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Godfrey, one of Tarquin’s golden boys, is driving Darius back. Cornering him against a wall, Godfrey raises his sword for the kill.

I dart forward and sink my dagger into Godfrey’s throat. I rip it out again, and blood spurts from his neck.

I hear Serana shout in pain. Turning, I throw my dagger at her attacker, and it sinks into his shoulder.

Serana is still going. She swings hard, severing his bicep. He screams, staggering backward.He manages to block her next swing and raises his mace again. She slams her axe into his skull and rips it out again.

She turns to me with a smile, and for a moment—one heartbeat—I smile back.

A bolt shatters everything in the next second. A thud, sharp and sickening, and a crossbow bolt slams into Serana’s throat. Time slows. Horror wraps around me, freezing me like an icestorm. I can’t think straight. I can’t take in what I’m seeing. Thiscan’tbe happening.

Serana topples backward, her eyes wide with shock. I lunge to catch her, my mind screaming in horror.

Shaking, I raise my eyes to see Tarquin with the crossbow in the corridor, a furious expression on his face.

“You mongrel animals,” he snarls. Ten feet away, he loads another bolt.

Serana lies in my arms, her mouth opening and closing. A drop of blood slides from her lips.

“Hang in there, Serana,” I tell her in a quavering voice. “You’ll be fine.

But it’s a lie. Her light is already fading, and something inside me is dying with it.

Tarquin raises his crossbow again, his hands steady. He’s aiming it directly at me.

But as the arrow flies, Talan twists faster than I can think. His blade splinters the bolt in midair, cracking it like lightning. He whirls, already blocking another sword strike.

Tarquin says something I can’t hear over the furious roaring in my skull.

Morgan’s voice rises inside me, venomous and regal.Kill him.

I get to my feet and rush toward him like a storm wind over the water. The world narrows to my pure, lethal hatred of Tarquin, and I crash into him like a tidal wave.

We fall hard on the floor, and he struggles against me, spitting curses.

Mongrel. Mongrel. Mongrel.

I grab his hair and slam his skull into the stone—once, twice, a third time, until something gives with a sound like cracking wood and he’s still.

I slump back, soaked in blood, staring at this useless, broken thing before me. He was always useless and broken, empty under the surface. I just preserved him in his natural state.

I catch my breath, and my eyes blur. I’ll never find anyone like Serana again—the fiercest, bravest soul I ever met, killed by this little inbred coward.

I turn to the others, ready to kill again, but?—

It’s over.

Talan and Raphael stand with a pile of dead knights at their feet, a crimson pool around them.

I sink down beside Serana’s body, my grief as jagged and sharp as craggy stones. I feel carved open. Tana is holding Serana’s hand, and she’s sobbing.

“We need to bury her,” I whisper. “Somewhere quiet. Somewhere beautiful.”

“Darius and I will do it,” Tana says, her voice breaking. “You take the virus. Keep going.”

“I should be there.”

Tana wipes her cheek. “Don’t let her die for nothing. End this.”