TITANIA KNEW SHE HAD no way of killing Mab, not for good. But she could slow her down, and, to Mab's dismay, it was exactly what she did. She was there on the balcony, chained to the ground in iron beside Atla's lifeless body. Her skin burned away against the metal, but it was a pain she was used to by now. Titania moved so much faster than her, and her heart ached too much to remember what the other Queen had even done to her.

It was a hit to the ego that Titania beat her in her own home, but she knew if she was not grieving, this would all be different. Maybe the Seelie had the right idea, not to get attached to anyone. The iron felt like nothing next to the gut-wrenching agony keeping her on the ground, and for the first time in millennia, she felt weak.

This would be easier if she never loved, like a Queen was supposed to.

"But how dull life would be," Mab cried as she inched closer to Atla, pulling her into her lap. "If I had no love to make it better?"

She kissed the young Queen's head, pushed her eyes closed, and stroked her hair. She was always so cold to the touch, but never this cold. There was no life there, nothing Mab could use to bring her back. This was simply a vessel, Atla was already a star in the sky, like she'd yearned for death so long already.

"I created the bean-sídhe for you, my love, I created those creatures from my own bone because I knew this day would come." She wept, and released the most painful cry she'd ever let out. It was the kind of cries that echoed through kingdoms, the cry her mournful children could only hope to mimic. It freed her from her chains, and called forth her army. When the Unseelie Queen finally cried, no amount of iron could stop her.

* * *

Giselle was focused only on Morgana, whose shoulders now shook with silent sobs. "He's suffering," she observed. "When a Queen dies, all her people feel it. This is a pain no one should ever have to feel."

Morgana was fighting tears and losing, and it took three of them to keep on his feet. Kit gave in and scooped him up into his arms while he heaved.

"We need to get out of here," said Selene. "Find somewhere safe."

"Weapons hall," Eurion suggested. "At least we'll stay protected if we have something to fight with."

With that, they hurried through the palace, navigating the maze of the hallways. Kit struggled to keep up, but he didn't dare put Morgana in the care of anyone else. He was crying out now, back arching in his agony. It hurt to watch almost as much as it hurt to listen to. Kit murmured calming nothings into his ear, and he couldn't fully tell who he was really saying them to.

The ground was shaking now. Pieces of the ceiling were cracking and falling around them, forcing them to pick up the pace. One large chunk fell and blocked off the hallway they were heading for, and they would be trapped soon if they didn't move right away.

"Outside," Chalice said, rushing to the nearest door and narrowly avoiding a hit. Kit and Morgana were the last to make it out, but only barely. He hugged the faery close as debris fell their way, slipping through the door within a second of their lives and falling into Selene's arms.

Morgana slipped from his hold, instead clinging to his side and doing his best to stand. "Where are we going?"

Kit's eyes frantically searched the area, until they landed on a door across the yard. "There," he urged, but he froze when he felt that familiar pit in his stomach, and he snapped his head to the center of the small field.

It was Titania, and Mab was nowhere to be found. The Queen was kneeling, hands buried in the ground, and despite her concentration, she gave them a wicked look.

"Clever of me, wasn't it?" she began, rising to her feet. The moment her hands left the ground, the quaking ceased. "You never would've expected that."

"You're afraid of Mab," Kit said. "You must be desperate to die to come to her home and kill her daughter."

"I was doing her a favor," Titania sneered. "No Grand Queen should ever have an heir. Our children should stay secret, even to us."

"For once we agree," Kit said. "I would weep for anyone who ever had to live under your care, I hope you never meet your children."

Titania snarled at him. "Enough talk. I came for the sword."

"You can't wield it, what the hell do you plan to do with it?"

She was getting closer to them. "I'll just take you to my palace and make you do it for me."

"I can't help you, Titiana, I am not a Pendragon and I can't change the rules of the sword." He was pressed against the wall now, clutching Morgana close to his waist.

Titania rolled her eyes back. "Who can change the rules, then?"

He set his jaw. "She's dead. I can't help you, even if I wanted to, and neither can she."

She stretched out her hand and squeezed the air, and Morgana thrashed, smacking his head against the stone of the wall. "Tell me who it is."

"No."

Morgana screamed out, a cry as painful as a banshee's, and Kit pulled him into an embrace, holding him up.

"Tell me or I'll make it worse."

"Don't..." said the faery, trying to shake his head, but the pain was too much. "No, Kit."

As soon as he bit Kit's shoulder in a bout of unbearable agony, the prince gave in despite Morgana's pleas. "Fine," he breathed. "I'll tell you if you make it stop."

Titania didn't seem very pleased, but soon, Morgana relaxed in Kit's arms and wept into his neck. Like an idiot, he'd just made a deal with the Seelie Queen herself. He didn't regret it.

"Go on, then," she ordered, holding up her hand like a threat. "Or I'll make it kill him."

Kit swallowed, eyes avoiding his friends at all costs. "The Lady of the Lake," he told Titania. "She can change the rules of Excalibur, if you can manage to track her soul down and bring her back to life."

"I can and I will."

"She's stronger than you by far, even in death," said Kit. "You can try, but you will fail. You will always fail."

A terrifying grin split across her features, and Titania turned to face Chalice.

"No," Eurion breathed.

"Do you know why I brought you back, Red?" she hummed, clasping one of Chalice's braids in her fingers. "Because you felt like Excalibur. You would be dead because of me, you owe me this."

"You messed with fate," Chalice spat back. "I was meant to die that day, but you brought me back against my will and now you must pay the price."

Titania clutched their wrist with a vicious fist. "You came back on your own," she said. "I saved you from getting buried alive."

"Maybe that would've been for the best."

Desperate for cooperation, Titania shoved Chalice to the ground, taking Eurion instead. Her claws sat threateningly against her throat, and if no one did as they were told, Kit had every confidence she would pull the thief apart.

"It's me or the rest of the world," Eurion gasped, eyes set on Chalice with a kind of love Kit had never seen from her. It was the kind of love one only showed when they said goodbye, and surely she thought that's what this was.

Chalice leapt to their feet. "Eurion..."

"The sword or the girl," Titania hissed. "Take your pick." Her claws sunk in, and small pools of blood trickled down Eurion's tan skin.

Where was Mab? She had to be somewhere. There was no way Titania would've killed her this fast. They had to buy time.

"Wait," Kit called out. He had no plan but to talk until someone could come up with a solution.

Eurion made a gurgling sound, and Kit knew Titania wouldn't loosen her grip so easily.

"Listen, maybe there's a chance," he said, and Morgana elbowed his side. He didn't stop. "Maybe she's out there. But that won't be an option if you kill any of us."

"I don't need to find the Lady of the Lake, you've got a piece of her right here. And I'll kill this girl if you refuse to help me." Titania tightened her grip, and Eurion was gasping for air now.

Kit searched his friends for a solution. There wasn't one. "Chalice has no idea how to help you yet, we've already tried. Let us go and we'll figure out the answer."

"And then you'll give it to me."

He wouldn't let her trick him this time. "We'll find the answer, and we'll let you know when we do. But first, let her go."

Titania could see right through him. He had no intentions of talking the Seelie Queen out of anything, but it wasted time at least. "I'll let her go if you make me a deal." Her brow quirked upwards. "Unless you're afraid to make a deal with me?"

Come on, Mab.

He was all out of words to say.

"I'll make you a deal," Morgana groaned out, pushing himself to his feet. "You let her go, and I'll let you leave this place with your face still intact."

The Queen cackled, tossing her head back with her amusements. "Oh darling, I would love to see you try."

Morgana's eyes were as hot as they were cold when he sent a brutal glare her way. "You would?"

"Of course, child, it would be most amusing."

That was all the Unseelie needed, apparently, before he struck out his hand and clenched his fist. To Kit's horror and surprise, Titania screamed as the skin of her face tightened.

"The longer you hold her captive the longer your face gets torn apart," Morgana hissed. Her cheekbones jutted out through the thinning skin, but Kit knew the pain was not what got to her. It was fear, the same fear he was sure everyone was feeling. Morgana was fighting the Seelie Queen and winning.

"I can get a new face," she wheezed. "But there will only be one Excalibur. Give it to me."

Morgana was crumpling against a column, blood leaking from his nose. Titania's skin was already pulling apart, but she refused to let Eurion go. At the very least, her hand was losing its grip. If they kept this up long enough, maybe they could make it.

"Enough!" Titania bellowed, throwing Eurion mercilessly against the hard ground with a sickening thud. Her face slowly fell back into place, and she marched Morgana's way. He was on his knees now, eyes fighting to stay open.

On instinct, Kit stepped in front of him, reaching for the sword at his hip. He only realized what he'd done when Titania clutched the blade, ignoring the way it sliced into her skin.

"Stupid boy," she snickered, and yanked it clean from his grasp. Before she could take it anywhere, though, a massive body of scales swept to the ground, clutching her in its mouth, leaving nothing but her arm and Excalibur on the ground.

Kit was stunned as he watched the dragons thrash about in the air, fighting with the one-armed Queen until they managed to get her far away from the palace. He waited until he couldn't see them anymore before he let out a victorious holler.

A grim voice came up behind him, cutting off his cheers as soon as they left his lips. "This is not the time for celebration."

He whirled around to greet Mab, no less beat up than everyone else. Her wrists were burned down to the bone, clothes covered in someone else's blood. She looked older than she did only an hour ago, hair whiter, wrinkles deeper, eyes mournful.

"Your Majesty," he murmured, offering a bow. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me," she said. "You nearly got yourself killed, Morgana could've handled that. One second sooner and you might be dead, thank your luck."

"Look at him," Kit told her, gesturing at the now unconscious faery. "He's weak, she would've killed him."

"Maybe so," said Mab. "But he forced a Grand Queen into submission, he terrified her, and he was half asleep. You'd do best not to underestimate that man again, he's stronger than even I could see."

She was right. But as right as he was, Kit would never be able to stifle the worry that settled in his chest at the sight of Morgana, beat up and at his limit again.

A soft sob caught his attention from across the yard. It was Chalice, cradling Eurion in their arms. There was a patch of blood where the thief hit her head, and her body was lifeless.

"Out of my way," Mab growled, pushing past Kit and towards the girl. "We will not lose another today."

Together, Chalice and Mab worked their magic on the thief while the others watched with bated breath. He had no doubt they could help her, but he couldn't bare to move until he heard her heavy breathing, letting him know she would be okay. Now that she was, he had someone else to worry about.

Kit knelt down, accepting Selene's help to pull Morgana into his arms, holding his face close to the crook of his neck. He could feel his breath on his skin, gentle and slow, too shallow for his liking, but not as shallow as it could've been.

"Where do we take them?" Kit asked. "Half of the palace is destroyed."

"We can't stay here," said Mab as she helped Eurion to her feet. "I've been preparing for this for centuries, I have one more place where we can be safe for a night or two. But we cannot waste time anymore. This is not training any longer, we must prepare for something both courts have been dreading since the beginning of humanity."

Oh, Gods.

She fixed each of them with a serious stare, and Kit didn't like where this was going. Her voice was shaky and unsettled when she finally spoke again, five words Kit expected but never could've prepared himself for.

"Titania has finally declared war."