Emmara was the most beautiful thing Jace had ever seen in his life. Her hair fluttered slightly, glowing in the flickering light of the active spell. Her bright blue eyes were like twin jewels, and her smile—why is she smiling like that?—was a sweet, full grin, lips drawn back to display her teeth. Someone's screaming. Someone's hurt.

She'd told him he could help her. If he helped her, she'd let him stay by her side forever, and that was the only thing he wanted. Just to help her and to be allowed to hold her and look at her lovely form, the curve of her hips and breasts, the tightness of her hand holding her wand. They're still screaming. The voice sounded familiar.

Something's wrong. Jace's head hurt. Emmara had said to wait patiently and help, but his head hurt. Flashes of pain like little lightning bolts kept jabbing into his skull. He's hurt. Don't hurt him. Stop. Wincing, Jace put a hand to his head. Emmara had told him not to worry. So he shouldn't worry. There wasn't anything to worry about. Yes, there is, you idiot! That's Ral! Ral's hurt!

Of course it was Ral. He'd been in Ral's head more than he'd been in anyone else's. He'd recognize Ral's thoughts anywhere. Jace won't let you do anything to me. His mind pulled the statement, and somewhere inside he realized that it had been a long, long moment since it had been spoken. Ral is screaming.

Emmara's wand was pointed at Ral. Ral was screaming. There was another thought in there, the middle thought, the second out of three thoughts in the logical progression, and it wasn't coming. Jace couldn't make it happen. He couldn't think it. That wasn't right. That was—oh Merlin—that was definitely not right.

He wanted to be calm—he was calm—but, Jace was suddenly convinced, he shouldn't be calm. But he could use that. Since he was calm, he could easily focus inwards—he's screaming Ral's screaming oh god oh Ral oh no—and look at his mental walls. No, he thought calmly, surveying them, he definitely should not be calm. There were holes everywhere—little ones, tiny ones, but something pink was oozing or wafting through each and every single one, like a huge spiderweb crisscrossing through his mind.

All right. He needed to get rid of that. It shouldn't be too difficult now that he knew it was there, because thankfully Professor Potter had drilled him in all sorts of tricks for dealing with mental invasion. And he was so blissfully calm that it was simple to do a quick check, find all of the holes, and simply shutter them closed all at once.

The pink threads snapped with a soft mental ping. Emmara is hurting Ral. There it was. There was the thought. And Jace wasn't calm at all, not anymore.

"Stupefy!" The word ripped from his throat before he even knew what spell he was casting. Emmara gasped and staggered forward, her own spell—the Cruciatus curse—snapping as her wand arm fell.

"Jace, what are you doing?" she panted, somehow still upright and beginning to raise her wand again. "You can't possibly—"

"Stupefy!" he tried again, but this time, impossibly, she turned it aside with a complex wand movement.

"You stupid boy!" she snarled. "How did you shake off that much Amortentia? Oh, never mind. Cullah."

The last word coincided with a sudden blue light emanating from the end of her wand. Jace, finding reflexes he hadn't known he possessed, just barely managed to throw himself out of the way before it caught him. But before she could raise her wand to try again, he had his own up. "Legilimens."

I won't go back to the earth. The cold place the damp the dark the rot worms crawling across flesh I won't go back and I won't die.

Yes, you will. Her mental walls were strong, but they weren't strong enough. Not when all Jace could hear were Ral's screams echoing over and over and over again. One last burst of pain, and then the touch of Ral's mind was fading. It took him an instant to feel the shape of her thoughts, but it wasn't so long that he couldn't react to her next attempt.

"Protego!" Jace shouted at the same time as Emmara—and that wasn't her name, of course that wasn't her name—screamed out another spell. The shield charm reverberated with the impact, and he felt her mind reaching for another spell that would disintegrate it. From somewhere, he found a spell that let him detach the shield charm and briefly cast an invisibility spell. Hidden, he let her focus on disintegrating the shield as he concentrated on deepening the connection between them.

He winced as the shield went down, because the spell she had used was tailored to follow the spell back to the caster and—dragging the wand movements from her mind by main force, he was just barely able to stop the spellwyrm from getting to him, but he had to drop the invisibility to do so, and he looked up to find Liliana's eyes locking with his.

He felt the impulse in her mind, but this time wasn't quite fast enough to stop it.

"Dorchadas!"

Jace's vision went black, and now she thought she'd won, because it didn't matter what he was doing in there, he couldn't possibly stop her when he was blind—

He'd practiced finding other minds a little, mostly with Ral, but the hard part wasn't really knowing they were there or finding them or getting in—it was staying afloat, staying him amid the sudden sea of memories. Legilimens protected you somehow, and following his blind, instinctive sense didn't, but Jace didn't know anything right now about who he was, and all he wanted was to see her scream and bleed and writhe

And it was so easy to find someone else who wanted the exact same thing.

I'm Teysa yes I'm a squib yes I can still fuck you up

Practicing in her room for hours, all the wand movements perfect, but still no response, still nothing nothing nothing

We're disappointed in your progress

The Dark Lord won't be pleased—have to hide her—keep her safe—

Why would we want to keep her safe?

She's our child.

She's a mistake. A freak.

Us freaks have to stick together.

Teysa's point of view wasn't perfect, but she was happy to help, and she was used to looking at things from the wrong angle. She knew how to tell someone else to move. As the dark witch advanced on them, it was actually quite helpful to have a broader perspective on the scene. Jace alone might not have seen the cauldron, and he might have tripped over it. But Teysa saw it, and Teysa knew how to navigate when your footing wasn't secure—too much dark magic near the delivery room or maybe a curse, we can't fix it, could also be why she can't use magic—and they danced to the side, easily evading the witch's spell.

Not expelliarmus, the witch would probably expect that—but she couldn't cast spells if she couldn't use her arm, could she? They grinned, and oh Merlin, the feeling of magic dancing, sparking through her veins for once was exhilarating, it was beautiful, it was exactly what she'd imagined. They hesitated, one brief heartbeat of but should we? But sometimes you had to be vicious, and you had to hurt them before they could hurt you. Before they could hurt you more.

They hit the floor, rolled. It was dizzying to watch and feel, but it wasn't so different from playing Ral's old video games, the controller vibrating in their hands. Just a little more disorientation, and they were used to being disoriented. "Ossum ruptor!"

It sounded like a piece of plastic snapping. The witch screamed, wand falling from her fingers without her control, and bounced to the ground. "Petrificus totalus!" And she was falling, frozen like she'd frozen Teysa, in front of Ral's limp, unconscious—please be unconscious please he has to be unconscious—form.

She was sobbing and terrified, but they didn't care; they were raising their wand even as they advanced on her.

"Please—I don't want to die—Jace, please."

The streaks of white were widening in her now-dark hair, and she looked pitiful, scrunched onto the floor in a crouch, her big eyes red and puffy with age and tears. They didn't feel anything but a quiet nausea. This woman had violated Jace in every conceivable way—he couldn't even trust his own thoughts anymore. And she had made Ral scream; she had nearly killed Elspeth and Nissa, sucking out their life force to extend her own bloated, sickening existence. She was going to pay fot that. She was going to—

Their wand arm wasn't even trembling as they raised it. "Avada—"

Jace's world flattened and then dissipated in a wash of bright light.