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I heard her.

“I reach for you.”

I couldn’t reply,“You found me.”

Hope fluttered in my fingertips. I reached out.

There, a tether. It glinted, golden.

I clung to it. I tried to climb.

Too much guilt.

Failed to rise.

Dismantled my regrets.

I attempted acceptance.I can’t save everyone.

My guilt didn’t vanish.

The load did lessen.

I seized the tether.

And I climbed.

I climbed.

Climbed.

Stumbled.

Released.

Got back up.

And climbed again.

Ayla

My power had long since flickered. My song faded.

The moment had been strange. My magic moved through me, doing what I needed. Surrendering to it, I sang to Zayne’s body, reaching out for him. That was hours ago. His deathlike stupor had continued ever since.

A mystery,Eleanor called it, how the magic had flowed through me without any training.Spellsinging,she had named my power.

I tried to spellsing a second time, but the song wouldn’t flow. Powerless notes rose from me instead. My magic remained stubbornly still, a well of power I didn’t know how to access.

I kept a vigil by his side.

Somethinghadhappened.

And I held on to the promise.

Eleanor and I had rekindled the throne room’s fireplace, keeping Gloom, cold, and darkness at bay. We placed Zayne’s body closest to the flame.

Maybe the heat could help him rise. We didn’t know. His body was too cold for the living, but he was warmer than the dead. Ninti said those familiar with the Underworld often found final death in strange ways. We waited and hoped.