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Saving the world was one thing and saving my own was another. And yet, both of those facts were hand in hand before me, waiting for death to claim them.

I wouldn’t let it happen. I wouldn’t allow Duwar to harm another. Not any more of the realms, and certainly not the two men who occupied my heart.

I’d had enough. Sinking my teeth into my lower lip, I focused on my task. Not once did I take my eyes off Erix and Duncan as they huddled together. The storm sensed their fear, as did I. Because I controlled it. It belonged to me.

The power was mine, so, I took it.

Everylast bastard scrap.

I stopped only when the final whisp of decay slipped into my body, and the skies above were blue once more. Slowly, the raging winds died down, enough for me to lower myself to the ground.

Erix and Duncan tried to reach me before I hit the ground, but it was too late. I met it with force, slamming my hands and knees into ruined earth. Breathless, my mind detached and my body not completely my own, I could barely move.

The war may have been over, but the fight had just begun. It found a new battlefield, one inside of me. A war of wills, as Duwar’s corruption and my control clashed.

“Robin,” Duncan breathed, coming to kneel beside me. “You did it. My darling, you really did it!”

“I am so proud of you.” Erix stood over me, his shadow casting a cool relief over me. My skin felt like it was on fire, my blood sizzling. I had no doubt he hated what he saw, the blood down my face, the pain evident in every crease across it. “You’ve proved, once again, that you can do anything–”

“I. Can’t. Hold. It.” I forced out my words, knowing time was limited.

Both their eyes widened, their touches becoming hesitant as they finally noticed the cracks forming across my flesh. Duwar could free themselves at any moment, shattering out of my body as though it was made of cracked glass.

I looked down to my arm, only to find the skin parting, allowing the decay to glow like lava through cracks of earth.

Duncan jolted toward me, laying a hand on my shoulder, ready to scoop me in his arms. His touch lasted but a second. I looked up to see smoke slithering off his palm as he clutched it to his chest.

My eyes widened as panic simmered beneath the battle inside of me. “I’m sorry–”

Erix tried next, cautiously reaching for me, only to find the tips of his fingers scorched. “What is happening?”

Their relief at the success they believed I held faded in seconds. The silence stretched on. I attempted to keep it bound inside of me, but the cost was going to kill me.

I was not fey – not completely. And Duwar knew that.

“Give it to me,” Erix said, quietly at first. It took him but a second to realise why I suffered. Then he fixed his wide silver eyes on me, repeating himself but louder, with more vigour. “Give Duwar to me. Iwillinglytake the burden.”

I turned my head, gritting my teeth, blood spoiling the insides of my cheeks. “No. I can’t – I won’t put you through this.”

“Robin,” Erix demanded, using my name as a weapon. “It will destroy you. Remember, the power is not inherently bad or good. It is what we do with it. I can survive it. I know the cost.”

Something about Erix’s words sparked a solution within me. Duwar was continuing their campaign for release, but Erix was right. Duwar wasn’t good or bad – not by choice.

It was what Duwar was used for that determined that.

I sank my fingers into the cracked, blackened earth. Erix didn’t stop begging me to give the power to him, all whilst Duncan watched in shocked silence. I looked up, recognising just how far Duwar’s power had devoured and destroyed. A blackened scar stretched out as far as I could see. In the distance, the sentinel barrier of Wychwood forest was charred, the trees skeletal. Behind me, farmer’s fields were void of life. I could only imagine how far this destruction stretched, and how much more it would’ve taken.

A plague had swept the realms, and it required a cure.

Icould be that cure, Duwar could be – if only it heeded my next command.

“Duwar demands release,” I exhaled, breathless and suffering. “I need to let it go.”

“Then give it to Erix,” Duncan said finally. His tone was pleading, his words trembling with emotion. “If that is the only way for it not to claim you, then so be it. You must, Robin. Please, do it for us. Give up the–”

“No, Duncan,” I seethed, focusing on him, finding that my eyesight faltered as his features blurred before me. “You showed me what Duwar could be used for. I didn’t listen to you then – I should’ve listened.”

Realisation lit Duncan’s eyes, as though a beacon of hope sparked in the depths of his soul. “It’s destroying you, there isn’t time for talking, Robin.”