"She's gonna be fine." Ava placed a comforting hand on Penny's elbow, and he swallowed the painful lump forming in his throat. His eyes lifted to the ceiling, anywhere but at the woman slowly bleeding out on the bed. Ava tightened her grip and pulled him to face her. When at last he met her gaze, tears had begun to spill. Penny wished to be beside Lilly, to hold her hand and tether her to this realm by sheer will alone. The moment he'd placed her bloodied body on the mattress, the healers had shooed him back to begin their intensive work. Blood was everywhere, staining her blonde hair, smeared across her collarbone, and seeping into the cracks of her clock necklace.

"I should've been there sooner." He whispered, and the sound was so broken and empty that Ava almost cried for him.

"How? You know just as well as I that you did everything you could."

"I was getting a stupid book for the Library. The guy tried to run, and it wasn't until I had the book in my hands that I heard her voice in my head." He ran his fingers through his hair and pulled until sharp pain lanced through his skull. He couldn't help but think he deserved it. "She was so quiet. She was dying alone on the floor, and I was getting a stupid fucking book." Penny tried to pull away from Ava's grasp, but she was much stronger than he gave her credit for.

"She's going to be fine. And when she wakes up, she'll tell you how ridiculous you sound." Ava's forehead creased with concern, and with a grounding hand on his back, she guided him away from the troubling scene. "Let's get some air."

It was a mild night, still and quiet, as if the world was holding its breath in anticipation for the dying princess. Penny slouched against a tree trunk and buried his head in his hands with a groan. Heavy footfalls thrummed from the forest, and Ava pulled a dagger from her belt. There was a crescendo of rustling leaves, and then Quentin stumbled out before them, tripping over his limbs like a baby horse. He wheezed, leaning over his knees to catch his breath, and Ava sheathed her weapon with an exaggerated sigh.

"I got your bunny. Is she alright? What hap--" Quentin stumbled back as Penny surged forward and shoved him with all the strength he could muster. Quentin cried out with flailing arms as he fell flat on his ass in the grass.

"This is your fault." Penny's eyes blazed with unchecked fury, and had Ava not gripped his arm, he might've punched Quentin in the face. The latter gawked at him with a hand rubbing his chest in small circles.

"W-what? I didn't -- I'd never hurt her." He fumbled over his words as he always did when his nerves got the best of him. Quentin shot Ava a pleading look, but she was the least bit merciful.

"You let your little pet Niffin off the leash, and she tried to kill Lilly." She hissed, stepping forward in a way that promised a slow and painful death should he say the wrong words. Penny's accusation seemed to dawn on Quentin, and his lips parted in shock.

"Alice? I didn't-"

"That thing isn't Alice!" Penny's shout was as sharp as a bite, slicing through Quentin's bumbling apology. "You're so fucking blinded by grief that you didn't even think about how your actions affected everyone else! The real Alice would never hurt any of us! You know that, and still, you hold onto this stupid notion that she's still in there!" Penny was shouting now, and the forest seemed to still in the wake of his outburst. The men stared at each other, Quentin's eyes welling with shimmering tears. After a moment, he pushed himself off the ground and dusted off his pants. Ava kept a hand hovering over Penny's forearm, preparing to yank him back at any moment.

"I didn't know she'd do something like this." Quentin's voice came in a whisper. Lips quivering, he stared down at his dirtied shoelaces in shame.

"Of course you did! You let Alice go because you couldn't handle boxing her. It's your fault Lilly almost bled out!" Clenching his fists, Penny fought the urge to throttle him. But then he shut his eyes and breathed in the familiar scent of cherry blossom and fresh earth, and his thrumming pulse slowed. When he opened his eyes, Quentin was watching him with a mix of pity and terror.

"Get the fuck out before I kill you." The threat sounded almost tired. As if Penny had lost the fury that fueled him, and all that remained was grief and hurt.

"I'm gonna make this right. I promise." Quentin held up a finger and stumbled back the way he came.

"You can't." But Quentin was gone. Penny sank to the soft mossy ground and rested his forehead on his knees. Ava glanced towards the warm glow emanating from the cottage. Figures danced to and fro within, working with all their might to heal the future Bloodreigna. It was a long while before Elias stepped out from within. He clutched a crimson-stained cloth in his hands, and he carefully wiped the blood from his fingers. There was nothing to be done about his clothes. They would be forever stained with that night's horrors. Penny scrambled to his feet and took a step towards Elias.

"She's stable. We managed to stop the bleeding in time. The healers are working on replenishing her blood now." Both Penny and Ava visibly relaxed, and Ava worked up a small smile. Penny took another step forwards, a question on his tongue.

"Can I see her?" Elias glanced behind him, uncertain.

"Give them some time to clean things up. You don't want to go in there now." He winced at the memory of Lilly sprawled across her bedroom floor, drenched in her own blood.

"I don't care. I just want to be with her." Penny's forehead creased in consternation. Pursing his lips, Elias gave a reluctant nod. That was all it took for Penny to rush past him and into the room. He nearly halted at the sight that greeted him.

So pale, so fragile and lifeless. It looked as if a bucket of scarlet had splashed across the bed. Lilly's clothes had been cut away from her wound, and three healers delicately wiped at the still-wet blood staining her alabaster skin. For a moment, Penny thought Elias had lied, and Lilly was dead before him. But then he saw the faint rise of her chest, and a wave of overwhelming relief crashed upon him. Tears sprung to his eyes, and he hastily wiped them away with the palm of his hand.

He waited for the healers to finish cleaning the residue before pulling up a chair and gripping her hand tight. Pressing her chilled fingers to his lips, he found himself turning to something he never thought he'd do again. He prayed.

For so long, his relationship with religion was tainted by the countless traumas he'd endured. As a child, his mother would take him with her to prayer and told him that whenever he felt hopeless, to turn his chin skyward and ask for strength from those beyond. And he had. Every night he'd lay in bed and ask the gods to help his mother. Help her see that the world wasn't such a horrible place and that she needn't be afraid of the shadows in the dark. He would pray for her to see that what was most important were the people that loved her. But he'd lost touch with that part of himself when his mother left him, and his father began to beat him. The gods had done nothing but watch it unfold. Yet here he was, praying to any who'd listen, that he wouldn't lose the one he loved most. And soon, his eyes grew heavy beneath the lamplight.

Penny was faintly aware of fingers running gently through his hair. Soft voices rumbled around him like rain on tin rooftops. He didn't know when he'd fallen asleep, only that the sky was beginning to lighten outside the window when he did. Elias had come to sit across from him, and Penny took comfort in his steady presence as he clutched onto the limp fingers of the woman he loved.

His eyes fluttered, and he found the room was alight with sunshine. A slight breeze blew through from the garden outside the bedroom window, and Penny could smell the faint scent of lavender and rose. Lilly had planted the roses herself not two weeks before, and with a little nudge of magic, they now bloomed pink and full. With a slight groan, he pushed himself upright on his elbow. He was greeted by a familiar glowing smile.

"Good morning." Lilly barely got out the greeting before Penny was frantically checking her over for any signs of distress. He found none beyond the bandages wrapped around her exposed abdomen.

"Why didn't you wake me up? I was so worried." He touched his forehead to hers and found that the cold sweat that plagued her most of the night had at last vanished, replaced by a subtle flush to the apples of her cheeks. Though Lilly was pale and weakened, she looked more or less healed.

"Elias told me you were up all night. I figured you needed the sleep." Penny sat back and looked over at Elias, who was in the same seat as before. He gave the man a disapproving frown.

"Not as much as I wanted to know you were okay."

"I'm fine." She squeezed his hand. "Hardly a scratch." Penny glanced pointedly at her bandaged stomach, and she at least had the sense to look ashamed for joking.

"When I got there I thought--" his voice caught with emotion, and she reached out her other hand to caress his cheek. He leaned into her touch, savoring every second he had with her.

"I'm fine now. You don't need to worry." She tilted her chin down and looked searchingly into his eyes. Lilly wanted him to know that she truly meant it.

"But how are you fine? Magic was still down when I got there, and Alice, she was running. She left everything behind and ran. How is that possible?"

"She's a shifter, that's how." They turned to stare at Elias, who had adopted a solemn expression. He sat forwards in his chair and rested his forearms on his thighs.

"What do you mean?" Lilly asked, unsure if she really wanted to know. The wrinkles beside his lips tightened. He narrowed his eyes at the floor as if studying them for a sign.

"Shifters aren't like the people who go to Brakebills." Lilly scrunched her nose in confusion. She knew this. He'd taught her all about Shifter magic in their lessons. "Magicians can manipulate the magic of The Wellspring and use it as their own. Shifters, Fairies, The White Woman, we thrive off the very magic used to create us. The magic that runs through our blood and the blood of others." Elias glanced up at them with a somber expression.

"Blood magic?" Lilly thought back to all of her lessons at Brakebills. Blood Magic was seldom mentioned, and if it was, it was strongly discouraged, forbidden even.

"Maegi, Blood Wielders. Shifters are one of them. Our magic is not dependent on the Wellspring."

"That's why Alice wanted my blood?" Everything was beginning to make sense. The first thing Alice did after burning out in battle was to come after her. She wanted something Lilly had. And when she'd ambushed Lilly in her dorm, she did it to steal her blood. Even Jane had warned her before she died. It was why the Library was so eager to get their hands on it. What was the worth of a Traveler when they could have the power of blood magic on their side?

"There are legends of power transfers. A higher being giving a piece of their power to a mortal. It's said that a drop of a Maegi's blood can be used to adopt their power as your own." Lilly suddenly felt sick.

"Alice wants to become a Maegi." She thought aloud, and even as she spoke it, a bitter taste settled in her mouth.

"We need to box the bitch right now." Penny straightened, looking between Elias and Lilly in alarm.

"We can't," Lilly mumbled, staring unseeing at the stark white bed sheets draped over her legs.

"What do you mean, we can't?" Penny was taken aback, and he felt a growing argument between them.

"Quentin destroyed the box. Alice told me." At this, she looked up again, and there was fear in her eyes.

"Fuck! Niffin boxes aren't just lying around. They take months if not years to enchant them." Penny ran a hand through his hair and stood. He walked a few paces to stand at the end of her bed. His anxiety was too strong to stand still.

"Then until we get a new one, I can't leave."

Lilly hadn't left The Valley in over two weeks. With Alice hell-bent on acquiring her blood, there wasn't a safe place outside The Valley for her to go. Ava had been incredibly tight-lipped when it came to the affairs of Fillory. She'd effortlessly slipped into the role of ambassador, and in an attempt to keep Lilly from running off to help with the never-ending crisis, hadn't told her a thing. It had gotten to the point that Lilly was so bored, she'd taken to reorganizing the archives.

For a while, that occupied her, but then she'd seen Ava carry a few practice swords that they often used for the children and bring them out past the barrier. This caused quite the stir as she knew instinctually that this had something to do with the looming war between Fillory and Loria.

Penny did his best to keep her entertained, but he still had duties at the Library. She assumed that this particular afternoon would be just as infuriating as the last. But as she sat across from a fidgeting Quentin Coldwater, she found herself longing for the monotony with her entire being.

"I'm so sorry, Lil. This is all my fault." He refused to meet her gaze and instead trained his eyes on her stomach, where he knew a stab wound was still healing. Lilly crossed her arms across herself as if to block a vulnerable spot from an opponent. She never thought she'd feel anything but trust towards Quentin. But that was before he released Alice upon the world.

"Why are you here, Quentin?" He shifted in his seat and ran a hand through his unkempt hair.

"I spent the first week after the attack searching for any way to get rid of Alice-" Lilly raised a brow in annoyance. Quentin rolled his neck, swallowed hard, and gritted his teeth. "I, uh, kinda went off the deep end for a few days, and I got this, uh, cupcake from Josh. It- it doesn't matter. The point is that I had a vision. Julia- her shade, talked to me. She said she's lost."

"I'm sorry," Rubbing her temples, Lilly went over his jumble of words in her head. "You think a hallucinogenic cupcake you got from Josh Hoberman let you talk to Julia's shade?"

"I know it sounds insane- but it's- it's real. I know it is." Quentin's hands flailed about as they often did when he was trying to make a point.

"Julia's shade is gone." Lilly sighed. A dull pain had begun to bloom between her eyes.

"But where? They can't just stop existing. They must go somewhere." His voice grew more impassioned as he went along, and soon, he pushed himself off the seat of his chair and began pacing anxiously about the room. "So, I started to do some research, and I came up with nothing. But, I talked to Dean Fogg, and he said there's someone that knows a lot about shades and would probably be able to help. It's Alice. Alice from timeline twenty-three."

"Are you fucking hearing yourself, Q?"

"I know, I know, but hear me out." Quentin held up two fingers to keep her from speaking, only succeeding in provoking a glare from her. "Fogg said that she used her research on shades as a way to bring her brother, Charlie, back from being a Niffin. Now, granted, it didn't work for her. But if she knows that much about Niffins and shades, maybe she can tell us how to get rid of our Alice without enchanting a Niffin box."

"This is-" Lilly shook her head in disbelief and flipped back into the cushion of her armchair. "Quentin, you sound insane." He hurried over to her side, crouching down before her like a doting subject.

"Look, it's my fault Alice tried to kill you. I've been beating myself up all week for being so fucking selfish. I destroyed the Niffin box. I fucked up. I'm trying to fix this." His gaze was so sincere that Lilly felt her heart clench for him.

"Quentin, I can't just go on a wild goose chase like that. The minute I leave The Valley, Alice will find me." It wasn't an angry response but resigned.

"Not necessarily." Quentin's eyes lit up with the brilliance of an idea. "Julia has a necklace. It's enchanted to hide her from anyone, even a god. If we're with her, It can hide you, too."

"You want me to work with Julia? I've lost track of how many times she's screwed me over."

"I know, she knows. She wants her shade back. She wants to be good. If Alice twenty-three can tell us where the shades are and how to get rid of a Niffin, then we kill two birds with one stone." Lilly shut her eyes for a moment, taking three deep breaths. She was thankful that Quentin didn't push the matter further.

"I don't like it." She said, " but I can't let Alice run free while my people are at risk." By the end, her resolve had returned, and Lilly was eager to finally have a purposeful task other than twiddling her thumbs and doing minor tasks for Elias.

"We'll fix this. I promise." Quentin gave her a sad smile. It took a moment, but she returned it.

"Don't make promises you can't keep."

"This one, I will." His gaze grew steady, and for a flicker of a moment, she believed him. She wanted to believe him. But so rarely did she get what she wanted.