Brand’s head pounded all night long, and his stomach wriggled and lurched. Several times he threw up. Was it the alcohol or the guilt? Brand tossed and turned in his bed, but he couldn’t sleep.

By morning, he was a mess, unfit to be seen by civil company. He called through his mirror for the maid to send breakfast to his room. Then, he thought about using his mirrors again. He’d built them to check on the girls, make sure they were eating, that they weren’t hurting themselves. He hadn’t used them for a while, but maybe he should. Gretchen was sick. He should check in on her.

He woke Gretchen’s mirror.

Seri had told the girls the mirrors were enchanted, and the girls had subsequently covered them up. Right now all Brand saw was the gray shadow of the cloth. But he could still hear out of it. Gretchen sniffed, and the bed creaked when she moved. There wasn’t much to hear.

Then he heard a knock.

“Yes?” Gretchen said in her hoarse voice.

“It’s me, Seri.”

“Oh.”

“Can I come in?”

“Yes.”

He heard the door open.

“I brought you porridge,” Seri said.

“I’m not hungry.”

“I know. But you have to keep up your strength.”

“We’re just going to turn into dragons.”

“We won’t.”

“You’re already turning into one. And I’m… I’d rather become a dragon than steal from my father.”

Brand frowned. He was going to have to look into the patriarch of Castle Aurich. He did not like those bruises on Gretchen’s arms.

“We still might be rescued,” Seri said.

“Who will rescue us?” Gretchen asked.

“My uncle,” Seri replied, after a long pause. “He’s a powerful sorcerer.”

Brand’s stomach twisted.

“More powerful than him?”

“Maybe,” Seri said softly. “And Brand has made other enemies. There were other girls before you came. Lotte, she was about your age. And Ida, she came from a powerful line. He sent them home.”

“So he says.”

“He told me, under a truth spell. He sent them home. They know who he is. They know I’m here. The families will organize against him. They will kill him and rescue us. We won’t turn into dragons. We’ll be saved.”

Brand turned the mirror off.

He felt shaken and sick—even more sick than he’d been a minute ago. Seri wanted him dead? It shouldn’t have been a surprise, but it was. He hadn’t thought her capable of that. Granted, Seri had tried to stab him the first time they met, so she clearly wasn’t opposed to violence. No, it was the hypocrisy that bothered him. That Seri could speak to him of what was good and right, all the while praying for his death.

Brand took a deep breath. Then another.

It was a relief. Now he wouldn’t have to struggle with his feelings for her.

He ate breakfast and felt better. He cleaned himself up and walked downstairs. He saw Gretchen and Seri in the library. Gretchen was sewing, and Seri was paging through her book of fall plants.

Brand entered the room. Gretchen looked up. Brand took a book off the shelf. Seri turned a page. Brand sat down in the chair across from her. Gretchen picked up her sewing and quietly left the room. Seri kept reading. The sunlight from the window shone upon her hair. She looked beautiful in the sunlight too, but that was inconsequential.

Finally, Seri put a bookmark in the page.

“Are you feeling better?” she asked.

“I can talk, now, if that’s what you mean.”

Ser closed the book. “Let’s go to your private room, then.”

“We can talk here.”

“The truth spell—”

“It doesn’t matter,” Brand said. “I don’t lie. You don’t lie. We can talk in any room in this house and have the same conversation.”

“Fine.” She folded her hands over her book. “How long are you going to keep doing this?”

“Until I have my revenge.”

“Are you going to punish every single magical family?”

“No, just the right one.”

“And the innocent girls?”

“No one is innocent.”

Her eyes narrowed. “This again.”

“Yes. Again. My opinion hasn’t changed. I know your strategy. Get me to trust you, then plot behind my back. So Lotte and Ida sent messages back. And you’re all just waiting for me to step outside my tower, so that your families can descend on me, is that it?”

“You were listening in on my conversation with Gretchen?”

“I keep the mirrors for a reason, Seri.”

She looked away, but just for a second. “I didn’t say anything I regretted,” she said, looking him in the eye. “And frankly, I didn’t say anything you didn’t already know. You’ve made enemies. They will come for you.”

“If you plan to wait this out, you will lose. Your grace period is over. In less than a year’s time, you will become a dragon. I suggest you start bargaining with me, Seri. Swallow your pride and make me an offer.”

“No.”

Brand stared at her.

“So we’re back to where we began. It’s nice to know these last four months were a waste of time. God, I don’t know why I tried so hard to get you to like me, when you’ve been determined to hate me from the start.”

“I don’t hate you, Brand.”

“Really?” he said skeptically. “Because all evidence points to the contrary.”

“I thought about hating you,” Seri admitted. “But I decided against it. If hatred was the way—”

“You are so self-righteous, you know that.” He threw up his hands in disgust. “You decided not to hate me. You decided how to feel.”

“I’m just saying—”

“I know what you’re saying! Right or wrong. Black or white. There is never any compromise with you. You have this image of yourself as this perfect, pure-hearted angel—”

“I struggle to do what is right, in large part thanks to you—”

“There you go again! Blaming me. You struggle to do what is right, because you’re human, Seri, because deep down you’re no better than anybody else—”

“I never claimed otherwise!”

“—and you are certainly capable of hatred!” he shouted, jumping to his feet. “So admit you hate me. You have every reason to, and I can certainly give you more.”

“You are impossible, you know that!” Seri yelled.

“I’m impossible.”

“You want to hear that I hated you? Fine.” Seri rose to her feet. “I did. I hated you when you kidnapped me and for a good month after that. And I justified it to myself. I said that I needed to hate you in order to know what was right. But that way of thinking is wrong. I realized it was wrong, and I stopped doing it.”

“But you still want me to die,” he said.

She blinked. “I don’t.”

“I heard you. I heard you say how your powerful uncle and his powerful friends are going to find me and kill me. Well, guess what. Wanting someone to hurt and suffer and die—that is hatred.”

For a long time, Seri didn’t speak. She stood staring at the wall. Brand thought he’d won, and he felt both elated and hollow. Because now he knew she did hate him, and as much as he wanted to throw it in her face, he also wanted to be wrong.

“You captured me, Brand,” Seri said quietly. “You’re turning me into a dragon—”

“As I said, you have every reason—”

“I don’t hate you. I like you.”

He froze.

“Sometimes,” she added. “When you want to, you can be kind and thoughtful and generous. You can also be petulant and argumentative and mean. Regardless, you are not a monster. It would be easier for me to see you that way. But I don’t.” She took a deep breath. “Even so, I don’t want to be here. I want to go home. You could do it. You could set me free right now, but you won’t. What do I have to hope for? I have to hope for something. I don’t want to hope for your death, but if you won’t do what is right, what else is left for me?”

“You could make me an offer,” he said.

“I told you Brand—”

“Just swallow your pride—”

“—I am not going to corrupt my soul—”

“—and grant me one little concession…”

“—so that you can feel justified!”

“The spell is not reversable, Seri!” He pounded his hand across the table. “Once you are a dragon, I cannot change you back. If you turn into a dragon, what will you have to hope for then?”

Seri looked away. “My death, I suppose.”

Brand stared. She wasn’t serious. She couldn’t be serious. She would die, she would martyr herself over this? All she needed to do was give him something. Anything. He didn’t care what it was. He didn’t want to see her lovely eyes become slitted, her hands turn to claws. He could stand to hear her self-righteous speeches converted to the angry roar of a beast. It would kill him to know that he’d done this to her.

And she knew it, too.

“This is all a game to you,” he said.

“It’s not a game, Brand,” Seri said.

“An abstract concept, then. Suffering. Dying. Being a martyr. You don’t know what it feels like. When the changes come, when your insides turn to lava and your bones begin to shift, you’ll change your mind.”

She shook her head. “No.”

“You will change your mind,” he insisted. “You’re not going to die, Seri. You will yield to me and make an offer and I will turn you back. Because that is how it works. Those are my rules, and I will not change them for you.”