Iris set her piece of pizza back in the box, closed the lid, and shoved it at Elspeth. “Here. Put on some weight.”

“It’s your fault she lost it,” I said.

“Audrey,” Elspeth sighed.

Iris twisted Patrick Tigue’s ring around her thumb for a moment before looking toward me. In the meager light from the hotel lamps, her eyes had a hard glitter. “You let Verrick get unsealed.”

“There was no let involved.”

“You were supposed to kill him.”

“No, you told me to kill him,” I said. The chair I sat on wasn’t upholstered, and the rim of the seat dug into my legs. I pushed the chair backward, against the window, where I could hear the rain slap against the glass. I met Iris’s look coolly. “I didn’t agree to it, if you remember.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I tell you the entire Kin is about to be annihilated and the only way to stop it is to kill Verrick, and you say no. What kind of stupid are you?”

“The kind that doesn’t believe you.”

“I spoke to Daniel,” Elspeth interjected. She’d set the pizza box aside and scooted across the bed so that her back touched the wall. A slender lock of black hair had come loose from her ponytail and curved around her jaw. “I asked him about Val’s visions, about the end of the Kin. He told me she didn’t just see one future. She saw two.” He’d apparently kept his belief that I was the one to determine it to himself, however, since Elspeth didn’t mention it. She just said, “It can be prevented, Audrey.”

I didn’t answer. The end of the Kin, I thought, remembering the night Drew had stood in my house and whispered the name of Valerie. He’d told us of Val’s vision, and for a moment everything had come to a standstill. I hadn’t just heard his words; I’d felt them. Physically. They’d frozen the air in my lungs. Images had played out before me: Harrowers clawing through city streets under a sky awash in crimson; shadows curling up from the earth; the Astral Circle bleeding into nothing. Everything dark.

But somehow, the words had lost their hold on me. “The end of the Kin,” I repeated. I clasped my elbows with my hands. Visions were often wrong, I reminded myself. Open to interpretation. And Val had seen a Harrowing; she hadn’t seen Gideon. Whatever future she’d witnessed, this wasn’t it. I hoped. “That isn’t going to happen,” I said.

“It is unless you stop Verrick,” Iris said.

I ignored her, turning an accusing glare on Elspeth. “You liked Gideon,” I said. “Remember? You danced with him at the Drought and Deluge.” If I closed my eyes, I could see it again—her blue dress, the smile she’d given him. “How can you just agree I should kill him?”

She looked away. “I didn’t know what he was.”

Iris gave one of her raspy laughs and smirked at her sister. “Guess it runs in the family.”

I ignored that, too. “What he is is my friend. My family. Would you kill Iris if Esther told you to?”

Elspeth raised her chin. “If the fate of the world depended on it.”

“First of all, no you wouldn’t,” I retorted. I knew Elspeth well enough to know that. “You wouldn’t be hiding Iris here and feeding her pizza if that were in any way true. And there is no fate. The future isn’t fixed.”

“Ugh. Don’t quote Grandmother,” Iris groaned. “Would you please use your brain, Audrey? You know what’s happening. You can feel it. The Beneath is gaining in power. Did you happen to notice the sky?”

“Yeah, it’s raining. Alert the media.”

“The stars. Red stars, Audrey.”

That got my attention. I remembered the crimson glow I’d seen in the night sky, the scattering of stars that had gleamed before my eyes and then abruptly vanished. I hadn’t imagined it, then. I hunched my shoulders. “I’ve seen them,” I said.

“The Beneath is leaking through. It’s getting closer and closer to breaching the Circle entirely. It’s been feeding off the Kin it kills. Gaining strength.”

“Feeding?” I repeated. “Like, taking their blood?” I grimaced. That was why it had swallowed Sonja, then. Collected her. Why there were no bodies left behind.

“The power in their blood,” Iris said, in a tone that said I should have somehow known that. “Kin blood still carries the power of the Old Race. A trace of it, at least. Guardians would be best, but right now it still seems to be picking easy targets. Those with the most Kin blood in their lineage. But it’s not going to do that forever. Right now, we still have a chance—but sooner or later, the Beneath is going to have enough power to send all of its Harrowers through, and then it will be the end of the Kin, and the future will be fixed. Unless you stop it.”

“This from the girl who told me she’d let the world burn,” I snapped. “Forgive me if I’m having a little trouble believing you’d care.”

“I told you I wouldn’t let it have my family.”

I crossed my arms. “You can’t just put this all on me.”

“It is on you. You’re the only one who can kill Verrick.”

“How? I’m not even a Guardian! I couldn’t fight him even if I wanted to, which I don’t. Fighting Harrowers by sharing their powers is your thing, not mine.” I’d done that once with Susannah, and I never wanted to do it again. Even now, months later, I still remembered what it had felt like—the chill of the Beneath seeping into my flesh, the way its corruption had crept up into me, whispering into my thoughts, the surge of hate I had felt bubble within.

“The Circle,” Iris said. “You used its power before.”

“I released its power. On you. I’m all out of flaming magic tricks.”

She leaned toward me, her thin hands tightly clasped. Once again, her voice came out like a hiss. “You’re both connected to it. You and Verrick. That’s how you can kill him. That’s what you have to do. The Beneath will go back to sleep, and all of this will end. Unless, of course, you’d rather the rest of us die so your friend can live.”

“I guess it runs in the family,” I shot back.

Elspeth slid off the bed and moved toward me. “Audrey—”

“No,” I said. “This all started because of her.” I looked at Iris, sitting there calm, in control, while Gideon was out there somewhere, alone in the city. I felt anger coil inside me, hot and heady, and let it burn. My mouth twisted. “Why don’t we do an exchange? How about this: We kill you, instead.”

Elspeth had reached my side. She grabbed my arm, but I yanked myself free, shoving her away.

Iris only seemed amused. “And that would accomplish…what, exactly?”

“It would save me having to listen to you, for a start.”

“You really think you could?”

“You really think I won’t?”

She met my gaze unflinching. “Yes.”

The trouble was, she was right. I’d struggled with killing Susannah. I’d hesitated when fighting a Harrower. As much as my anger fueled me, that was all it was—anger. I switched tactics. “Then you know there’s no way I would kill my best friend. Ever.”

“This is getting us nowhere,” said Elspeth.

Iris didn’t even glance at her sister. She kept her gaze pinned on me. “Fine. Let’s try math. I’ll keep it simple, since I know that’s not your best subject. We won’t count the thousands of Kin who will die if Verrick is allowed to live. We’ll use a smaller number. Four. I’ll even count them for you: Elspeth. That little blond girl. Your mother. Leon. You love them, too, don’t you?” Her eyes took on that hard glitter again. “Does your boyfriend know how hell-bent you are on protecting the demon that murdered his parents?”

That subject was still raw, painful, making my stomach knot. I heard the echo of Leon’s voice in my ears, telling me Gideon didn’t deserve to be saved. But I didn’t let it show. This was a knife I knew how to twist. I matched Iris’s tone. “I’d ask if yours knows what you’re up to—but, that’s right, he’s dead.”

She did flinch, then. I saw the words hit her, saw her recoil just slightly. A tremble moved through her. One of her hands made a fist. But instead of a ready retort, all she said was: “Weigh it, Audrey. Them or him.”