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“I always knew you would win.”

“And how did you know that?” I asked.

It had to be a trick. There was no other way Donika would concede defeat, even if my blade was poised over her heart.

“The Mother told me,” she replied, coughing up a mouthful of rain and ichor. My magic had hurt something deep insideof her when it had blasted through her. Something irreparable.

“The Mother?”

She nodded. “She visits me often. She has tried to… tried to save me. Tried to convince me to join the light once more. There was never any hope of that… but it didn’t stop her from trying.”

The Mother had visited Donika? Alastir was the only one I had known to communicate with the Mother. She had chosen those that she sent visions to with great care.

To think that she would speak with Donika… and often…

I shook my head, blinking away the rain that coated my lashes.

“She told me what would happen… but I didn’t believe her,” Donika said, her head inclining towards me. “But it doesn’t matter. I am ready to join her.”

“I’m not sure that’s where you are going,” I spit out, pressing the blade deeper.

She wouldn’t save herself with pretty words about being saved or the Mother trying to convince her to leave the darkness behind. She was a monster… and there was only one way for this to end.

Donika reached up to grasp the back of my head and I reared back, careful to ensure the blade was still pressed into her flesh right above her heart. As she moved closer, she pulled herself further onto my blade and the ichor poured forth in earnest now, coating the both of us in the slick, black liquid. She gripped my head with her hands, bringing her mouth to my ear.

The words that she whispered were words Ineverthought I would hear in this lifetime, or the next. When she released me and fell back against the wet stones, I could see through the terrace doors that the others had joined us. They were watching from the open doorway.

They had successfully defeated her Noctani in Osiris’s old bedroom above.

The battle still raged below us, but it would come to an end in only a matter of moments.

The shock of her words still reeled within me as I kneeled, gathering the leverage to press the blade home.

Annelise must have stood right over my shoulder, because Donika’s dark eyes were filled with wonder as she met her gaze. I had never thought such an emotion could be possible with that depthless black. Annelise kneeled beside us, gripping Donika’s hand tightly in her own.

Donika was still weak from the blast of storm magic, her nose trickling the black ichor that was still pooling on her chest. That same ichor dripped to crease the corners of her mouth. My magic was killing her, eating her from the inside out.

She was dark where I was light. The energy I had filled her with was too much for her constitution… they weren’t compatible. Even without the help of my blade, she wouldn’t make it.

A humorless laugh escaped her as she tilted her head, glancing over my other shoulder.

I inclined my own head to see out of the corner of my eye that Zion had joined us on the balcony. He kneeled too, hishands capturing Annelise’s and Donika’s. I met Annelise's and Zion’s gaze with a question in my eyes.

I know I had been the one to say we couldn’t afford any last-minute changes of heart—that Annelise and Zion would be a liability when it came down to it. But it wasmewho somehow hesitated now… confusion swirling in my chest. We had never been whole as a family until now. Zion, Annelise, Donika, me… the only one missing was Osiris.

Annelise answered my unspoken question with a soft, sad nod.

Despite everything, I would put her out of her misery. Even if she didn’t deserve such a kindness.

My gaze fell on Donika one last time, and she tightened her grip on Annelise’s and Zion’s hands as I plunged Stormslayer into her heart.

Donika paled, her lungs filling with one last gasp before her head fell against the stone terrace. For one brief moment, right as Donika took her last breath, her eyes had turned as blue as the sky.

It was as if the dark magic had bled out of her, leaving nothing but the innocent girl she had once been behind.

She was still.

I slid Stormslayer free, and the ichor continued to pour forth as the life force left her. I stood, letting the rain cascade over me and cleanse the ichor from my skin. It stung where it flowed over my open wounds before it fell to the ground.