“Hello?” I called out. “Is anyone out here?”

But my voice was nothing more than a hoarse croak, and no one answered me. Victor and Blake were long gone, and so were any guards they had stationed outside. I looked at the warehouse next door, the one that the Sinclairs had been held in, but it too was dark and I didn’t see any guards patrolling outside. Of course the Draconis were gone. There weren’t any prisoners inside to watch anymore.

I didn’t know what time it was, but it must have been after midnight because the moon hung so low it almost seemed as if I could reach up and pluck it out of the sky, like a blood persimmon dangling from a tree. The stars seemed to pulse all around the moon, each one a pinpoint of light stabbing into my brain. For some reason, the pain made me giggle.

I had to get away from the warehouse in case the copper crushers slithered outside after me. So I put my head down and focused on putting one foot in front of the other, even though my legs felt heavier and heavier with every single step.

I don’t know how far or what direction I walked, but somehow I found myself on the street outside the apartment building where my mom had been murdered. It, too, was dark and abandoned, like everything else in this part of town. At least, that’s where I thought I was. I couldn’t really tell since white stars kept exploding over and over again in front of my face. I dimly remembered something my mom had told me about how copper crusher venom could cause hallucinations and convulsions. Combine that with my soulsight magic and transference power, and my body was going haywire right now.

Still, I managed to stumble over to the side of the building where a rusty, rickety drainpipe clung to the brick wall, the same drainpipe I’d used to climb into and out of our apartment that summer, instead of trudging up and down the stairs. I put one hand on the drainpipe, intending to climb up it so I would at least be out of reach of the copper crushers down on the ground. But my strength gave out, my fingers slipped off the metal, and I landed on the dirty asphalt.

Those white stars kept exploding over and over again, faster and faster, and brighter and brighter, until they merged into a solid wall of white in my mind, showing me dreams, memories, and visions. So many that I didn’t even know if they were my own or not . . .

I was standing on the lochness bridge, eating ice cream, just as I had four years ago, when the first of my mom’s screams tore through the hot summer air. But I wasn’t that young girl anymore. I was all grown up now, wearing my mom’s coat and ring and carrying her sword.

I dropped the ice cream and ran, ran, ran, trying to get to her in time, just as I had back then. I moved faster than I ever had before, and an instant later, I was at our apartment building. I threw open the front door and charged up the steps, taking them two and three at a time, trying to save my mom from the horrible fate that I knew awaited her at Victor’s hands. Before I knew it, I was in the hallway on our floor. I put my shoulder down and barreled through the door into our apartment.

“Mom!” I yelled. “Mom!”

But she wasn’t here.

I whirled around and around, but she wasn’t here. No blood, no body, no trace of my mom at all.

“Mom!” I yelled again. “Mom! Where are you?”

“Right here, Lila.”

Startled, I whirled around again. The motion made my head spin, and suddenly I wasn’t in our tiny apartment anymore. Now I was standing on the balcony outside my room at the Sinclair mansion. It was night and everything was calm and quiet, except for the lights of the Midway, which flared, flashed, and flickered in the valley far, far below.

My mom was standing on the balcony with me, her elbows on the stone ledge, staring down at the lights. The wind tangled her black hair and made it float like mist around her shoulders, but I focused on her eyes. They were as blue as I’d ever seen them, each one like a bright blaze of magic in her face.

In an instant, the Midway lights dimmed, the moon and stars disappeared, and storm clouds further blackened the sky. In the distance, white lightning crackled from cloud to cloud, making me think of Victor’s horrible magic. I shivered and focused on her.

“Mom?” I whispered. “Are you really here? Or is this just a dream?”

She turned to face me, a smile stretching across her face. “Probably a little bit of both. Mixed in with the copper crusher venom, of course. These things often are, you know.”

I shook my head. “Now you’re talking in riddles like Seleste always does.”

My mom’s smile faltered. “Seleste,” she whispered. “I miss her so much. And you too, Lila.”

She stepped forward and cupped my cheek with her hand. I leaned in to her touch. So warm, so soft, so alive. Nothing at all like the cold, dead, bloody hands I remembered from that day in our apartment.

“Why are you here? Why now? Am I . . . dead?”

She laughed, her face creasing with amusement. “Of course not, silly. It would take more than a little copper crusher venom to do you in. It’s pure magic, you know. Most people can only handle so much magic, so much power in their body at one time. The venom stops their hearts, and then everything else inside them just shuts down. But you’re different, Lila. Your transference magic makes you different. You can handle the venom.”

“So I’ll live then,” I said, trying to crack a joke and make her laugh again. “Good to know.”

She did laugh again, the sound warming my heart, then dropped her hand from my face. “You always were one to look on the bright side of things.”

Mom turned and stared out at the view again. I scooted up so that I was standing right beside her. It reminded me of so many other times and places we’d done this. Whenever we would hike up to the scenic overlooks on Cloudburst Mountain, or go down to the beach that ringed Bloodiron Lake, or just stand on the lochness bridge, staring down at the rippling surface of the water, watching it rush by. My heart squeezed tight, but I didn’t say anything. I didn’t know if this was real or not, but either way, I didn’t want this moment to end. If I could have stayed here forever, I would have.

But finally, the quiet was too much for me to bear.

“So what happens now?” I asked. “How can I stop Victor?”

My mom looked at me out of the corner of her eye. “How do you think you can stop him?”

I bit my lip. “I don’t know. He has so much magic, so much power. That lightning of his . . . it’s like nothing else that I’ve ever seen before. I knew he had a lot of Talents, but to be able to wield raw magic that way . . . it scares me.” My voice dropped to a whisper. “He scares me.”