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“She’s…she’s dead?” I repeated. My own voice felt foreign. Those words were never supposed to leave my mouth. Not about her. Not about my baby sister.

“What in the Saints happened?” Malachi’s voice boomed through the room. His hands came down on my arms, but I could hardly feel them. I didn’t care about anyone else.

I needed to see her.

I needed to get to my sister.

“Where?” I asked. “Where is she?”

“There was a fight. We tried to stop it but we were too late, Mal. Tessa was…she was caught in the crossfire.”

Malachi’s voice thundered so loudly, the frames on the walls vibrated. “Who did it? If someone killed her, you better tell me right now!”

No.This wasn’t real.This wasn’t real.

My body was moving, walking past the brothers who simply slid out of my way as I approached. The gardens. It happened in the gardens.

I had to get to the gardens. I had to get to Tessa.

She wasn’t dead.No, it wasn’t possible.

Tessa was alive. I just had to find her and Malachi could get her to the infirmary and whatever happened, it would all be fine.

It would all be okay. Tessa wasfine.

I felt Malachi’s presence behind me. I walked and walked and walked. At some point, that walk turned into a run.

Before I could even fathom where I was heading, I turned the last corner into the garden.

People were everywhere. No, not people.Fae. Standing, mingling, whispering, and then looking at me.

Someone bumped my shoulder. There were too many. Too many faces, too many pairs of wings.

Too manyenemies.

Malachi must have said something, because the fae in the garden began scattering. Away from the crowd. Away from…

Tessa.

My eyes glued to Tessa, laying in the middle of the walking path next to the bright red roses. I ran to her and dropped to my knees, grabbing ahold of her small shoulders. They felt so cold.

“Tessa?” I asked. I shook her lightly. She seemed so small, much smaller than I remembered. “Tessa, wake up!”

Malachi knelt on the other side of her, but he wasn’t looking at Tessa. He watched me with wide eyes.

“Mal, do something!” I yelled. “She’s okay, she’s okay we just have to get her to–”

“Jade,” he cut me off. His voice sounded soft, just like Lucien’s. It soundedsad. “According to witnesses, it was the same fae who threatened you both in the gardens the other day…he snapped her neck. She’s gone, Jade. Your sister is dead.”

“No,” I insisted. “No!” I looked at her neck. It was…it was twisted into a weird position, her head tilted off to the side. “She’s…she’ssafehere. She’s supposed to besafehere.”

Malachi didn’t say anything.

My vision blurred with tears. “She’s not dead!”

“She’s dead, Jade.”

A sob ripped through my body. I hadn’t felt this hopeless in a very, very long time. For as long as I could remember, Tessa was my anchor. She was the one thing I had to fight for. Even when I had nothing, even when I had no reason for continuing, I kept fighting. Because my sister needed me.