Ashes, Ashes

The Portkey sent them into pitch darkness. Scorpius found himself tightening his hold on Rose for his own comfort as much as hers as all the five of them knew, for the first thudding heartbeat, was the echo of gasps against stone. Without a wand, he had nothing more useful to do than hang on as a burst of magical energy from who-knew-where brought light.

Sconces along stone walls showed them a bare chamber, no window, a metal door which looked far newer than the masonry. Firelight flickered gold across sandstone, and while it was familiar to Scorpius, he couldn't place it until Matt swore and said, 'Ager Sanguinis.'

Rose clutched his arm, voice hushed. 'What the hell is going on?'

They'd come for them at dawn, Thane and his thugs. Scorpius had no clue what they'd done with the hotel staff, but one moment he'd been asleep, the next he'd had a wand in his face with orders for him to get dressed, get his things. That had been some unknown thug, but then Prometheus Thane had let himself into the room, holding the Chalice of Emrys. They'd all been grabbed, and the cunning hiding place of Selena's luggage had not held up to scrutiny.

The other three had been dragged to their room, and Scorpius had frowned at the absence of Lisa, but nobody said anything. Perhaps she'd got away, he thought, or the Council didn't know to look for her. Standing at wand-point, entirely at Prometheus Thane's mercy, was not the time to push matters. But there had been no further conversation before they'd been huddled together, a Portkey shoved into their hands, and then there'd been the rushing sensation of magical travel. Then this darkness.

'That Portkey was pretty rough,' Rose continued. 'I bet it wasn't legal.'

'I'd hope Prometheus Thane wasn't waving around a legal Portkey,' said Selena.

'How'd they find us?' Scorpius said.

'And where,' growled Albus, stalking to the door, his large hands planting on the solid metal, 'is Lisa?'

'She didn't get away?' Scorpius watched him.

'No. She was - she wasn't there when they woke me up.'

Selena drew a slow breath. 'And we're not sure how they found us. Oh, Albus…'

He whirled around, expression twisted with anger. 'No! It is not -'

The door opened, swinging hard enough to hit his back and send him staggering. The first thing they saw come through was a wand, then Prometheus Thane, flanked by a pair of Council mercenaries. Scorpius' gut twisted. While he'd been at the man's mercy before, he'd never been a trapped rat in a cage with all of his friends.

'Thane,' said Scorpius in a low, steady voice. 'We can talk about this.'

'You're good at talking, Mister Malfoy,' said Thane. 'I suggest, for the moment, you make sure nobody tries to do something stupid. I would hate to hurt any of you needlessly.'

Albus was glaring broadswords at the side of Thane's head, and Scorpius waved a curt hand at him. 'Guys. They've got the wands.'

There was no movement from Albus, which at least meant he didn't go for anyone, and Thane seemed mollified by this. 'You are currently guests of the Council of Thorns. This doesn't need to take long at all. If you cooperate, you will be allowed to leave.'

'Then why take us prisoner?' said Scorpius, and hoped he wouldn't regret asking.

'Some of you, I need. The rest - the options are for me to murder you now, or for me to keep you prisoner until anything you know about us and what's going on here is useless to the IMC. We'll be done soon, and then we'll be long gone with the fruits of our labours.' Thane inclined his head. 'I should thank you for delivering the Chalice of Emrys to us. We will do great things with it, you know.'

'You mean terrible things.' Albus' voice grated.

'Often one and the same. But it doesn't matter. You stay put, and nobody needs to be harmed.'

Albus didn't move, coiling tighter and tighter into a big ball of muscle. 'How did you find us?'

Thane quirked an eyebrow. 'You need to ask, Mister Potter? I thought it would be obvious by now.' He glanced over his shoulder at the door. 'Eva, my dear, if you'd pop in?'

When the woman stepped in, Scorpius wished he could say he was surprised. He felt Rose tense next to him, heard Matt swear, heard Selena mutter something about hating being right under her breath. But his gaze landed on Albus, who was staring at the new arrival with wide, horrified eyes.

'You had a snake in your midst all along,' said Thane, resting a hand on the woman's shoulder. 'May I introduce Eva Saida, who was charged with infiltrating you at Monte Carlo. And she did a splendid job, I must say.'

Albus' expression flickered, and Scorpius could see him wavering through horror - then coming out the other side at fury. 'You -'

He lunged, and Scorpius didn't know if he was going for Thane or Saida, but wands flashed all the same and sent him flying into the wall. Scorpius would have sworn he saw Saida flinch, but then one of Thane's goons was rounding on Albus, and he let go of Rose to bound forward. 'Stop! This isn't necessary.'

'I agree,' said Thane, voice low, tight, calm. 'If Mister Potter will restrain himself, then there needs to be no more conflict. But I have been with you every step of the way. You had a fine chance of finding the Chalice, and so I thought it best to use you, not thwart you.' Next to him, Saida stood stock still, and stared at a point on the wall rather than look at the prisoners.

Albus had slumped to the ground, groaning, and Rose went to his side. 'Do you need anything, then, Thane?' she asked. 'Or did you just come here to gloat?'

'Gloating,' said Thane, 'is not my intention. But the Council is in Ager Sanguinis for a reason. I was delighted to learn from Eva that you'd been here before; the Colonel always doubted your competence, and to prove him wrong, to prove my faith in you was not misplaced, is gratifying. We need someone for the next step, and as you are here, as you are available, there are some of you who are perfect for helping the Council with Project Starfall.'

Scorpius squared his shoulders and took another step forward. 'What do you need?' he asked, voice low, careful, and he tried to not glance at Rose and Albus. I will hurl myself from the top of these towers before I let you hurt them.

Thane looked him up and down, and something flickered in his gaze. 'You will suffice, Mister Malfoy. I could make use of Mister Doyle or maybe Ms Rourke, but it began with you and I, didn't it? Fitting it should end in such a way.'

'No!' Rose leapt to her feet, hair wild, eyes blazing, and Scorpius had to lift a hand to her.

'Don't fight them, Rose. It'll be okay.'

'You have no idea if it'll be all right.' She stormed at Thane, ignoring the wand levelled at her. 'And I have no intention of letting them drag you off to slaughter -'

'Stupefy!'

'Enough!' Scorpius roared as the spell thudded into Rose, knocked her down, and he thought the sick feeling in his gut might have never left him since that first night in the Forbidden Forest when he'd realised he and his friends could really, actually, die. 'I'll go with you. I'll work on your damn Project. I'll be used, but you have to promise me that you're going to let them go when you're done.'

Thane regarded him for a moment. 'And why, exactly, are you bothering to extract that promise?'

His jaw tightened. 'Because you think of yourself as an honourable man. You think you're not cruel unless you have a reason. So we'll give you no reason to hurt us, and I will cooperate. And then you'll let them go.'

'I notice you're making no requests for your own safety.'

'You've given no assurances. You've not said what you need me for. But I'll go.' He gestured to Rose. 'Now at least dispel that, please.' His voice shook, and he was reminded that his grasp of Thane's character wasn't completely wrong, because Thane watched him almost with pity in his gaze before he waved his wand. Rose sat up, eyes wide, movements stiff from the Stun, and he knelt next to her, hands on her shoulders. 'I'll be okay. I'll come back. Every time.'

She worked her jaw, eyes locked on him, and her voice was thick when she answered. 'You can't promise that.'

'Don't care. It's a promise.' His heart thudded in his chest as he kissed her, and the sluggishness in her limbs from the spell was not enough to stop her from clutching at him one more time before he let her go. 'I love you.'

Her eyes were shining, and she got to her feet as he did, relinquishing her grasp only when he pulled back. 'I love you.'

Albus was standing by now, big hands clenched into fists. 'Scorpius. You don't need to -'

'Get them home, Al.' Then one of Thane's men was grabbing him by the shoulder, dragging him out of the room, and any answer or argument was lost from his ears as he was pulled into the corridors of Ager Sanguinis, the heavy door of his friends' cell slammed shut behind him.


Eva glowered at Thane's back as he led them down the castle's corridors. He probably had several reasons for bringing her to that meeting, but one was abundantly clear. He was showing he still had power over her. She would still do as she was told. Or so he wanted her to believe. She had no grounds to argue right now.

'So.' Scorpius walked behind her, and his voice had lost that strength of when he'd told the others to stand down. Now there was only anger and fear sharpened to a knife's edge. 'Was fucking with Albus necessary, or just for your own amusement?'

Her jaw set. 'It made you trust me, didn't it?'

'We trusted him. You just came with the territory. And, you know, I could sympathise with you doing a job, and it's not as if you made out like you had a personal investment in us - except for him.' He bounded to close the gap in their procession, grabbed her elbow. 'Him, you fucked with, and I swear that if there's a single person in this operation I'll see burn, for hurting Albus I'll make sure it's you.'

Thane turned, the thugs turned, but she didn't need to go for her wand to defend herself. He was still a boy and she was still a killer, and it took only a twist of the arm, a hand planted in the small of his back to slam Scorpius face-first against the sandstone walls of Ager Sanguinis. 'Then it's a pity,' she said, unable to summon hatred or grief or anything but emptiness to her voice, 'that you'll have no such chance.'

'Malfoy!' Thane glared. 'You promised me your cooperation. Don't make me remind you what's at stake.'

'You're right,' Scorpius growled, though he struggled against Eva's pin. 'I just realised that I'll cooperate a lot better if I never have to see this bitch.'

'You'll do what I tell you to do.' Still, Thane gave Eva a curt nod. 'Let him go.' He looked to the two thugs. 'Take him to a secure room near the main chamber. We're not ready yet anyway.'

She didn't look at Scorpius as he was dragged off, but she could feel his blue-grey eyes as if they were burning a hole in the side of her head. 'Bringing me to them,' she told Thane once he was gone, 'was only going to agitate -'

He snatched her arm, grip holding a fury he had never turned on her before, and dragged her around a different corner. 'We're going to see Raskoph,' he said. 'He's eager to have a proper conversation.'

'I told you all I -'

'And I told him, and now he wants to see you. He's going up in the world, my dear. Once Project Starfall is complete, his prestige in the Council of Thorns will be even greater. You are not going to want him as an enemy, so if he has questions, you are going to answer them!'

His voice echoed down the passages as she followed, reminding her of what she already knew. She'd lied through her teeth in Venice, assured Thane that she'd been just about to contact the Council. It had probably never occurred to Thane that she would choose neither side, and so she suspected she was given the benefit of the doubt for old time's sake. Relaying everything she'd seen with the Hogwarts Five - with some choice omissions or alterations - had solidified her position, but only partly. The jury was still out, and Raskoph would be the judge when it was over.

Still, nobody grabbed her if she could help it. Eva yanked her arm back. 'I never knew you were so willing to do his bidding. I thought you answered to better, more important people?'

Thane's jaw clenched but he didn't answer, so she followed him down the corridors she remembered walking all those weeks ago. She'd been as surprised as anyone that Raskoph had set up some sort of operation in Ager Sanguinis. She knew she shouldn't have been. He'd sent wizards here for a reason, and some mishaps with golems wouldn't be enough to divert him from his purpose. But she'd never stopped to think about it.

Stepping into the central chamber, she knew this oversight was a mistake.

The Veil still dominated the room, and even in the mid-morning light streaming through the hole in the high roof, it was as if darkness ebbed out of it. She would have guessed it was the reason for the Council's presence even without the scaffold erected at one side of the pool, about twenty feet high, which ended in a broad platform suspended over the Veil itself.

Raskoph and Thane had been busy, and they were not alone. Eva counted a score of Council wizards in the main chamber alone, and she had no idea how many other guards were around the castle. Not all of them were mercenaries, though - a good half present were making notes, peering over at the Veil, working on the scaffold. There was a plan, and whatever it was, it was going to take work.

A glance through the door to the stairway upward showed the steps were intact. Good, she thought before she could stop herself. They didn't find the back entrance. But Thane didn't linger. He led her to the other corridor, the way she and Albus had first come, and then to the very first room down that passageway.

It had been a wide but empty room when she'd first been here weeks ago. Today, it was not empty.

Maybe a dozen suits of armour, all of a similar style to what she'd seen in Badenheim, were lined up before the tall, severe, black-robed figure she knew so well, and knew to hate. Colonel Raskoph walked the line with slow, steady steps, gimlet eyes sweeping over the metal as if he could see the slightest imperfections, hands clasped behind his back, spine ramrod straight. Thane closed the door behind them and they waited in the gloom, but neither man spoke, and Raskoph did not react to their presence.

After perhaps a minute, Raskoph stopped before one of the suits of armour, reached out a long-fingered hand to brush off some unseen flaw. 'The perfect soldiers,' he said, as if they had been having a companionable conversation at odds with his granite, accented voice. 'No questions. No doubt. No failure.'

Eva gritted her teeth. 'Golems can still fail. I have seen this.'

'They can be beaten. But they will rise again. Few wizards will do that.' Raskoph turned, and hope waned when his empty grey eyes fell on her. 'Welcome back to the fold, Eva Saida.'

The part of her that was still Lisa, even if it was curling and dying like paper eaten by fire, quavered. The rest of her, Eva with her remorseless need to survive, kept her expression and voice calm. 'My mission is complete.'

'So it would seem,' said Raskoph, and clasped his hands behind his back again. 'The Chalice of Emrys is in our hands. The Hogwarts Five are in our hands. They will be no trouble?'

This last was addressed to Thane, who shook his head. 'I have secured Malfoy's cooperation in exchange for a promise of their release.'

'I am not interested in releasing them.'

'It would be unwise to kill all of them,' said Thane. 'And killing some is without purpose.'

'The son of Harry Potter? The daughter of his allies? The daughter of Lillian Rourke?' Raskoph's eyebrows raised. 'That would prove our power.'

'Once Project Starfall is complete,' said Thane, 'nobody will question the Council's power.'

Raskoph advanced, footsteps clicking on the cold sandstone slabs. He moved like he was made of iron, stiff and uncompromising, unbending. Thane did not react to his approach, but Eva saw him tense, and for the first time a jolt of real fear ran through her. When she'd seen them last, Thane had treated Raskoph as a nuisance to be handled. But now he was reluctant, tense, despite his disagreement.

'Perhaps,' said Raskoph after long, scraping moments. 'But I will kill them if I wish to. I care nothing for whatever deals you have made with the Malfoy boy. But we did not come here to discuss the Five.' And his cold gaze fell again on Eva. 'You defied me at least twice.'

'You tried to kill me at least twice.' She made herself arch an eyebrow. 'I didn't get paid enough to die for your convenience.'

Raskoph threw Thane an accusing look. 'No,' said the colonel. 'You are, of course, one of the mercenaries my comrades in the Council of Thorns are so fond of using. Or, were so fond of using.'

'Were?' Eva hated asking about the past tense. It never ended well.

'The Council of Thorns no longer pays rats like you to do jobs. We are a union of purpose. There is much unfinished work the great minds of the last century left behind, and it is our duty to see it done.' Raskoph shook his head. 'Tolerance of the Muggle world. The dilution of our magical principles, culture. These are sicknesses which must be stamped out from our people.'

'I don't see,' said Eva, 'how plagues like Eridanos stamp out those.'

'Of course you do not. Your kind sees only as far as your next payment. But through Phlegethon, through Eridanos, through Lethe, the world shall fear us, and they shall be weakened, and soon enough they will beg my comrades and me to save them. For all men fear death, when there are so many worse fates in this world. Like losing one's self, as is happening to all wizarding kind in this modern world.' Raskoph sneered.

She watched him as he stalked, as he delivered such vitriolic fury with that same deadened air, this relic of past hatreds who had somehow endured a hundred years. 'You're right,' she said at last. 'I do only see as far as my payment, for my jobs. And my job is done.'

'The Chalice of Emrys delivered.' Raskoph glanced between them. 'Except it was not from you that we learnt of the Five's location.'

'I couldn't get away from them sooner,' she said. 'I was going to send word, but Prometheus got there first. You'd have known before they left Venice.' The lie came easy, because anything else meant death.

'And yet you let them survive on Kythos -'

'I signed up to spy on them, not die with them -'

'You helped them kill my people here.'

'I wasn't there. Spinks was dead and the fight was over by the time I even knew about him. There was nothing I could do.' It felt odd to tell the truth.

'You crossed wands with me in Tomar.'

'What was I supposed to do?' Eva opened her hands. 'I had no idea why you were there, and my original mission remained. Anything else would have blown my cover.'

'And you slew Downing on Brillig.'

Shit. She'd said as much, but this was where the lies got more complicated. 'He told me Brillig was the last hurrah of Eridanos. His mission was over; at that point nothing I did hurt Council operations. And I'd have let him get away, but the Five showed up before I could. So I had to kill him - else they'd have taken him prisoner, used Legilimency, and my cover would have been blown. I made it look like self-defence.'

Raskoph stared at her, empty eyes trying to bore through her masks. Her heart thudded in her chest as she stood firm. 'You would not die for your mission, but you would kill your allies for it?'

'Not just that, though it was him or me by then. But Downing was important to these operations. If he'd been taken alive, all he knew would be in the IMC's hands by now. And I couldn't let him go without ruining my own mission - a mission which worked, they got the Chalice, and now we've got it.' Her chest surged as she found the justifications, and found the part of her which meant it, which remembered she had been loyal to Prometheus Thane for so long. But somewhere in her gut were those curling, smoldering shards of somebody else, and they screamed at her for her betrayal.

Thane drew a slow breath. 'She stayed in contact. She achieved the objective. And we have everything we wanted.' The rush of gratitude which surged through her was familiar. Save me, protect me, make everything better. But from somewhere inside there was a mocking laugh.

Raskoph regarded Thane for a moment, before turning on his heel. 'Very well. She is your hireling, and the work is done. We have new work to do. When can we begin?'

'An hour or so should suffice,' said Thane. 'Why do we need the golems?'

'Once it's over, he will be handled by them. I would not assume old immunities work; there is a long way to go even if today is successful, and we cannot stay here. Once the process is complete I shall supply them with the words of power, and they will take over the… manhandling.'

Thane nodded as if this made perfect sense. 'Understood. I will let you finish your work, sir.'

Sir. That was new. But Raskoph did not seem surprised, and waved an imperious hand as he returned his focus to the row of golems. 'Go.'

She followed Thane out, let him close the door to Raskoph's chambers - and couldn't fight back a yelp when he grabbed the front of her shirt and slammed her against the wall. 'You are treading on very thin ice, Eva!'

Her breath was knocked from her lungs and stars sparked in front of her eyes, but she still struggled against him. Once, she'd have trusted him even now. No more. 'I explained my -'

'It's not Raskoph you need to be worried about,' growled Thane. 'I am not an idiot. You killed Downing.'

'I explained that, too.' She met his gaze and tapped into something honest, primal, and furious. 'And I'm not sorry. Downing was scum. That's not why I killed him, but it's why I fucking enjoyed it.'

His lip curled. 'And the mirror? You stopped using it, then you dumped it -'

'You needed to know nothing about my mission! If you could act on anything, Raskoph would know! And obviously you had no control over Raskoph! What the fuck are you doing, Prometheus? Calling him "sir", helping him with all this? We got in this to make money, not to prop up a group of lunatic dark wizards, mad Grindelwald survivors!'

He slammed her against the wall again. 'You think there is anywhere in this world where you don't have to choose between the IMC and the Council of Thorns? As ever, I pick the winning side. I know what I'm doing, Eva, but you have to trust me.'

She looked into his cold blue eyes. I don't. 'That's a tall order,' she said. 'Seeing as you don't trust me.'

'I don't know what I think.' He let her go, pushing her back as he straightened. 'I want to trust you, Eva. I want this to be as it was. But you are sailing close to the wind right now. One misstep, and you won't have to worry if I'll protect you from Raskoph. You'll have to worry about me.' Never before had she been threatened by Prometheus Thane. While she knew he was a killer, while she saw how close he was to Raskoph, while she knew he would only have protected her when it suited him even before, this was a line he had never crossed.

But then, she had betrayed him, or tried to, and that would have been inconceivable only months ago. Had they crossed the Rubicon, both of them? Was this the point of no return?

Instead she asked, 'What are you going to do to Malfoy? What's Lethe?'

'That's information I don't trust you with,' said Thane, brow furrowing. 'Suffice to say that he and the Chalice will play an integral role in the future of the Council of Thorns. And the future of the whole world. Now, I need to get these preparations finished, and you need to stay the hell out anyone's way.'

He turned on his heel, stalked towards the central chamber, and she had to fight to find her voice. 'You're not going to keep your promise to Malfoy, are you?'

Thane stopped. 'I won't kill them all.'

'But Raskoph will want a message and you won't fight him. You'd have never let someone make you break your word before, Prometheus. Why the hell are you changing yourself for Raskoph?'

'Who said it was for him?'

'Whoever it's for, you'll still do as he tells you. So if he pushes you to kill, you'll have to give him one of the Five, maybe two.'

'Maybe.' Now he looked over his shoulder, and his pitiless blue eyes locked on her without apology. 'And I promise you, if that happens, I'll start with Albus Potter.'

Then he left, and she stood alone in the corridor with his words echoing in her mind, and the burning shreds of Lisa Delacroix clawing at her insides.


'Stop bothering,' said Selena with a groan. 'This is a solid sandstone building that's - how many years old is it, Matt?'

'About eight hundred.'

'Eight hundred years old. The walls will not crumble.'

Rose ignored them on her systematic checking of every single lump of rock in the wall and floor of their prison. A tap, a shove, a tug, a wiggle - it didn't matter. If there was a weak spot, she was going to find it. Even without magic.

Selena sighed, and looked to Albus. 'And stop trying to dig a ditch in the floor by pacing.' All she got for her trouble was a venomous glare so unlike Albus, it was enough to send her into silence.

Rose was grateful for this. She had work to do, she had to try to find something she could do, and the prattling of Selena was the last thing she needed. It only grated, and didn't distract from the screaming in her mind, the raw terror beating away at her that she would never see Scorpius again. The only way to have that inside and not go completely mad was to search.

'We don't know for sure what they're going to do,' said Matt after a while, and though he probably meant it helpfully, seemed to know it came out wrong. 'I mean, this might be nothing lethal.'

'It's the Council of Thorns. It's Prometheus Thane. They have not taken Scorpius away to a lovely tea party.' Rose worked her fingers in the gaps around a stone in the wall, identical to every other stone in the wall, and it gave an identical lack of movement. 'And I would rather try something than sit and reflect on how it might not be that bad!' She heard the hysteria in her voice and gritted her teeth, focused on the wall. This was no time to panic.

Then there was a rattle at the door and her heart lunged into her throat. She turned for the entrance like a startled cat ready to pounce or flee, and now she wished she'd pulled a brick loose so it could be a weapon.

Especially when Lisa - no, that wasn't her name. When Eva Saida stepped inside. Her lip curled. 'You.'

Eva snapped up her wand, expression flat. 'Don't move. I don't want to break Prometheus' promise of leaving you unharmed.'

'Prometheus.' That was Selena, getting to her feet. She had waited in calm silence, but now her own anger, the anger they all shared, rose to the forefront. 'Of course you're on first name terms with him.'

Eva looked at her, to Matt - judiciously skipped Albus, who was a tall, quivering ball of muscle looking like he wasn't sure if he should kill her or run from her - before her eyes locked on Rose. 'I have no excuses for anything I did. No explanation that would be good enough.'

'For you betraying us and dropping us here? No,' said Rose. 'I imagine you don't.'

'I didn't intend it to go this way.'

'I'm really not interested in helping you assuage any sense of guilt. If you ever gave a damn about us, then let us get out of here so we can rescue Scorpius!'

It was a panicked, furious, desperate reaction. So she was surprised when Eva unslung a bag from her shoulder - her bag, Rose's bag - and tossed it to the floor. 'You're right. Actions speak louder than words. Your wands and some of your stuff's in here.'

Rose stared at it. 'Are you kidding?'

'I'm not looking for forgiveness. But I got into this to make money. Raskoph's insane, and Prometheus doesn't have him under control, and I have no interest in letting the Council of Thorns run amok across the entire world.' Eva's lips thinned. 'I also have no interest in watching you die. So, there you go.'

'You think,' said Selena archly, 'that we're going to trust you, after you sold us out?'

'I think you don't have a choice,' said Eva. 'Scorpius is about to be used for something, this Project Starfall. I don't know what it is -distrusting me is the one thing both sides have in common. This is going to happen soon, within minutes, in the central chamber where the Veil is. I'd encourage you to leave him, take the front door and get away, but -'

'You think we'd do that?' Rose snarled.

'No,' said Eva flatly. 'Which is why I want you to get out of this cell, make your way to the chamber, and then wait until I provide you with a distraction. I promise you that you can't fight all of Raskoph's men with just the five of you. I don't think they've found the back exit, though, that place where we found de Sablé's notes and the passage went deeper. Burst in. Grab Scorpius. Go.'

'This is ridiculous,' said Matt. 'This is a setup so you have an excuse to kill us -'

'Do you think that Colonel Raskoph needs an excuse to kill you?' Eva's voice, so calm until this point, now cracked like a whip. 'I have no idea what's going to happen to Scorpius. You do not have time to go and fetch reinforcements. And Raskoph is, once this is over, going to kill at least one of you.'

Rose frowned. 'At least…?'

'He'll want to send a message. I suspect killing the children of heroes will suffice.' Eva pointedly didn't look at Albus, and a hateful understanding started to rise in Rose's gut. 'The bag's there. The wands are in there. What else I could grab of yours that seemed useful is in there. Use it, don't use it. If you use it, wait for my signal before bursting in there, or we're all dead.'

Selena glowered. 'I don't -'

'What's the signal?' Albus spoke so softly he could almost not be heard. But, as ever, when Albus talked, people listened.

Eva's gaze only landed on him for a fraction of a second before she went back to watching Rose. 'You'll know it when you see it.'

'Great,' sneered Selena.

'I'm not going to stick around afterwards. So don't even bother to look for me. The moment this kicks off, everyone in this castle wants me dead. Just get out of there.' Eva turned away, reached for the door handle. 'And good luck.'

Then she left, and the first thing which broke the silence was Matt groaning, 'Son of a bitch.'

Selena shook her head. 'This is a trap. A setup. Or it's crazy -'

'I don't care.' Rose flew to her bag and began to toss the contents out. Wands. Matt's sword. The Cloak of Invisibility. 'Scorpius is in danger, and we have to go.'

'Do you trust her?'

'Of course not. But we don't have a choice.' She pulled out a white card and frowned at it. 'What's this?'

Matt was by her side in a flash and grabbed it. 'Our ticket out of here once all of this is done. My father gave me this. It's basically a call for help. I activate this, he knows where I am and sends in whatever cavalry he can. It wasn't much use on an infected island, but here…'

'That sounds better,' said Selena, 'than trusting Lisa or Eva or whoever the fuck she is. Activate it!'

'Sure,' said Matt. 'Except reinforcements won't appear instantly. And like Rose said. We don't have time to wait.'

Rose tossed him and Selena their wands, and Matt scooped up his sword, too. Then she grabbed the last two wands and turned to Albus, who was staring at the door through which their treacherous benefactor had disappeared. Her voice was gentle as she slunk over. 'Al. Are you with us?'

'Of course I'm with you.' But his shoulders were still squared, fists clenched, and he was staring at the door with a rage bubbling under the surface she had never seen from him.

'I know she fooled you. But I read her mind and I didn't see it, either; she fooled me, too.' She put her hand on his arm, felt the quivering muscle under the t-shirt.

'Yeah, but you didn't -' His head jerked as he cut himself off.

'I know,' Rose said again, gently. 'But Scorpius needs us right now. I need you. Here.'

Scorpius' name seemed to work, and the rage in his frown cracked for fear. But fear she recognised, and when he took his wand from her, he moved with more of his usual control, instead of the crackling of the gathering storm. Albus gave a stiff nod. 'Then you know I'm with you.'

Rose nodded and drew a slow breath. Fear was a churning vortex inside her, but she had no time for that. No time to be a stupid girl, not even any time to be a genius. This was a time for a fight of blood and bone, and she knew she was going to have to win because losing was inconceivable.

'For the record,' said Selena when they all moved to the door, 'I really wish there'd just been a Spring Market in Badenheim.'