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“No,” I stuttered. “I need to hear you say it. I need you to tell me you will care for him, look after him just as you have with me. He is going to need you – Altar, you’ll need each other.”

“Focus,” Duncan choked. “Then return to us and be the one who completes that task.”

“Duncan,” I warned, the panic bubbling inside of me. “Please, say it.”

He grasped my face, peering down at me. This close, I could see every pore and scar, and what I’d give to kiss each and every one of them one final time. “Okay, darling. It will be done.”

I mouthed my thanks, unable to form the words aloud.

A bout of confidence raced through me as I took in both of my men. Before it faded, I turned my back on them and walked away. I didn’t wait and watch to see them fly away. I didn’t want to see them leave. Instead, I pretended like they were watching me as I walked over the trodden field, toward the moving wall of destruction and chaos.

Silently, with my fading focus, I opened myself up to the whimpering shard of Duwar in my chest. I coaxed it free, encouraging the broken power to rise to the surface. It came with ease, with bright wings of a white dove. I felt it rise in me, just like the ice I housed in my blood, except this was potent… ancient.

I faced the wall of power and sensed it the same moment it sensed me. I felt its course change in a heartbeat, as the rolling clouds of decay shifted in my direction and picked up speed.

The part of Duwar that had lingered in that storm found what it was looking for. Just as I hoped it would. And as the power demanded, it made toward me with haste.

In the face of danger, my mind lingered back to a moment many months ago.

Locked in a Hunter’s cage, surrounded by frightened fey expecting to meet their end, I had comforted a child. The technique I used was one my father had taught me, over and over, as I grew up and discovered new fears. It was strange, because in that moment, I found myself reverting back to it.

So, I began to count.

“One.”

The air scorched with power, making the hairs on my body stand to attention.

“Two.”

I pictured two men in my mind, one with eyes of silver, the other with jewelled eyes of green. They stood, watching and proud, with nothing but the confidence that I would survive this. I had to believe them, otherwise I’d never make it through.

“Three.”

I wondered if my mother and her family had the time to prepare when the monsters came to kill them. Was it better to meet death unsuspecting, or with the time to prepare for the unpreparable?

“Four,” I screamed, finding my confidence wavering as the wall chased closer, tearing up earth, leaving nothing but char in its wake.

“Five.”

I laid a hand over my chest, as if that would prevent it from splitting through bone, muscle and flesh.

“Six.”

There were no more tears to cry. I knew why I was doing this. For me, for Erix, for Duncan and for every life that also waited for this doom to come and claim them.

“Seven.”

Breathe, Robin. Breathe.

“Eight.”

Duwar – or what remained of its corruption – was so close that I felt my skin singe. The violent clouds spat and hissed, like a beast loose from its cage, ready to wreak punishment on a world that had only ever used and abused it.

“Nine.”

Power licked at my skin. I pinched my eyes closed as my name rang out at my back.

“Ten–”