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Kalora helped Renya to her feet. “It's best to let them say goodbye,” she said softly.

Selenia finally seemed to understand the horrifying scene in front of her.

“Jurel!” she screamed. “No!” She crawled towards him, her hands running over Jurel's body as if she could fix him by touch alone.

Jurel reached up and stroked her cheek, weak and fading quickly. “I couldn't—couldn't leave. Not after—what happened.” He coughed, and blood trickled out of his mouth.

“No! Jurel! You can't leave me! I—I love you!”

He looked up at Selenia, his eyes glazing over and his skin losing its color. “It's…better this way. I can't…can't hurt you again. I…love you. I'm sorry for…being too scared to admit it.” He reached out one last time, and Selenia grabbed his hand, pulling it to her chest.

“No! Don't leave me!”

Renya heard another explosion, and saw the hall behind them crumble, rubble falling everywhere. She pulled Selenia up to her feet. “We have to go! Jurel would want you to live!”

Selenia could hardly walk. Kalora and Renya dragged her around another corner and down the staircase, Julietta sobbing in sympathy behind them.

By the time they reached the bottom level, Selenia was mumbling incoherently. She sank to her knees the second Renya and Kalora let go of her.

“Selenia,” Renya said, her eyes full of unshed tears. “I'm so sorry.” She pulled the girl against her chest and Selenia sat there, frozen.

“I think she's in shock,” Renya said to Kalora and Julietta. “Help me get her to a chair.”

The armory was almost empty now. Renya could hardly believe it was the same room she had been in barely twenty minutes ago. She wasn't sure if the men working fled or joined the fight. They left the fires burning, and Julietta found a chair and moved it next to one of the stone hearths. A sword was sitting in the flames, unfinished, the steel an intense orange. Renya watched it unseeingly, trying to make sense of what happened upstairs.

Kalora grabbed Selenia under the arms and got her into the chair. Selenia's eyes were wide open, and she looked ahead, a vacant expression on her face.

Julietta kneeled before her, wiping a cool cloth she found across her face and cleaning the blood off Selenia's hands. Renya looked at her appreciatively, never noticing Julietta's quiet compassion until now. Renya moved over the pail of water left behind, and Julietta soaked the cloth again, rinsing Jurel's blood away as she continued to care for Selenia.

Kalora spoke under her breath. “I don't think this battle is going to end well for us.”

Before Renya could answer her, a panic-filled voice filled her head.

What's wrong? I can feel your pain. What happened?

Renya could barely focus. The second Grayden reached out, she pictured Jurel as he laid there, the blood spilling out of his body.

She could feel the exact second Grayden saw the image in her mind. Pain, unlike anything she'd ever felt, surged through her. She dropped to her hands and knees, feeling Grayden's sorrow at the loss of his friend. The despair coursed through her body, and everything inside her tensed up as the tears streamed down her face.

“Renya?” Kalora asked, concerned. “What's going on?”

Renya could hardly speak, the emotional and physical pain too great. It washed over her, the grief seeming to open up every wound, every emotional injury she'd ever had in her life.

She sat there, huddled and rocking herself, trying to gain control of her feelings. When it finally subsided, she could no longer tell where her emotions started and where Grayden's ended.

In that moment, she knew. She knew if she didn't act, every single person she loved and cared about would be killed. Murdered and struck down, just like Jurel. Without thinking, she wiped Jurel's blood off her hands and on her trousers and stood up, making her way over to the staircase.

Kalora grabbed her arm. “Renya, you can't.”

“I have to. It's my destiny,” she said, pulling away. “I'm the light bringer. I'm the sacrifice.”

Kalora looked at her, and Renya could tell she wasn't sure if Renya was in her right mind. But things had never been clearer to Renya. This was what she was meant to do. She climbed up the stairs, careful not to look back behind her. She didn't want to lose her courage now that she made up her mind. Her body pushed her forward, and she found strength she didn't know she possessed as her feet hit each metal step, taking her higher and higher. She reached the hall and kept moving forward.

Renya ignored the voice in her head. The pleas, the begging, the bargaining, the screaming. She couldn't listen to him. Couldn't picture him there in the battle, realizing what she was about to do. The pain and betrayal he was feeling. Renya tuned it all out as she skirted around rubble and moved deftly to the entrance of the castle.

She stepped out into the courtyard, seeing the carnage at her feet. She was more sure than ever that this was the right move. A peace came over her, a realization that this was how it was always supposed to be. It felt foolish now, that she hadn't put it together. Of course she was the sacrifice that would restore the balance of magic. Through her death, power would flow again and Grayden would be able to defeat Cressida. She smiled, thinking of Julietta gaining back her magic. Would Phillippe get powers too? Would Selenia's magic become manageable? Perhaps Esmeralda would now find her fated mate. It would all be okay. She just needed to do this one, simple thing.

I love you, Renya. Always. Take care of Selenia.