"No." Seiren's voice cracked. "No – no!"

White magic coursed down her arm. The bone snapped back with a spine-tingling crunch and the pain dulled, but pins and needles remained in her left arm. Desperation pooled like a vortex of bile and acid, swirling deep in the pits of her stomach and coursing up through her core. Seiren seized it and sent it surging through her right arm. A ball of light formed in the palm of her hand and she blasted it at Hanna.

With a lazy wave, Hanna deflected it. The flash magic ricocheted off the back of her hand and shot through the air, throwing off festive sparks before crashing into the domed ceiling, throwing cracks across the surface. Seiren screamed, readying another blast of flash magic.

"I wouldn't waste all that precious celestial magic," Hanna said. Her voice was hollow, echoing as if they were all in a tiny, dark underground tunnel. The words made Seiren shiver, each bite of the syllable crunching like frost beneath her feet and the lilt coursed like an arctic draught over her exposed flesh. "You cannot harm me."

"What have you done?" Kristen gasped. "You promised – you never said—"

"I stay true to my word. Well..." Hanna shrugged and waved her hand. A streak of light shot from her feet straight for the bound Kristen. It snaked up her body, shredding the binding from Seiren's red-violet rune as if it were made out of paper. The light pressed against Kristen's flesh, seeping into her body. She gasped. Seiren didn't need to see to know Hanna had restored Kristen's magic.

"Holy hell..." Rowan whispered from behind Seiren.

"Now I am true to my word. It was not easy, speaking from that abominable confine." Hanna's lips curled. As the seconds past, she appeared less and less like Madeleine. The callous look made Madeleine's features seem alien altogether. "Lucky the centuries have not eroded my persuasion. I suppose I could not say the same for loyalty."

She gave Eleia's daemon a pointed look. Eleia watched with eyes as round as a full moon, her face drained of blood. She clutched the royal daemon's horns as it hovered above the ground, its long whiskers and tail undulating in the air.

"Apollinon, you have sworn loyalty to the bastard Feures's offspring? After all he had done – stolen my blood, stolen my power?"

I yield to a worthy summoner. The rumbling reply echoed clearly through Seiren's skull despite the daemon not opening its mouth. Hanna's curled smile became disdainful.

"You yield to the weak. How disgraceful."

Apollinon raised its head, mouth agape and snarling. Eleia clutched its horns, her brows furrowed in concentration. The lengthy, scarlet daemon dived, teeth bared. Air whistled over their descent. Hanna raised her hand. As if yanked by an invisible rope, Apollinon came to an abrupt halt in mid-air, almost throwing Eleia off its back. Its eyes stared down at Hanna, the pupils in golden slits and saliva dribbling out of its deadly jaws. Fear.

"Do not forget who created you, Apollinon," Hanna bit out. She held him there for several more seconds to prove her point before dropping him. Both Eleia and Apollinon crashed to the floor, stunned. Seiren's breath caught in her throat. So much power.

"You promised—" Fautos's voice strained. He climbed to a sitting position, drenched in sweat and gasping for air. "You promised me power! All this – all this was me! My doing! You should be worshipping me!"

Hanna's eyes snapped to him and narrowed. Before any of them could react, she'd raised her hand and clenched it into a fist. With a bloodcurdling scream, Fautos twisted on the ground, eyes rolling and mouth frothing. The crunching of bones bounced off the walls, making Seiren's guts writhe. He continued to screech, limbs snapping back at impossible angles, fractured bones jutting out and straining against the flesh that barely held the limb together. Then he stilled, gurgling, eyes staring glassily ahead.

"Disgusting to think I share blood with such mud stains of the world. You, who cannot even summon Apollinon when your crippled little sister can." Hanna spat on the ground. She turned to face Kristen, who had been fervently sketching on the ground without anyone noticing. Hanna raised a single finger. Kristen froze, as though having her strings pulled taut by a puppeteer. "I do not take well to treachery, Kristen Harred. You followed my instructions to the letter and I am appreciative of you for that, but if you attack me – do not forget I hold your blood, just as I held Fautos Tophalis's. It will not be difficult to crush you as I had him."

"I never agreed to let you have my daughter in exchange!" Kristen yelled. The calm and calculated composure Seiren had used to broken down along with the woman before her. Tears streamed down her face. Kristen collapsed onto her knees, smudging the chalk rune. Each sob reflected Seiren's crumbling heart as her eyes turned back to Hanna, whose face was so familiar to her and yet so alien.

"It was not for you to agree. The celestial mage came of her own accord," Hanna said loftily.

"Give her back!" Seiren exploded, leaping forward, the last of her energy sparkling in her hand. She managed two steps before two pairs of strong arms held her back. She twisted her head and would have punched both Rowan and Marya if she could. "Let me go! Give me back my sister! Give her back!"

Her voice broke. Fragments of her heart fell, spiralling into the darkness of despair.

"Karma sure was generous with her powers." Hanna's voice became arctic. "Nature's aberration – there never is a need for two of anything to exist. This is my claim to the world, what I rightfully deserve, until my sister stole it from me."

Hanna raised her arms. To Seiren's horror, the stone statues around them creaked, their arms and legs jerking to life. The blank faces that had, until that point, stared, expressionless, into space, now turned to face Hanna. Each of them clutched swords, spears, and shields.

There was a whoosh from behind Seiren, soft as the whispers of the night. A wave of sand grazed by her and enveloped Hanna. The sand congregated in a smooth ball of butter yellow and ivory grey before constricting. Then, like a falling star descending in the night, the ball burst, the energy snuffed out not by darkness but by the figure standing within, an amused look on her sinister face.

Marya stepped forward, dropping her clenched left fist and drawing out a gun with her right. Aim. Click. Bang.

Hanna didn't even bother to raise her hand. The bullet struck her temple – and glanced off. She blinked and sighed.

"Your magic," she said slowly, as if the rest of them were mentally challenged, "will do – can do – nothing to me. I am Hanna. I am the predecessor of summoning magic, one of the two celestial bodies to ever exist in history. Your magic stemmed from me."

Quirking a smile that never reached beyond her lips, Hanna tilted her head. Her stone soldiers fell into formation.

"The question is, of course, if I should kill you or take back my power, but..." She scanned the remaining people and, to Seiren's surprise, winced. Hanna shut her eyes, as though nursing a migraine, her face contorting into strange expressions. She touched her temple, a scowl darkening her face. "Unfortunately, my passenger is giving me some trouble."

"Madeleine!" Seiren breathed in relief. She lurched forward, but was tugged back again by Rowan.

"Don't!" he warned in her ear, both hands circling her upper arms.

"I'll rescue you! Please – hang in there! Madeleine!"

"So noisy," Hanna said, wrinkling her nose, dropping her hand. It seemed whatever Madeleine had done to distract her was no longer an issue. "I'd stay and destroy you all, but it seems it's more trouble than it's worth. And I have a land to reclaim."

Regaining the chilling expression again, Hanna acknowledged her head and turned, almost floating up the stone steps. Her stone soldiers stomped in unison, marching out as one. Their thumps resonated throughout the chamber, dying in volume, until they were left in silence that was only punctuated by their harsh breaths.

Marya Bonneville moved first. Drawing out ropes and a binding rune, she stalked over to Kristen and knocked her, face-first, into the ground. Kristen didn't struggle. Her face, pressed against the sand- and rubble-strewn ground, was swollen and soaked with tears.

"By the order of King Bolliver Woodbead of Karma, I hereby place you, Kristen Harred, under arrest," Marya said in a low voice, securing the ties and giving them a firm, final yank. "Should you attempt to escape—"

"I won't."

"—you shall be subject—"

"I said I won't." Kristen's voice was wooden, the emotions shut down. Although Seiren wouldn't trust her further than she could spit, she knew she told the truth. Watching Madeleine taken over by a figure history thought to be dead and marched away like a mindless puppet had taken all the will out of her. And it appeared to have had the same effect on Kristen. Marya hoisted her to her feet and forced her to walk.

"It's all your fault," Seiren said, her fists clenching as her mother passed her, and Kristen paused. Seiren's broken arm no longer ached, but the muscles still spasmed. "If you hadn't escaped... if you hadn't revived her, Madeleine wouldn't – she wouldn't—"

"I'm sorry," Kristen said in a quiet voice. "It was never my intention. The deal was for me to convince Fautos to bring his Daemonium here under the pretence he would gain celestial magic, in return for restoration of my own power. Madeleine was never part of the deal."

"Liar!" Seiren wrenched her arm out of Rowan's grip and slapped Kristen across the face. The sound bounced off the walls. Tears sprang from Seiren's eyes. "You're all lies! That's all you do. You lie about being dead for six years. You lie about using your own daughter as sacrifice! Admit it – you traded Madeleine for your own magic!"

"I would never." Kristen's voice trembled. She continued to stare down at the ground, a crimson mark blossoming on her cheek like blood staining fresh snow. "You two mean the world to me. When I realised the Daemonium had caught you two – I recognise your flash magic anywhere, Seiren–"

Seiren's chest tightened at the sound of her name coming from that mouth.

"I deliberately released false information that Fautos wanted to summon Apollinon in Traquair, in hopes you two wouldn't come after us here. Fautos was intent on finding Hanna's body. It was the only way I could keep you two away from us. I guess I grossly underestimated your tenacity."

"You'd say whatever to wriggle out. I bet you said the same when striking the deal with Hanna—"

"I never struck a deal with Hanna. She struck a deal with me."

There was a moment of stunned silence. The way Kristen phrased it made Seiren's thoughts click. "The rescue at your execution—"

"—was not something I'd planned. I was fully prepared to die until Hanna made her presence clear to me."

Find me the celestial mage. Magus's words came back to Seiren. The voice must have been Hanna, half-awakened, influencing the Daemonium to abduct the mage with celestial energy to restore herself, except they had interpreted it to mean Kristen, when Hanna meant Seiren or Madeleine, the two mages who had celestial magic.

"You lie," Seiren whispered, fat tears scorching her cheeks, but deep down, it made sense, much as she rejected it. Kristen hung her head, wordless. Her knees wobbled. Rowan linked his hand with hers; the warmth snaking between her fingers was heart-achingly familiar, but the sensation of his longer fingers encircling hers reminded her sharply of Madeleine's absence. His spare arm had stretched behind her back to grip her other upper arm; the grip loosened. Seiren stared at the ground, the hollow in her heart growing deeper with every beat. Conversation continued around her, the words rolling off her without much meaning.

Seiren bent her neck and buried her head in Rowan's shoulder. He rocked her back and forth in silence, rubbing circles on her shoulder with one hand and squeezing her hand with the other. He smelt comfortingly of old books and vanilla, a homey scent that soothed her fluttering, broken heart and ravaged nerves.

"What now?" Rowan said softly, above her head.

"We need a monarch," said Magus, approaching. "Fautos is dead. Before the news leaks and the people of Hanna falls into panic, we need to secure the palace at Falnash and mobilise the army. Hanna will be seeking destruction."

"She's your ancestor. Why would she do that?" Marya said in surprise. Seiren gazed, unseeing, out of the corner of her eye. The world was fuzzy through her tears.

"She is our ancestor in all but name. Feures Tophalis, the first king, the one who built all this—" Magus gestured around. "—the stone army were there as guards against intruders for his body, but also in case of foreign intrusion. Feures was a paranoid king, and rightly so – for he stole the power of summoning from Hanna and sealed her away." The rest of the group stared at him. Eleia slid off Apollinon and slipped her hand in his. Magus ruffled her tangled black hair mindlessly. Eleia waved at Seiren, catching her attention. Blinking blearily, Seiren lifted her head.

"You should get back to Karma."

The words took time to process. Everyone looked at the two of them expectantly.

"...Now? Why?" Seiren said, tired.

"You should head back to Karma," Magus said, taking over for the sake of the others who couldn't read Eleia's sign language. He gave his sister an apologetic glance. Eleia nodded encouragingly. "Feures sealed Hanna, so she has a vendetta against the Tophalis family, but there is one person she hated even more."

Eleia signed a word Seiren didn't know, but it didn't take much to figure out what she meant.

"Karma." Realisation dawned on Rowan. He stood up straighter. "But Karma's dead – or isn't she? If Hanna's sealed away, is Karma also...?"

"I do not know. What your country has done with Karma's soul wasn't privy to us, but there are many mages in your country, many who wield Karma's power. Hanna will seek to destroy that, just as she will seek to destroy our summoning."

"Kommora's still deciphering Cronin Sallows's work. He was the one in charge of the Teirrin relationship when he was king's mage. We know when the Teirrinese royal family revived celestial magic the first time, Hanna and Karma were both awakened, but Hanna was sealed before she became aware..."

Rowan threw her a warning look. Marya bit back her next words, remembering Kristen still stood there, silent and still as the statues that used to surround them in the dome.

"We will discuss this with the other king's mages once we arrive back in Karma," Marya said with finality.

"Apollinon will take you back," Eleia said with a smile. "He will be faster than any transport you have."

"Eleia's daemon will aid with your return. Rest assured Karma has an ally in us – we will send word to your king's mages once we secure Falnash," said Magus. "Your help today – and in the days leading up to today – will go down in history."

Seiren's mind was numb. Rowan squeezed her shoulder and kissed her on top of her head, making no attempts at futile words of encouragement.

A Karman-Hannan treaty. A new peace period since the last time Fautos stormed Acrise and failed. A new monarch. She turned, half-expecting to see Madeleine there for her to share in this revelation. All that met her was the harsh reality that, once again, her sister was snatched out of her grasp by the cruel hands of fate, whose delighted cackle echoed in the group's wake as they exited the ancient tomb.

Although surrounded by allies – both new and old – as she hopped off the royal daemon and her feet hit the worn-away stone block ground of Acrise, Seiren had never felt so alone.

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