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"Nobody asked you, Furball."

"Story of my life." And with that, he put his cute, little squished nose in the air and flounced off towards Arthur, Otis, and Mona.

Carol crouched down and took Zelda's wrist in both hands, turning it toward the light. She studied the mark with the kind of focus that made me want to start pacing. But I didn't. I stood still, no matter how hard it was.

"You're still you," she finally said. "Your Magic is still yours. She isn't inside you."

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding.

"What she did," Carol went on, "created a tether. One end is attached to you. The other end is attached to her."

"Think of it as a rope," she optimistically added.

"Can we yank on it?"

Carol looked at me. There was a long pause. Her expression started irritated and quickly morphed into curiosity.

"Actually..."

"I recognize that face," I said.

"That's her I'm-about-to-do-something-stupid face," Zelda said.

"I have several faces," Carol sniffed, trying to act upset even as the twinkle in her eye gave away the ruse.

"That one's my least favorite," I sighed, pushing a hunk of hair thick with swamp gook off my cheek.

Here was the important part, the part that actually mattered: because Zelda had bound the woman instead of the Door– exactly the way Margaret had told her to– the tether ran both directions. The old binding had failed because Margaret's Baba Yaga tied the One Below to the Door, which meant the prisoner and the prison had needed each other to survive. This time, Zelda had attached herself directly to the woman.

"So, we finally have her leash," I said.

"Please don't call my hand a leash." Zelda blew out a breath that made my heart hurt.

"Would tether make you happier?"

"Marginally." She forced a smile.

That's when Kai finally got back on his feet. He was favoring the ankle that had gone black and blue under whatever had wrapped around it, and I could tell that his hand still burned raw from the Wayfinder. I took one look at him and felt every ounce of Dragon Queen Mama Bear I had roar straight to the surface.

Then he heard what I was actually turning over in my head– damn Mating Bond doesn't have a mute button– and he beat me to it.

"Absolutely not."

"I thought that was my line."

He understood exactly what I was considering, faster than I'd expected. "You're talking about inviting her here."

"No. I'm talking about dragging her here by the hair."

"And then what?"

Fair. Genuinely fair. I didn't have an answer yet, and I hated that I didn't, because—get the bitch Above and improvise—was extremely on-brand for me but not actually a plan.

The crown, still tucked against my chest, pulsed once, warm and sudden, right on cue.

"Seal," Aideen said. Just the one word.

And there it was. The crown was part of the original seal. The One Below was part of the binding that had broken. Zelda now had a direct tether running straight to her. We didn't need to go Below to fix any of it.