Feeling helpless, I looked from Terra to the Circus and back again. There had to be something I could do. I ran my hand through my hair and tried to think of something. I hated feeling out of control. Why hadn't Aunt Kay taught me how to use magic when I was a child? If I had been practicing my whole life, maybe there would be something I could do to fix this. Some spell that could save them. If Brenon wasn't cursed maybe he could use his magic to take down Terra.

For a moment, time seemed to stand still. The journals in Aunt Kay's house flashed through my memory. The Curse. I could break the curse. The only reason Brenon hadn't wanted to break it was because he worried Terra would be too strong and she would take their magic. But she was doing it anyway, even without them being free of the curse.

I didn't know what the Fae realm was, or how to access it, but I wondered if it was what I tapped into when I had the strange sensations flood through me when I used magic. Could I call on that? Manipulate it? If that was Fae magic, what was the magic I could use from this earth? The rose. I'd made a rose, using the Sayge ideas and pulling from my own. It felt different than when I called to lightning.

Glancing over at Terra and the twins, I realized that they had no interest in me. They didn't see me as a threat. Now was my chance.

Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes. Reaching inside, I felt for the sensation that filled me when I used lightning. The lightning wasn't coming, but I could feel a pull deep in the pit of my stomach that tugged at me. It was the same sensation that traveled with the lightning. Holding that feeling in place, I remembered the rose. Holding my palms out in front of me, I kept my focus on the lightning tugging as I worked to create a rose from the earth. I concentrated on the softness of it, the clean scent, the raw beauty.

Opening my eyes, I looked down at my hands. I was holding a flower, but it was unlike anything I'd ever seen. The petals seemed to be made entirely of light. The stem was green and fresh, as if just cut from the earth.

Acting on instinct, I ran toward the Circus, holding the flower as tightly as I could. I crashed into the blue light that held them all in place and threw the flower toward the center of the group before falling back onto the roof.

A blazing white light shot through the air, causing a moment of blindness. When the light subsided, it took a few seconds to blink away the spots. I looked up to see the members of the Rose Circus, free of the blue light that had bound them. At first, I didn't recognize them. There was no fur, no horns, no tails, no yellow wings. The people that stood on the roof were radiant, glowing with all the colors of the rainbow.

I stared at them for a moment as they looked at their hands and each other. Then, the whole group charged Terra and the twins.

Knowing I needed to get out of the way, I tried to stand but didn't have the strength. Whatever magic I had done, had taken all of my energy. Rolling over to my stomach, I crawled on my hands and knees toward the building, near the broken window to watch the Rose Circus at work.

Brenon stood taller than anyone else, his face smooth and free of the markings it had borne, but his movements were the same. Just as graceful, and just as powerful as ever. He leaped into the air, arms extended, palms open. As he reached the blue bubble that was surrounding Terra and the Sayges, a white light shot from his hands, shattering the bubble.

In a flash, a woman with long brown braids moved at a speed I could hardly follow. She was next to Terra in a heartbeat, then stepped back, out of their immediate reach. With a few graceful steps, she was next to me, cradling something in her hands.

I looked down and saw that she had the iron dust vial. The cork was still gone, but it didn't look like she'd lost any of it while she'd retrieved it. The woman knelt down next to me. A pair of yellow eyes blinked at me. Even with the curse broken, they retained the slitted pupil of a cat.

"Evangeline?" I studied her face, trying to make out any other recognizable factors.

She smiled, then handed me the vial. "Hold this. If Terra comes for you, or we go down, use it. If we win, dump it off the roof."

I nodded, but Evangeline was already gone before she could have seen my response.

Looking up, I saw that the roof had turned into a battlefield. Though, this time, it was different. Terra, Mercy, and Pearl were surrounded by the members of the Rose Circus. They were glowing and beautiful. No longer tied to cursed forms, they now looked every bit the magical creature they were supposed to be.

Lightning shot across the roof, radiating in a circle from the center of the crowd. A few people moved away or dodged the bolts. A figure near me lit up like a sparkler, and I held my breath as I waited for the body to fall. As people moved away from the lightning-covered person, I recognized the leather jacket and blonde hair.

Tristan's entire body was crackling with lightning. My pulse quickened. I hadn't even seen him come up here. Tristan might not be my favorite person, but he seemed like he was trying to redeem himself, and despite his past actions, he was my blood. I wasn't ready to lose him without getting to at least ask him a few questions.

Without thinking, I pushed myself to standing. I wasn't about to let Terra take him down. Everything seemed to be moving slowly. Or I was moving faster than I should be able to. Iron dust clenched in my hand, I steadied my breathing, trying not to spill the precious cargo.

Terra was focused on the Rose Circus. Her gaze locked on Tristan as he flashed with light. With a scream, he fell to his hands and knees. A wicked grin filled Terra's face, and her eyes reflected the sparks I'd seen her shooting.

Nobody seemed to notice me coming around the battle from behind. Then, for a second, Tristan's looked up, his eyes locked on mine. He lifted his arms from the ground and brought his hands together, the electricity moving up his body until it seemed to be contained only to his arms, then through his arms, forming an unstable-looking ball of sizzling light.

Tristan stood, lifting the electric mass above his head, then he glanced in my direction briefly before turning back to Terra. He was channeling the lightning she'd thrown at him. Was that what I had done?

"This is why I hate Dark Fae," Terra said, raising her hands to throw another spell.

She was distracted. I moved closer to her, and just as I closed in on her, Mercy saw me, diving in front of Terra and knocking her to the ground.

Losing my balance, I stumbled, spilling the iron dust out across the ground. It covered a portion of the roof right in front of me. A deadly pile of powder, there until the wind blew it away.

For a moment, all I could hear was the sound of my heart pounding in my ears. Everyone was staring at me and the roof was silent, as if we were all holding our breath. And why not? That powder could kill most of us that were standing here.

From the corner of my eye, a flash of light streaked across the roof. I turned toward the light just in time to see Tristan's gathered lightning striking Terra. The blow knocked her off balance.

Then, without missing a step, Goldie and Joe threw themselves on Terra, landing right in the pile of iron dust. A cloud of the toxic powder blew into the air and I sucked in a breath, trying not to breathe in the stuff.

A pair of strong arms wrapped around me, pulling me back and I landed on top of someone, unable to tear my eyes away from Terra hitting the ground.

She let out an inhuman howl of pain when she landed in the pile of dust.

I pushed myself up to sitting, not caring who was holding on to me at the moment. All I could do was watch as Terra's body began to convulse, then it started to crumble.

Turning my head away, I pressed against the warm chest behind me. The arms pulled me in tighter. I didn't have to look to know it was Brenon who was holding me. As my breathing slowed, I noticed something different about him. With my head pressed against his chest, I could hear a heartbeat.