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“Spur-galled canker-blossom.” Kelly tosses one last curse quite politely at Scarlet before nudging Josh in the ribs with the toe of his boot. “Come on, you can get up now. It’s all over.” He frowns. “Josh?”

Kelly slams to his knees, heedless of the juddering of his bones, every atom of his formidable focus in the frantic search for injuries. His fingers skate from skull downwards to pause just below the jaw before seizing a wrist to confirm. “Scarlet!”

She comes at a run, clutching her dagger and scanning for danger.

Kelly clutches Josh’s shoulders, turning him over and his arms flop . . . lifeless. “Breathe for him.” He doubles his fists, calls the rhythm as he presses on Josh’s heart.

Kelly’s own breath rattles in his throat when he finally sits back on his heels. He has to pry Scarlet loose and wrap his arm round her shoulder to prevent her continuing her futile attempts. “It’s no good, it’s not working.”

Around them the night continues to reclaim the grounds of the Palais. A moth rides the thermals resulting from metal lawn ornaments cooling from cherry red to sullen orange. A bat catches the moth and flits off beyond the crystalline tree now cracking apart to reveal the rotting slime inside. The garden reeks of sap and lilac.

A stray blossom falls out of Scarlet’s hair as she brushes a fingertip along Josh’s dark lashes. Traces of her lipstick stand out bold and brash on his ghost-white skin.

“I reject this,” Scarlet chokes. She surges to her feet, pacing away only to whip round and glare at Kelly. “This is wrong. All the way, one hundred percent wrong. It’s stupid.”

Kelly rises slowly to face her over Josh’s body. “I don’t think our votes are going to count for much, Scar.”

“What, out of everything that tried to kill him, he manages it himself by tripping on his shoe laces and landing wrong?” Scarlet presses her hands to her cheekbones, drags them out from her nose to her temples, breathing raggedly. “Nope, not accepting this.”

Kelly catches her hands before she can dig in her nails. “This time, you just have to.”

“Ahhh.” Scarlet’s sudden smile doesn’t touch her sin-black eyes. “Not if you perform the Nichtthane invocation.”