Finale (Caraval 3)

“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.

“Why pretend?” Scarlett asked.

“Because I knew you wouldn’t leave if you thought I was awake. But you need to be wiser.” Her voice turned whisper-soft and her inhuman eyes shifted from purple to white, as they had earlier that night. “Leaving here for hours at a time will get you caught with that key far sooner than you’re supposed to be.”

32

Donatella

A full day had come and gone and Legend was still dead. He needed to come back to life. Legends weren’t supposed to die, and Tella wasn’t done with him yet.

“How long does it usually take him to return to life?” she’d asked Julian during their initial journey to the count’s estate.

“It’s usually shortly after sunrise, always less than a day,” Julian had answered. It had been difficult to get him to say much more. Tella sensed there was magic at play that kept him from revealing too many secrets. He did confess that Legend had a connection to all his performers—Julian would s

ense it when Legend was alive again—and if Legend wanted to find Julian, he’d easily be able to do so. But Legend hadn’t appeared and Julian still hadn’t sensed him.

Tella didn’t know what time it was now, only that it felt like the darkest part of the night as she and Julian exited the count’s estate to head to the Vanished Market.

Jacks had said the Vanished Market could be summoned by going to a set of ruins to the west of the Temple District. Since Nicolas lived outside the city, the trek was several miles. Julian was silent for much of it. The type of silent that made Tella think he planned to hold his breath the entire time Scarlett was away.

Tella could have done the same thing. She was all for making mistakes and doing better next time. But Tella feared that if Scarlett took one wrong step, there might not be a next time.

Tella sent a prayer up to the saints—even the ones she didn’t like that much. She added a prayer for Legend’s safe return as well, but she knew it wasn’t up to the saints.

Legend had only one weakness that could allow him to be truly killed: love.

She’d been trying not to think about it. She didn’t want to remember the way she’d practically begged him to love her just before he’d been killed.

That night she hadn’t fully believed him when he’d said he wasn’t capable of loving her. She’d believed he was just afraid of it because he didn’t want to sacrifice his immortality and become human. And now she understood why.

She told herself to stop worrying. This was Legend, and he was ruthless when it came to magic and immortality. He would never let himself die for love. But Tella still found herself trying to remember the way he’d kissed her the night of the maze. Had he only felt lust, desire, and obsession that night? Or had his kiss been fueled by love? There’d been a moment during the maze when she’d thought the words I want to keep you had sounded possessive instead of romantic. But now, she found herself hoping he’d only felt the feelings she’d found so hurtful that evening.

“We’re almost there,” Julian said.

Tella could now see a vague outline in the distance. In the dark it was hard to tell the difference between stones and shadows, but it looked as if the ruins ahead of them contained a road, lined in fossilized trees, with crumbling archways at either end and a few frighteningly lifelike statues, which Tella desperately hoped weren’t petrified humans.

At least there weren’t any Fates around.

Tella halted just before they reached the edge of the ruins in a perfect patch of pale white moonlight.