.

  “Every one of these witches has died in the past few days.”

  I gasped and tossed the book onto the bed as another name was crossed out before my eyes, a death date of today written in as if by a ghost.

  “What’s happening here?” I asked. “Is this Priestess Black? She’s killing her own witches to get her power back or something?”

  Magda shook her head slowly, not looking surprised by this news at all. In fact, she seemed to have expected it.

  “Talk to me,” I said, moving to sit up on my knees. “What does all this have to do with fate, Magda?”

  “Before I can explain what I think this means,” she said, picking up the book and running her hand along the front, “I need to tell you the story of how the Order of Shadows was created. And why.”

  My heart beat faster in my chest, and I sat up straight, clutching the comforter in my hands.

  “So, you’re finally going to tell me why you came to my domed city? Why you want out of the Order of Shadows, even if it might kill you in the process?” I asked.

  I’d been waiting for this story since the day I first met her back in the nineteen fifties when she promised to seek me out if I ever made it home.

  “Yes,” she said, turning to fully face me on the bed. “And when I am done with my story, what happens to me next, dear Harper, will be up to you and your choices.”

  Claimed Her Heart

  Lea

  The hour was getting late, and I had to speak to my father before he retired for the evening, but when I turned the corner to his private study, I was surprised to see the remaining members of the council walking through the door.

  Jailan—a member of the council since before Tatiana and Walther—Izaiah, and Riyah.

  Then, at the end of the line, one additional demon who definitely didn’t belong here.

  Darian.

  Andros had warned me about that guy, saying he’d heard rumors of Darian making a move for the crown, but I hadn’t taken it seriously. My father would never hand the crown over to someone else, so what exactly was going on here?

  My chest tightened, and I looked around the throne room, making sure no one was watching me.

  When we’d freed my father from the diamond that had taken so much of his power away from him, I’d naively believed that his pure loyalty to me had been restored along with his mind. Hell, he’d even told me he thought it was time for me to take the crown.

  Had my protests somehow made him believe I was abdicating my position?

  I considered marching in there behind the others before the door shut and demanding to know why they were holding secret meetings behind my back, but instead, I held back, deciding I might be able to find out more if they had no idea I was there.

  I shifted to darkness and moved along the shadowy edges of the throne room, keeping an eye out for guards or other lurkers. When I was fairly certain no one was around, I moved into the shadows closest to the study door and listened.

  At the start of the conversation, I held onto some naive hope that this was all innocent. A misunderstanding or an impromptu late-night visit to the king to discuss something trivial no one wanted to bother me about.

  But it didn’t take long for the truth to become apparent.

  “Thank you for seeing us so late,” Riya said.

  “I’ll have you know that requesting to leave my daughter and heir to the throne out of this meeting is completely unorthodox and unappreciated,” my father said.

  To hear him say that was a relief, at least, but why was the Council requesting a meeting without me? And why had he agreed to it in the first place?

  “Please, forgive us, Your Highness,” Jailan said. “But we have been with you for a very long time now. We understand the situation here in Leuxia much better than the princess. We know what the demons of this city need in order to feel safe, while Princess Lazalea is only concerned with dragging us back into the war she helped to start.”

  It took all my concentration and willpower not to burst through the door at that statement. A war I helped to start? Was I the one who first started stealing demons from our lands and enslaving them in the bodies of human witches? No, I wasn’t. I merely chose to fight back when none of them would.