Reese wandered the streets, no more than a ghost in the crumbling alley ways. She needed resources, but it was hard to find anything when the magic had already left.

  The color, the food, anything she might have used as a weapon, it was all gone.

  There was nothing left for Reese, but she refused to give in to Lyonell.

  He didn’t get to win.

  She would find something somewhere; she just wasn’t looking hard enough.

  Dust muffled her footsteps, and the wind masked the sound of her breathing.

  She might as well be a ghost.

  Her foot hit something that sounded hollow, and she looked down.

  The cobblestone that made up the streets gave way to an odd patch of wood. Reese knelt beside it and felt for a way to pry it up.

  Her fingers found purchase in a crack along the boards, and she pulled it free.

  There was even more dust underneath, along with a bag. Reese was surprised to find it didn’t smell of mold as she pulled it out. It was clear that it had been there a long time, even longer than the rest of the carnival had been left without magic.

  It was heavy too.

  Reese set the bag on the ground beside her and opened it, the moonlight reflected off a curved silver blade. She gingerly pulled the blade out of the bag to find a whole scythe had been hidden away beneath the wooden boards.

  She didn’t know how no one had found it before now, it wasn’t hidden all that well, but there it was.

  The blade was flawless and dust-free, untouched by time, unlike the rest of the carnival.

  This was what she had been looking for.

  A weapon.

  The likelihood of finding an actual weapon rather than the things she could use to make one was slim, but there it was.

  Her salvation was in her hands.

  Luca’s salvation was in her hands.

  Reese shook out the dusty bag and ripped it into strands. She tied the fabric together and wrapped it around herself like a sash. Once it was done, she stuck the scythe through the back of it.

  She might not have spent much time on land, but she knew how to use their tools.

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  Something like this had once been used to reap wheat and other grasses that had been planted, now it would reap the lives of her enemies in a similar way.

  Not quite its intended use, but it still worked.

  Part of Reese wondered where the others would stand during this.

  Theresa knew what was going on, by now she would have told Myla and Derrick, but the rest of them, there was no telling what they believed.

  Except for Hazel and Flynn.

  They would stand by their father’s side.

  They had been helping Lyonell from the beginning.

  They would try to stand in her way now, but she couldn’t allow that.

  Reese couldn’t let them stop her.

  If she wasn’t able to open their eyes, they would have to die beside him.

  It didn’t feel as hard as Reese had expected it to. Not yet.

  Reese knew what she had to do.

  She could go through the motions in her head, count them even, and her heart rate remained the same, but she didn’t know if it would slow or speed up when the time truly came.

  She didn’t know if her humanity would slow her down and complicate the task. Part of her feared the thrill would excite her, that it would be far too easy to take the lives she needed.

  Her mother had been a killer.

  She’d seduced and eaten men. She likely still did, she had to in order survive. It was why she had left her family behind.

  Reese was part monster.

  She had the potential to be a killer too.

  She was worried she’d get hooked on it.

  What if once she started, she couldn’t stop? What if she was the only one that would walk out of the carnival alive?

  No.

  She had control of her.

  She was in control of her fate.

  Only those that needed to die would.

  She could keep her head; she could do it.

  Lyonell, Hazel, Flynn, and the guards.

  The rest would escape with her.

  Or while she was saving Luca.

  They might all fear her after it was done, but it wouldn’t matter.

  They could go back to their cushy lives on land, and Reese would go back to sea.

  Reese would find her family and never step foot on land again.

  She’d had enough of it to last her a lifetime.

  She had seen the magic of land, what it had to offer, and she’d found she didn’t like it.

  Her father had been right all along, and she would never doubt him again.

  He had lived on land and seen what it was. He had left. Reese should have trusted him.

  There was no rewriting the past, but there was still time to change what happened next.

  Reese was taking the pen; she would write the next chapter on her own. Even if it meant spilling ink all over the pages someone else had already written.

  Fate would not get the best of her.

  She held the power, everything was in her reach, she just had to seize it.

  All it took was one action, one moment.

  It only took one rock to start an avalanche, and Reese was that rock.

  She ran a finger over the blunt edge of the scythe before she set off in the direction of Lyonell’s tent.

  She wouldn’t let fate write her future; she was about to rewrite fate.

  She had been ignoring her own strength for far too long. That ended now.

  She would seize the power she’d had within her all along, she would let loose the parts of her that had been hidden for far too long, and she would stay in control.

  She would still be her.