A Deal with the Devil Elias hoped to break the deadly draconic curse that weighs upon Chise–but his methods have created a rift between them. Now Chise prepares to make a gamble of her own: What could she possibly hope to gain from a bargain with Cartaphilus? It is a time of curses cast and forks in the road. Will the paths of master and apprentice soon diverge...?

Elias hoped to break the deadly draconic curse that weighs upon Chise--but his methods have created a rift between them. Now Chise prepares to make a gamble of her own: What could she possibly hope to gain from a bargain with Cartaphilus? It is a time of curses cast and forks in the road. Will the paths of master and apprentice soon diverge...?

Chise may have stopped the dragon's rampage, but at a great cost: she has been cursed, and a dragon's curse is unbreakable! Chise and Elias are visited by Marielle the witch, whose fellow witches claim to know the secret to helping Chise. There's one catch--in exchange for their aid, Chise must join the witches' coven.

Her name is Chise Hatori, a penniless orphan troubled by visions. Sold as a slave to an inhuman mage, she is about to begin a strange new life, filled with magic, fairies, and other beings of a fantastical nature.

Chise is gradually learning how to understand both human nature and the whims of the fae, as well as how to balance them and walk her own path. Suddenly, she receives a mysterious letter from bustling London. What could an alchemist's apprentice want from her...? Find out in this long-awaited sixth volume, in a dark fairy tale romance between the human and the inhuman!

Now that Cartaphilus has chosen to enter a long slumber, peace has finally returned to the little cottage west of London. But it's not long before a message arrives for Chise: an invitation to join the college, a society of alchemists. Deep beneath the British Library, the curtain rises on a new story set on a new stage. There, human children learn, think, and grow...but what of those who are inhuman?

After mistakenly putting Elias under a sleeping spell, Chise can't find a way to wake him up! She turns to Angie for help, and brews a potion meant to undo the spell--but the process is so exhausting, Chise ends up falling asleep herself. Upon entering a dream world, she crosses paths with the person she least expected: Cartaphilus. But something's off--the amoral alchemist seems to have lost his threatening edge. Meanwhile, in the outside world, trouble is brewing... on a dragon-sized scale!