“LAURA?” THE VOICE SAID, cracking with emotion.

It was her mom.

“Yes! Yes, it’s me!” said Laura.

Reina scooped Laura up into a hug that warmed Laura to the core. She wrapped her arms around her mother’s neck. Suddenly it all made sense. Bloato wears the Crystal Crown was the last thing Reina wrote because it was the last thing she could write. The enchanted parchment was useless down here. And when Deirdre had shown Laura the view through her mother’s eyes, she couldn’t see anything because she was staring at the darkness of the tunnels beneath the goblin cave. As her mother squeezed her tightly, Laura felt at home for the first time since leaving Hillview.

“How did you survive down here for so long?” Laura asked.

“Every few days, the goblins toss down scraps of food through the grate,” Reina explained. “These tunnels are the only place I can get away from that terrible goblin music. You can only hear the Gobtrot so many times before it drives you crazy.”

“That’s it!” said Laura. “The room with the grate. Can you get me back there? That’s where my friends are.” Laura paused. “If they’re even my friends anymore. They probably hate me now.”

“Just tell them how you feel,” said Reina. “If there’s one thing I learned being trapped down here, it’s never miss a chance to tell someone how much they mean to you.”

Laura held Reina’s hand tightly as Reina led her through the tunnels. Laura explained everything she could about Hillview and the Hexors, about Millie and Quin. Just as she was telling Reina that her notebook was the reason they’d found her in the first place, she saw dim light up ahead. In the room underneath the grate, Millie was huddled in the corner, her knees to her chest. Quin was trying unsuccessfully to climb up the side of the rock wall.

“Millie!” Laura called.

Millie leaped up. “Laura, is that you?”

Laura ran to her. “Millie, I’m so sorry,” she said. “You’re my best friend! I don’t know what I’d do without you! I wouldn’t have made it over the first hill, and I definitely wouldn’t have made it past that horrible troll!” She turned to Quin. “And, Quin, if it wasn’t for you, a rotslobber would have torn me to pieces! I’m so sorry for what I said. You’ve risked your life for us over and over again. If that’s not family, I don’t know what is. Can you two ever forgive me?”

Millie and Quin looked at each other.

Quin grinned. “Does a goblin have black earwax?”

They both wrapped up Laura in a big hug. That’s when they saw Reina standing behind her.

Laura turned around. For the first time since she was a baby, Laura could finally see her mom. In the dim light, she saw how much her mother looked like her—the wide curious eyes, the jet-black hair—except Reina’s was so long, it hung all the way down to her waist.

“Millicent! By all the moons in the sky!” Reina smiled. “How’s my favorite niece?”

Millie had never looked so confused in her life. “Aunt Reina?”

“I got lost, and she found me,” said Laura.

Reina put her hand on Laura’s shoulder. “We found each other.”

“This is our friend Quin,” said Laura.

“He helped us get a Donkeycorn!” said Millie.

Reina arched her eyebrow. “I can see I’ve missed a lot.”

“More than you could ever know, Mom,” said Laura. “But right now we have to find a way out of here.”

Reina frowned. “I’ve spent years wandering these tunnels. There’s no way out.”

Millie pointed to the grate. “Maybe we can hoist each other up or, I don’t know, stand on each other’s shoulders!”

Laura shook her head. “Millie, that grate has to be twenty feet up. There’s only four of us.”

Quin gasped. “Four of us! There’s four of us down here!”

Laura sighed. “Yes, Quin, we all can count.”

“You don’t understand!” said Quin, a wild look in his eye. He opened Laura’s rucksack and pulled out the book from Hobbly Knobbly. He frantically flipped through it until he found the page he was looking for. “An Elemental Tornado!” He pointed to the page and read, “ ‘In times when Lysor power was compromised, four Lysors could create an Elemental Tornado by summoning all the elements at once. It must be four Lysors—no more, no less!’ ”

Laura looked to Reina. “Do you think that could work?”

“It might. But it’s too risky. In an Elemental Tornado, the elements combine in unpredictable ways. You never quite know what you’re going to get. It must be done with four Lysors. A small mage might not survive.”

Quin took a step forward. “I’ve wrestled rotslobbers. I’ve outrun scabengers. I’ve tasted Hobbly Knobbly’s bathwater. You’d be surprised what I can survive.”

“You don’t understand the power of an Elemental Tornado,” said Reina.

“Maybe I don’t,” said Quin, “but all I’ve done my whole life is fend for myself. Now I have the chance to help you all get out of here and to save the Lysors.” He turned to Laura. “Let me do this for you. Please.”

Laura could tell, looking into his green and violet eyes, that he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. “You’re sure?”

Without so much as a moment of hesitation, he said, “Yes.”

They all turned to Reina.

“Then let’s begin,” she said.

They stood in a circle, and Reina told each of them which element they would be summoning. She would summon earth, Laura air, Millie water, and Quin, of course, fire.

“Join hands,” Reina commanded.

Laura felt heat surging from her mother’s firm grip on one side and Quin’s papery palm on the other. Across the circle, she saw Millie looking braver than she ever had before. Laura knew they were far from the moon of Lysoria, but she hoped the power of the four elements was enough. Reina nodded, then they all closed their eyes.

Their voices echoed in unison:

“Talamh’e,” said Reina.

“Goith’e,” said Laura.

“Tier’e,” said Quin.

“Oighar’e,” said Millie.

Laura’s palms burned so hot, she felt as if she had grabbed a pot from a fire with her bare hands. But she held on tight.

The earth began to shake beneath them. Then suddenly the ground split open with a crack! so loud that Millie nearly jumped out of her skin. Out of the ground gushed a massive geyser of water, swirling like a tornado, encircled in flames.

It all happened in a second, but as the geyser erupted underneath them, time seemed to slow down. Laura felt the air whipping upward, lifting them toward the metal grate. She felt the cool spray of water on her skin, protecting them from the fire. She saw the white-hot flames lick the grate, instantly melting it away.

Then, all at once, they were spat up onto the ground of the goblin cave as if a wave had washed them onto a deserted island. The icy water crashed back down to the floor of the dungeon, where it seeped through the cracks and disappeared. As quickly as the Elemental Tornado had begun, it was over.

Laura scrambled to her feet. “It worked! It really worked!” she said, panting like she’d just sprinted for miles.

She helped up Millie, who looked a little dizzy. “Did that actually just happen?” Millie asked in a daze.

“Yes!” Laura said, laughing. But her joy was short-lived, as she saw Reina lifting up Quin in her arms. Laura ran to him and held his head. He was breathing, but his eyes were closed and his body was limp as he drifted in and out of consciousness.

“He doesn’t have long,” Reina said gravely.

That’s when they heard the “DING! DING! DING!” of the feast bell.

Millie gasped. “Donkeycorn!”