“Ursula.”

Sabine’s voice. Woozy, Ursula shifted back to her human form. Where were they? It took Ursula a few seconds to get her bearings. They’d come into the castle, turned into her mother’s needlework room, and then the floor had given way. Ursula rolled over. She couldn’t see Sabine, but she could smell her, feel her presence. “Are you hurt? Your arm—”

“I landed on my feet,” Sabine said. “It took me a moment to rouse you. You scared me.”

“My skull is harder than all that.” They clasped hands, and Sabine pulled Ursula upright.

“The opening is too high up, and it’s too far away from the walls,” Sabine said. “Even if we could climb them.”

Ursula burned with anger. This was too much. She wanted to be free of the burdens of responsibility. She wanted to feel the way she had when she was a girl running through the woods, becoming a bear, roaring because it was a wonderful thing to be alive. She’d lost everything she’d ever cared about.

“Sabine, I don’t know what to do.”

“So you’re saying your instructors never prepared you for when you’re at the bottom of a pit of your brother’s making?”

“Curiously, they did not.” She felt Sabine move closer and for a moment, her heart fluttered.

“There has to be another way out,” Sabine said.

“Maybe Hans will come back.”

“We can’t wait for that. We certainly can’t count on it. He’s alone against the kingdom. We either free ourselves or we fail.”

“But—”

“Start looking,” Sabine said.

Holding her hands out, Ursula made her way to the wall. The foundations the old castle lay beneath this one. A number of the old rooms had been turned into the dungeon. This one must have been left out. She thought about the layout of the castle above. The dungeon stairs weren’t much farther down the corridor, which meant they just needed to get through the wall. Then they could escape up the dungeon stairs.

“We need to get through this wall,” Ursula said. “But it’s solid stone.”

“It’s not,” Sabine said. “I smell the presence of rats. If they’ve made it through, the wall can be breached. We need only to find out where and make the opening large enough for us.”

It wouldn’t be easy, but Sabine was right.

“You’re brilliant.” Ursula hadn’t meant to say it out loud.

“I know,” Sabine said.

“But what about your arm?” There was no way Sabine could help. She hadn’t fully healed.

“I provided the brains,” Sabine said. “And a considerable amount of nose. The rest is up to you.”

Ursula put her hands to the wall, running her fingertips over the stones, searching for a seam wide enough to use. She ran her nose along the stones, trying to find the weakness the rats had discovered.

“Do you hear that?” Sabine said.

There were shouts overhead. It sounded like fighting. “Hans,” Ursula said. “It has to be.”

She caught a whiff of rat. Her fingers slid into a crack between two stones. She let herself shift—not all the way, just enough that her hands were armed with powerful claws. She’d never tried being between bear and human. She’d always aimed for the extremes. But she found this was a useful state. She was strong and also dexterous. She pulled at the crack. Her forearms strained. Her hands shook. She thought the stone might snap off her claws, which would be disastrous should she need to fight.

She let go. She panted, her fingertips aching, sweat trickling down her back.

“Don’t stop,” Sabine said. “We cannot fail.”

“I don’t think I can do this,” she said.

“You must.” Sabine moved close. She put her good arm around Ursula’s waist. “I can pull you. We can do this together.”

Ursula put her hands to the stone again. Found the gap. Everything she wanted depended on her success. Her life and Sabine’s depended on it. She gave a mighty tug. Sabine pulled too. The stone broke. Ursula pulled off another chunk. Another. And another. And then the stone was gone, and enough around it. Sabine had not yet let go. Even in the darkness, Ursula closed her eyes. If this was the last time Sabine held her, she wanted to seal it in memory.

The smell of dungeon washed over her. Death, despair, rats, rot.

“Let’s go,” Sabine said.

Ursula stepped into the stinking dungeon. “We need a plan.”

“I’ll find Greta. Hans will be going after Albrecht, and he’ll need someone with two good arms.”

“Brilliant,” Ursula said again.

“I know. I’m right behind you. I’ll see you at home.”

Ursula didn’t answer, even as the word home rang her heart like a bell. She’d already become the bear.