Now the house seemed full of menacing, unnamed threats. I was there alone, and Sebastian was gone. Where was he? Had he…had he already come to the end of his tortured journey and faded from this world altogether? I couldn’t believe it—I didn’t want to believe it. I would have known; surely there would have been some sign, some message.

Perhaps, like an animal, Sebastian had crawled away into a lonely corner to face his end, his final moments before his masters snatched him into eternal bondage. Or perhaps the end had not yet come and he was lying ill in one of the other rooms, fading and helpless as the demon spirits hovered, getting ready for the final blow.

I drew the dagger from my pocket and held it tight, then crept down the stairs. “Sebastian? Sebastia-a-an!” My voice cracked and was swallowed up by the dark. I hurried back down to the ground floor and flitted through the grand public rooms: a drawing room of shrouded mirrors and dull gold brocade; a rich red dining room set out with a long mahogany table, where no one would ever dine again; a music room, where a piano waited for the touch of the long-dead hands; and the library, lined with a thousand books.

The library. I hesitated outside the door. It was standing ajar, and a flickering light glowed within. I slowly pushed the door open and stepped inside. A fire was burning in the grate. The books, the desks, the leather chairs, everything was the same as before. I walked over to the fire and looked up at the portraits of Sebastian’s parents that hung over the carved mantelpiece. “If you can hear me, please help me,” I begged.

“They cannot hear you.”

I stifled a scream and whirled around. Sebastian was standing on the far side of the room, his eyes burning. There was blood on his face, and his breath rattled. He seemed to emit a shadow, a dark aura that sucked away life and light and hope. But he was still there; there was still time….

“Sebastian,” I sobbed, and stepped toward him, but he flung his arm up like a shield.

“Do not touch me! Do not come near me.”

“Why not? What’s happening?”

“My destiny. Soon, very soon I will be…a demon. I am almost there.”

I felt I would go crazy with grief and fear and guilt, and sank onto one of the low chairs in front of the fire. “I’m so sorry, Sebastian, I’m so sorry. I came to tell you. I tried so hard, but I failed.”

“You have failed.” he repeated in a ghastly, dead voice. “You are sorry.” Then he looked across the room and his eyes narrowed. “My memory…there was a girl…like you…a girl from the sea. She was going to save me. It is too late. By midnight tomorrow I will no longer be in this world.” Then he staggered forward, shielding his eyes, gasping like a child. “I’m so afraid.”

I couldn’t bear to see him like that. I had been so convinced that I would rescue Sebastian that I hadn’t allowed myself to think that I would fail. Even now, I couldn’t let myself give up. “I will save you, Sebastian. I’ll find a way somehow; we have one more day—we have tomorrow.”

“It was you then?” His eyes flickered over me. “You are…that girl?”

“Yes, it’s me, Evie. Oh, Sebastian, don’t you remember?”

He clutched his head and gave a terrible cry. “Evie…Evie, it’s you….” The next moment he flew across the room and took me in his arms, holding me as though nothing would ever part us. “You’re here; you’ve come back; oh God, don’t ever leave me again.”

“I won’t, I promise,” I replied joyfully, yet the sight of his gaunt face pulled me back to reality. “Sebastian, I have to tell you something. It’s about the Talisman.”

“Don’t speak of it! If you knew how it has tormented my dreams—but I made a promise, didn’t I, Evie?” he murmured. “I will fade, so that you can live. I swore it. Eternal slavery for me, in exchange for life for you.” He kissed my forehead, then stepped back and let me go with a twisted smile. The red light of the hearth seemed to glow in his eyes, and a change came over his face. He stared at me strangely, and now there was no recognition in his eyes. “A fine bargain indeed.”

“Sebastian—”

“Sebastian, Sebastian,” he echoed mockingly. “Did you come to watch my final moments? Did you come to rejoice that I kept my promise?” He laughed. “But I do not choose to keep it. I do not choose to fade. Give me the Talisman!”

“I can’t. I don’t have it; that’s what I had to tell you. The Talisman is lost—”

“Liar!” He pinned me against the wall as though possessed with a manic strength. “Give it to me! My last, my only hope. I will escape this torment, even now at this late hour. I will become the destroyer, not the destroyed. I will kill you in order to save myself.”

“No, Sebastian,” I pleaded. “No!”

“I did not understand then,” he snarled. “I did not know this torment. Now that I can see into the abyss, I do not choose to become a slave. I do not condemn myself to wither and fade. I will become one of the mighty Unconquered and live as a king in the everlasting night. And you will help me, as you promised. Give me the heirloom that Agnes bequeathed to you.”

“I can’t….”

“You mean you won’t? It should have been mine anyway; Agnes would have wanted me to have it….” Sebastian put his hands around my neck, searching for the Talisman, gripping me cruelly. “What’s this?” he cried, as he found Martha’s locket. “Where is the Talisman? You…you dare to cheat me—betray me?”

In desperation I groped for the dagger in my pocket to try to defend myself, but he was too quick for me. He twisted it out of my hand with an agonizing wrench and pressed the blade against my throat.

“You will give me the Talisman,” he growled, “not this worthless trash.” Tearing the locket from around my neck, Sebastian flung it in fury on the glowing embers in the fireplace. All at once a dazzling flame shot up from the hearth and a voice echoed, “I am with you, my sister….”

I saw a circle of brilliant white fire in my mind, and I heard Agnes speak the word of power. Then I spoke it aloud, and a wall of flames sprang up around me like bright trees, and Sebastian was thrown to the other side of the room. He reached out for me again, screaming, “No, no, no! Come back!” But the fire swept me away from him like a shooting star, as I was taken far beyond the limits of the world and into a sea of never-ending light….

When I opened my eyes, I was huddled against the wrought-iron gates that led to the school. “No, no, no…” I sobbed.

No, no, no…Come back, come back, come back….

I hardly knew where I was, or what I said. I knew only that Sebastian had finally betrayed me, and that our love was at an end.

There are many kinds of betrayals. There are the small ones: the unkind word, the laughter behind someone’s back, the petty lies. And there are the betrayals that break hearts, destroy worlds, and turn the strong, sweet light of day into bitter dust.