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Soft, cooling touches brushed my forehead, Santorina whispering over me, “It will end soon.”

It will end soon.

I only had to endure it a little longer, scrape up the dregs of my fortitude to survive this pain, because it would kill the queen. It had to kill the queen.

And it would ensure that everyone else lived, that the Mystiques saw the dawn.

It will end soon, sorrida, my father’s voice echoed in my head. A sob scratched out of my throat. I tried to picture him beside me, encouraging me. My skin stung where her tendrils had lashed at me.

It will end soon.

Through hazy vision, hunched over my knees and peeking between the sweat-coated strands of my hair, I saw Kakias crumple to the ground, power continuing to pour out of her and race away.

But even from here, the rise and fall of her chest was evident. And my heart sank through my twisted body at the sight.

“She’s not—” I choked out. “She’s not—it didn’t—work.”

The queen was still alive. The tonic had not stolen her immortal life, it was clear from the breath still in her lungs. Our plan to remove her immortality had failed, and she’d responded with a strike worse than what I’d imagined.

I’d thought if we lured her away from the army, they’d be more protected. Not safe. Not with her own infantry battering the border. But they’d be spared her wrath. Her power.

I’d been wrong. Miscalculated somewhere along the way, whether it was with her or the Angel power in her veins, I didn’t quite understand.

I cast my fractured thoughts back to the night of Daminius, trying to determine what I’d missed as people moved around me. Lancaster crossed to where Barrett held Dax and relieved Tolek’s position so he could come to me. Mora bound the queen in ropes I hadn’t seen her acquire.

The blood of the Chosen, transformed under the light of midnight, stirred with elements of sacred land…

Had there been something else? An ingredient I’d forgotten?

I’d been on the brink of unconsciousness when she recited the potion. I was certain we had it all, but I could have forgotten something.

“There’s one more—ah!” I gasped as my stomach flipped. Tolek held me steady. “One more—thing to try.”

I met Rina’s eyes, wide and uncertain. “Ophelia?—”

“Please, Rina—I have to try it. I’m the Revered.” I’d sworn a vow dating back to the Prime Mystique. I’d promised to protect each warrior under my jurisdiction until my spirit was called away.

And as Angel power ravaged my blood, there was one string I had not yet pulled.

Shaking her head, Rina reluctantly raced to her pack.

“Ophelia,” Tolek said, turning my face to his, holding my cheeks so tenderly in his sure hands. Hands that were a refuge I now needed to say goodbye to. Tears streaked beneath my eyes at the pain worming through my body, at the way I did not want to do what I was about to. “Don’t do it, love. Please, don’t.”

“I don’t have a choice,” I said. It killed us both, this inevitable task.

All along, a part of each of us knew it would come to this.

When he’d saved me at the trench, none of it had felt over. It had only been another step toward this fate. Another mark on the list of horrific things we knew we’d have to do before this ended.

It was why we’d both been so frightened, so desperate to salvage the other’s life, even if it meant untangling ourselves along the way. When we’d fought afterward, and he’d sworn my safety was all that mattered to him, there was always a lingering shadow hanging over those words. A frenzy that screamed we both knew it wasn’t the end of our pain.

A promise I knew he might not be able to keep, even if he’d see his grave because of it—a fate I’d face death to avoid.

Because the vow I took outweighed my life, and if I had to suffer for it, I would. But I would not let him.

Rina appeared again, unwrapping that burlap package we swore was a last resort. Tolek’s eyes burned with the desire to shove it away. To tell me there was no way he’d let me do this. To insist on another answer.

Any other answer.