Page 29

But it was sufficient to throw her backward, off balance, away from the threshold.

Martha came through fully.

I let go of the Wayfinder.

The portal slammed shut behind her with a sound like the whole world exhaling at once.

Silence. Blessed silence filled the backroom of the laundromat.

Everyone breathed.

I was still on one knee, black Magic finally dissolving off my ankle in thin curls of smoke. Martha dropped down beside me before I'd even fully registered that she'd made it through. Her hands ran over my shoulders, my face, then my chest, checking to be sure I was all in one piece.

I was alive. Hurt, but alive.

"You fell," she said.

"I noticed."

"The Prophecy…" Barney started.

"Said he'd fall," Martha said, cutting him off flat. "Didn't say he had to stay down."

Everybody stood there for a second. They let what Martha had said settle, letting it mean exactly as much as it needed to.

Then the crown in Martha's hands pulsed.

Once.

Twice.

Zelda looked down at her own palm and went very still.

A black and silver symbol had burned itself into her skin. The same kind of silver we'd found streaked through the mud in the swamp before any of us understood what it meant.

Carol saw it. She went white, which made her bright pink cheeks, blue sparkled eyelids, and blushing coral lips stand out even more. It was as if someone had turned a blacklight on the Baba Yaga, and only the Baba Yaga.

"What now?" Martha asked.

"I think I bound part of her," Zelda said slowly.

"Good."

"No." Carol's voice had gone very quiet. "You brought part of her Above."

9

There were certain sentences nobody ever wanted to hear from a Baba Yaga.

You brought part of an ancient, corrupted Dragon Queen Above, had just rocketed straight to number one.

I looked at Zelda's hand. At the black and silver mark burned into her palm, still faintly smoking at the edges. "Okay. Define part."

"I don't know," Carol said.

"You really need to stop saying that."

"I find her honesty refreshing," Chewy offered.