It wasn’t the most graceful or sophisticated plan, I admit. But several days alone in an empty room had made me desperate, and at least I knew that my light powers worked on Ragnar. I tore through the hall at a wild sprint, clutching the key hard in my hand.

I’m coming, Holly.

I ran as fast as I could, as if speed itself were the answer to all my problems. And maybe it would be. If I could just see Holly’s face, feel the familiarity of her presence… maybe everything would make sense again. I could really use a mickey-frickey win here, gods of luck.

At last I reached the door where I’d spoken to her. I jammed the key into the lock. “Holly?”

“Dawn!” Her voice penetrated the wood as I turned the key. As soon as the door creaked open and I saw her dark shining eyes, relief washed over me.

“It’s really you.” I hugged her harder than I’d ever hugged anyone. “You won’t believe what I’ve been through to find you. But we need to get the crap out of here right now before Ragnar recovers.”

She pulled back and folded her arms. “Apparently you’ve been recovering your memories. Is that how you got the key? You’re getting your powers back?”

“You’ve known about all this all along.” I couldn’t keep the anger from my voice. “Tell me. Just how dangerous is Ragnar?”

“Extremely. But not to us—I don’t think. He can’t hurt you. Instinct will stop him, and he’ll be compelled to protect you. I think that’s why he brought you here. He thinks he can use you to get rid of his curse, but in his own insane way, he also thought he was protecting you.”

“How long have you been here?” I asked.

“He just found me today.”

My mind whirled. “So what happened to you?”

“There’ll be time to tell you that later. If you want to get out of Ragnar’s fortress, now’s the time to do it. There are people—things—out there that really want you dead, and the truth is, we’re safe here. But the locked rooms are pissing me off. Ragnar has no idea how to behave in a normal way at the best of times, and he really doesn’t trust you.”

“You don’t say.”

She crossed her arms. “Look, we have two options. We stay here and try to persuade Ragnar that we’re on the same side, and that you’re much more trustworthy than you were in past iterations…”

I grimaced. “Yeah, I just pretended to seduce him, then attacked him with magic and stole his key, so that’s going to be a hard sell. What’s the other option?”

“We run. But we’re probably going to have to fight our way out of here until we get to safety.”

I didn’t know exactly what she meant, but I wanted to get out of here before Ragnar woke up. She’d have to explain on the way. “All right. Any idea how to get out of here? I hit Ragnar with my light power, but he could wake up any time, as far as I know.”

“Yeah. Follow me. And let’s go fast.”

She took off down the dark stone hall, and I hiked up the hem of my dress to keep up with her. We careened into a stairwell, then thundered down the stairs. At the bottom, we burst through a door into an open field, and I ran faster than I ever had. I mean, I was trying to outrun the world’s oldest vampire.

My bare feet pounded damp grass and breezes blew past parts of my body that had never seen sunlight, but I was alive, and I was free. And I had my best friend.

Beaten down or not, I counted it as a win.

Through labored breaths, I gasped, “do you know where we are?”

“Western Massachusetts. We need to find a way to get to the guys from the Academy.”

I clenched my jaw. “Too bad Ragnar stole my astrolabe.”

A dark line of trees loomed before us, and we slipped into the forest. My feet slammed over rocks, twigs. After a while, my lungs began to burn, and I ran out of breath. I ground to a halt, then turned and grabbed Holly’s arm.

“Okay. Before we go any further, can you tell me what’s going on?”

She started to count her points on her fingers. “We’re escaping from a vampire. Shadow angels are probably trying to kill you. That’s enough information for now.”

“No. Not enough information. Every cycle, we’re supposed to kill one of the men from the Academy. Or one of them kills me. And if that doesn’t happen, the angels destroy everything. I’ve seen it in my visions. And I saw a creature known as the Judge.” The words were tumbling out of my mouth. “I was terrified of him, and he’s the one who cursed us. I think Ragnar is trying to kill him.” I clenched my jaw. “So who is supposed to die this time? All of us? One of us?”

“You’re supposed to know.”

I grunted with frustration. “Okay, another question. What happened to you if Ragnar wasn’t the one who abducted you? Where the nutballs did you go?”

“You saw the Judge in your vision, right? He kept me in a prison until I escaped. Ragnar found me today, wandering barefoot and starving. He healed me with his blood, blah blah.” She waved a dismissive hand. “Then he locked me in a room, which pissed me off. Good enough? Can we run again?”

A chill snaked through my bones. I shook my head, nearly too stunned to speak. “Where is he? What does he look like?”

Her dark eyes shone brightly in the moonlight. “He takes different forms every time.”

I swallowed hard. “I remembered him cursing me. I remembered feeling that he controlled it all, that he’d set it all in motion.”

“Exactly. See? Not that complicated. And I wasn’t sure what form he was taking in your life until he abducted me. Even though I’ve always had my suspicions, and you never listened to me.”

The cold night air whispered over my skin. “Who? The doctor? Death? Ragnar?”

She narrowed her eyes. “Dawn, you really don’t know? I’ve tried to tell you for years about my suspicions. Except his curse stopped me from telling you anything that would have actually been helpful. Now, at least, you remember that the Judge existed. You remember the control he’s had over your life.”

I resisted the urge to let out a shriek of pure frustration. “Who is he?” I yelled.

She moved in closer and gripped my elbows. “Dawn. It was Luke. Your ex-boyfriend abducted me the day you broke up with him. Ragnar has been hunting him, always one step behind, but he had no idea who he was. The Judge is very good at disguising himself, at embedding himself into your life.”

I reeled, taking a step back and shaking my head. “No! Luke’s a total jerk and an idiot, but—he’s not in charge of legions of shadow angels.”

“It was him. Luke has been the Judge all along. He locked me in his apartment. The night you and Balthazar showed up there, I was tied up in a corner. Then he kept me in a prison in the countryside until I escaped. Ragnar found me wandering away from the prison, but the Judge is always one step ahead of him, always slipping away.”

“Why would Luke—the Judge—take you?” I asked.

She shook her head, soft waves falling around her shoulders. “I don’t know. You’re supposed to meet up with all the men from the Academy. You join together, form a team. One of you dies. You save the world. That’s how it works every cycle. But this time, it seems like he wants to keep you away from the others. Ragnar knows this too, but neither of us understands why.” She blinked, and I took comfort in those big brown eyes I knew so well. “I am on your side, okay? It’s always been my job to help you find your men. And I’m going to protect you without locking you up. So let’s get through this. Together. Got it?”

“Got it.”

“Now, we need to stay out of open spaces, because within the forest, I’d estimate our chances of survival go up at least thirty percent.”

Chances of survival? What exactly was she factoring in here? “Chances of survival,” I repeated dumbly, feeling the rolling chill of the night prick up the skin on my arms.

“If Ragnar and I are right,” she continued, “and if the Judge really wants to keep you apart from the other men this time, he might be sending his shadow angels after you. And I’m not sure you’re ready to fight them.”

To be honest, I could have really used a second or two to process what was going on here. I’d been kidnapped by a vampire who possibly thought he’d been protecting me. I had magical powers. My ex-boyfriend was an evil celestial being, instead of just a controlling jerk, and he might be sending a legion of shadow angels after me.

“And you’re my guardian angel,” I said, to clarify.

Holly blinked at me, and her expression softened into a smile. “Yes. I’ve been by your side through every iteration. It’s been you and me, girl. However many times it happens, we’ll find each other.”

“Considering the past few days I’ve had, I’m not sure you’re doing the best job.”

She crossed her arms. “Sorry. I was a bit busy being chained to a wall in a dungeon.”

I glanced back in the direction from where we’d been running. Distantly, through the trees, I caught a glimpse of the looming castle, its dark stone walls gleaming in the moonlight. The air seemed to shimmer around it, as if some magic protected it.

A shiver ran up my spine. “Did our escape seem too easy?”

The snap of a twig turned my head. As if on cue, Ragnar stood before us, his icy eyes shining in the darkness. My heart skipped a beat. Of course a vampire could move through the darkness better than we could.

“You want to leave?” he asked, tracing his fingertips over my astrolabe. “Fine. But I am warning you. Now that you have found all your other men from the Academy, the game will begin. And this time, I think the Judge might be changing the rules.”

I had a sudden, desperate urge to get back to my guys, to talk this all over with them. “I’ll just have to take my chances.” I held out my hand. “Unless you want me to blast you again, can I have my magic compass back?”

He handed it over, and I clutched it tightly to my chest. Maybe, somehow, Ragnar really did think he was protecting me.

I looked down at the astrolabe’s surface, relieved to have it in my hands again. Already it was telling me where I needed to go, how to get back to my guys.

My mind whirled with a stream of constellations, then shadows stretching over the forest. East. We had to go east.

“Follow me,” I said, pushing past Ragnar.

I cast one last look back at him, but I saw only shadows. He’d already disappeared.

My stomach clenched.

I started walking, my feet crunching over the deadfall. “Follow me.”