The two guards were fading, as if they weren't quite there anymore.

As he held on to his family, waiting to be swept away by the storm of power, one thought echoed through Dalton's mind: Heart's hope lies within Belladonna.

He hoped, for all their sakes, the man Koltak had brought to Wizard City was right.

Follow your heart. I, and Ephemera, will give you what you most desire.

Lynnea looked up, startled. The ground felt so strange, so... fluid. And everything around her looked...

wispy.

It was happening. Heart's Justice.

I, and Ephemera, will give you what you most desire.

"Sebastian," she whispered, pulling away from Lee and taking a step toward the man who had shown her laughter and love. Who had given her a chance to discover she was more than Mam and Pa and Ewan told her she could be. She was a tigress, and she could do anything she wanted with her life. Anything.

Follow your heart.

She took another step, feeling as if she were being buffeted by fierce winds even though no wind tugged at her clothes or blew on her skin.

The winds of change. And she could have anything she wanted.

"Sebastian," she whispered again, taking another step.

He didn't deserve a place that was bleak, barren, and cold. He deserved to live in the Den, where the people needed him to be their Justice Maker. And he deserved to live in his cottage, where he could just be a man. And he deserved sunlight and warmth and friends and family and... love.

She took another step. And another.

Those wicked men had done something to him, had made him believe he didn't deserve those things, just like Mam had made her believe she didn't deserve anything. No. Mam hadn't made her believe anything.

She just hadn't been strong enough to believe anything else.

She was strong enough now. She was a tigress.

He needs me.

If he wasn't able to believe for himself, she would believe for him.

Follow your heart.

Sebastian. Sebastian. Sebastian.

She ran while the ground seemed to fall away beneath her. She ran, keeping her eyes on Sebastian.

He was her heart's desire. They deserved laughter and friends and love. They deserved to live in the cottage, in sunlight. And they deserved the Den, that strange carnal carnival. And they deserved to be together.

Sebastian. Sebastian. Sebastian.

She felt the world shifting, trying to reach for her heart to take her away.

Not yet. Not yet.

She bore down, striving with everything in her to reach him before the world swept them away.

Closer. Closer.

His eyes were closed. That was why he didn't see her, why he wasn't reacting. But she had no breath to call out to him. So she let her heart call for her.

Sebastian!

His eyes snapped open. His beautiful green eyes weren't empty anymore. They were filled with shock, disbelief, and a frightened yearning.

Ephemera pulled at her. In another moment it would be too late.

With all the strength she had, she leaped.

The last thing she saw was Sebastian reaching up to catch her. The last thing she felt was his arms wrapping around her.

Then the world swept them away... and there was only darkness.

Glorianna staggered, barely able to stay on her feet. She felt hollowed out, scoured clean.

Insanity. That was what it must have been to think she could give Heart's Justice to an entire landscape.

But...

The city was filled with Dark currents that didn't match her Dark resonance. And the hearts in the city that had yearned for the Light...

Gone. All gone. Free of this place.

She looked around. Sebastian and Lynnea were gone, and she hoped with all her heart that she'd done the right thing for both of them.

Everyone had disappeared... except a wizard with a bandaged foot. He was on the ground, moaning.

She looked up at the city, then at the man. Not one of them, but too much like them. Had there been a moment when his heart could have made a choice? Was that why he was still outside the city?

Pity stirred in her, and she wondered if there was something-anything-she could do rather than leave him in this place.

Then the wizard saw her and struggled to sit up.

"Glorianna," Lee said in a low voice. "Just back up. I'm right behind you, on the island. Get out of there before that bastard has a chance to do anything."

She took two steps back, then stopped. "I have to finish this. If I don't, all the risks we took will be for nothing." Glorianna.

She reached inside herself for all the power she had left-and altered the landscape, taking the piece of Ephemera that held Wizard City out of the world.

So exhausted she could barely stand, Glorianna backed up another step closer to Lee and the island.

Almost there. Almost.

"You bitch!" the wizard screamed. "What did you do to the council?"

"I gave them Heart's Justice," she replied, although her voice was so weak, she doubted he could hear her.

Fury twisted his face. He raised his hand.

She stared at him, knowing what was about to happen but too drained to move.

Then Lee grabbed her and hauled her onto the island just as the wizard's lightning struck the ground where she'd stood a moment before.

"That was too close," he said, sounding scared and furious.

"I know." Her voice sounded funny, far away. "Lee?"

Then everything faded away.

There are weeds in every garden.

-The Book of Lessons What is considered a weed in one garden is a vital plant in another.

-Belladonna

Chapter Twenty-six.

Still scared and furious.

That was Glorianna's first thought when she opened her eyes and found herself staring into Lee's face.

"What happened?"

"You fainted. Don't ever do that again."

"I didn't like it much either," she grumbled. He looked mad enough to punch her, but the moment she tried to sit up, he was there, helping her. Then she found herself pressed against his chest, his arms around her while he rocked them both.

He's shaking. "Lee," she said, wrapping her arms around him.

"Scared me, Glorianna. When I saw that bastard wizard raise his hand, I wasn't sure I could reach you before..." He swallowed hard. "It scared me."

"Me too." But listening to his heart slowing to its normal, steady beat combined with the sound of water trickling in the fountain began to pull her under. "Lee?"

"Hmm?"

"So tired. Can we yell at each other later?"

He didn't answer for so long, she started to drift off. Then, "Okay. We'll yell later. Just sit here while I shift the island back to Sanctuary. I was feeling a bit too unnerved to do it before."

He got up and left the sheltered center of the island.

She knew the moment he made the shift-not because anything about the island changed, but because of the resonance of the land around it.

Strong currents of Light flowed through the landscape, along with thin threads of the Dark.

Glorianna struggled to keep her eyes open, struggled to keep her mind working. The currents of power in Sanctuary and Wizard City were exact opposites. One current dominated the landscape, but threads of the other still existed, were still necessary. She knew why she nurtured those threads in Sanctuary. What did the wizards gain by nurturing those threads of Light?

Once she understood that, she might be able to figure out how to face the Eater of the World... and survive. But for now...

She felt herself being tugged, shifted. Then Lee kissed her forehead, and said, "Just rest now, Glorianna.

Get some sleep."

Panting and sweating-and hoping that Sebastian had ended up in the foulest landscape that existed in this world-Koltak hobbled up the stairs closest to Harland's chambers. Harland had to be here. Harland had to be all right, despite that bitch's attempt to use Heart's Justice as an attack on the council.

It had been agony to get himself into the pony cart and drive back into the city. What had happened to the guards and drivers who had come out with the council? And where was the council?

Reaching the top of the stairs, Koltak stopped to rest.

Order had to be restored-and quickly. He'd driven through streets swarming with angry, confused people who realized something had happened to them, but not what had happened to them. At least in the upper levels of the city, there was a more orderly confusion, mainly butlers and housekeepers standing outside shouting the names of missing servants. Not that any of those servants would respond.

Heart's Justice.

Koltak shuddered. Who would have thought, even in the wildest moment, that a Landscaper could be powerful enough to send Heart's Justice sweeping through an entire city?

Powerful. But not invincible. He'd been able to fight back, had been able to hold on to where he was instead of being swept away to another landscape. If he could resist her, then surely Harland and the rest of the council had been able to do the same.

Koltak resettled the crutches, but he didn't move as a thought filled him. Of course most of the council had withstood Belladonna's attack, but maybe there would now be a vacancy that needed to be filled by a wizard who had stood against Belladonna and fought back?

Excitement had him moving down the corridor with as much speed as he could manage. When he reached Harland's door, he flung it open and went inside, relieved to see the tall wizard standing at the window, wearing rumpled, grass-stained robes.

"Harland! I-"

What turned away from the window was-and wasn't-Harland. Human shaped... but not human.

Terrifying and yet compelling.

Koltak's heart thudded in his chest. He knew what he was looking at. He just couldn't believe it.

Fury blazed from Harland's eyes. "It wasn't time yet to show our true faces. It wasn't time!"