Nineteen

The book Thea was clutching was pale gray, with the faintest hints of violet. And on its cover was written Princess Thea of the Pallid Kingdom.

“Don’t touch that!” the Editor cried. “It hasn’t been updated yet! It could—”

Her voice cut off with a strangled sound, but Eleanor didn’t have to ask what it could do. It was already happening.

Words were crawling up Thea’s arms, scuttling beneath her sleeves. They snaked up her throat and flowed up to her eyes, until it seemed like she was weeping words.

“Thea!” Eleanor shouted. She and Pip grabbed the book, trying to pry it from Thea’s hands. Eleanor wrapped a hand around Thea’s wrist like she could stop the words from flowing into her.

But both of them were too late. The last of the words had slithered free of the pages, settling into Thea’s skin. She let go of the book and staggered back. Her eyes were black, swimming with ink. Her outline blurred.

“I never escaped,” Thea said. Her voice held an odd echo, as if it was coming from far away. She stumbled back one step, and then another. “None of us escaped. We stayed and grew up and we learned to be hard and cold.”

A girl, another Thea, stepped free of her. This one was older. Her hair had lost its color, turning platinum. “We learned not to show our true faces. We learned to lie and to bargain and to gather power and to keep it.”

Her outline shivered again, and Katie Rhodes stepped free, the way she’d looked as she hunted them down the road. “We went into the world to conquer it, but the gates were sealed shut behind us. And so we waited. And we schemed. And we were wicked.”

Their heads tilted as one. “You tried to save me,” the youngest Thea whispered. “But you failed.”

The two Theas stepped back—and vanished. Only Katie Rhodes remained. She rolled her shoulders and then her neck, as if working out the kinks. “Come, Shatterblack. Come, Rag-a-bone. Your mistress is back. It’s time to stop hiding.” She lifted her hands, a smile stretching across her beautiful face, and the marble floor split open like overripe fruit, the road rushing through it.

Shatterblack leaped, an arc of black. Rag-a-bone darted, pale fur blending with the white marble floor. Pip had Gloaming out in less than a second, and caught Shatterblack with the flat of it, taking the hound’s weight and then tossing her away. The Editor ducked behind her desk, holding a thick tome over her head for protection.

The hedgewitch tossed a loop of what looked like simple twine at Rag-a-bone. Brambles grew from the floor, tangling the hound. Otto reached a hand into the hedgewitch’s bag and pulled out a slim book. He opened it like he knew exactly what he was looking for, held out a hand, and shouted a single syllable. There was a pop and a flash of light right in front of Shatterblack’s nose, making her shriek and veer away just as she jumped for Pip again.

Katie stood seething, her hair as white as the hounds’ blazing eyes.

“You made me think that I could be different. You made me think that you would protect me,” Katie hissed. Her words were like a whisper right in Eleanor’s ear.

“You don’t have to be her. You can be Thea,” Eleanor said pleadingly.

But Katie shook her head. “I would have broken if I stayed Thea. I had to become something else, to stay whole,” she said.

“What nonsense is this?!” the Librarian roared, striding out from the spiral. “This area is restricted! None of you should be here! And now there are dogs? In the Library?” He crossed the distance in a few steps. Rag-a-bone and Shatterblack snarled and jumped for him. Two hands darted out from under his robes and caught them by the scruff, holding them aloft and giving them a good shake. More hands shot out, catching Otto and Pip and Eleanor by the arms. The hedgewitch tried to dodge away, but he got her, too, holding them all in an uncomfortable cluster to one side, while the hounds growled and twisted on the other.

“Your borrowing privileges are hereby revoked!” the Librarian said sternly.

“I do apologize.” Katie stepped forward, her gray skirt trailing, a faint, polite smile on her lips. “I am afraid this is all my fault,” she said. “I came to take these miscreants home. I didn’t mean to disrupt your incredible library. If you hand them over to me, I will make sure they do not trouble you again.”

“Humph,” the Librarian said, considering.

“Don’t listen to her!” Otto said. The Librarian gave him a little shake.

“No one is going anywhere until I get an explanation for this nonsense,” the Librarian said.

“Ah. In that case . . .” Katie’s outline flexed—and suddenly there were three of her. One of them threw up a hand, and the air shimmered with hard light. The Librarian’s hand shot out, but it hit the light and rebounded.

The other two Katies wheeled, sprinting for the Editor. One of them veered toward the stack of books. The other grabbed something off the desk itself.

“Stop her!” the Editor yelled in a panic. The Librarian dropped all of them, hounds included, and dived for the third Katie, but he was too late. She was already pelting back toward the road, and so were the other two, the hounds right at their heels. Pip started after them, but Eleanor grabbed her by the elbow, hauling her back.

The three Katies reached the road, melding back into each other. The hounds leaped on after her. The Librarian yelled in goatish fury, but Katie just winked—and the road disappeared.