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It fought, twisting and writhing with enough force to drop me to my knees. But even as I hit the ground, my magic held firm, shadows coiling more firmly around all that remained of Lorien Blackvale, reducing him to a mere wisp of red-tinged energy.

And then my shadows found their way back to the light—back to Aleksander and the sword he held at the ready.

Carefully, I guided our prisoner into Luminor’s blade.

The steel turned solid black, trembling violently, and for a moment, I feared we’d made a mistake, thinking it could hold him.

Aleks kept his hands tightly wrapped around the hilt just the same, fierce concentration furrowing his brow, drops of sweat mingling with the blood drying on his face. The blade slowly shifted from black, to the reddish-colored energy of Lorien, to the warm hue of Aleksander’s magic.

Another minute passed before it finally began to pulse with its normal shades of pale gold and soft blue.

It stopped shaking.

I managed a breath.

Finished.

It was finished.

Aleks let Luminor clatter to the ground, and only then did he let his body give in to the obvious pain and exhaustion coursing through him. He tumbled forward, barely catching himself before his face hit the stone floor. But before he’d even caught his breath, he was already moving again, crawling to his cousin’s side and checking him for life.

I swallowed hard. “Is he...is he…”

“…He’s breathing, at least,” Aleks confirmed.

I fought my way over to him, settling at his side. We leaned against one another for support, after both trying and failing to stand. I found his hand, intertwining our fingers.

Zayn’s chest rose and fell steadily—he looked as if he might have merely been sleeping.

I still couldn’t believe we were all alive.

We had only a moment more to take in our victory before the sound of footsteps racing across the bridge reached us. I bracedmyself for the worst, my hand slipping from Aleksander’s and reaching toward my sword.

When my brother’s face appeared in the doorway, I had to choke down a sob.

He rushed to my side, Thalia and several soldiers following soon after. While they assessed wounds and staunched bleeding, we recounted the battle that still didn’t feel as though it had happened.

Luminor remained on the ground several feet away. Its energy was still calm, yet no one touched it—and it was a long time before anyone dared to approach Zayn, either, as if some wicked essence of Lorien might still be lingering within him, too.

“We’ll take him back with us and do what we can to heal him,” Bastian said, directing two of our soldiers to carefully pick up his unconscious body. “I’m sure he’ll have some…interesting information to share once he wakes up.”

If he does wake up, I couldn’t help but think.

“Can we get back to Noctaris the same way we came?” Aleks asked, fighting his way to his feet.

“We don’t need to,” Thalia said.

“What do you mean?”

“Come see for yourself.” Bastian helped me stand, then beckoned us to follow him back to the bridge.

Looking down from the center of it, I took in the aftermath of what appeared to have been a bloody battle. One we’d been victorious in, but at the cost of at least ten soldiers—that I couldsee. There were at least as many of our enemy scattered about, but somehow that didn’t make me feel any better.

Of the living, only our soldiers remained in the yard, now. And most of them were gathered around an area of strangely wavering air in the center of the yard. Occasionally, clear images formed within this shimmering air—glimpses of Noctaris, I realized after a moment.

“Energy started to gather there during the middle of our battle, right about the time one of the symbols along the bottom of the room lit up,” Thalia said. “Whatever you did, whatever you channeled, it seems it was at least enough to create a temporary link between this realm and ours. We’re hoping that passing through it will take us home.”

Home.