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Sapphire turns away, her shoulders tight with the weight of what I’m about to do.

For a moment, her trust steals my breath away. She’s seen the worst of me—my cruelty, my coldness, the weapon I become when I’m protecting her—and still, she gives me what little privacy she can instead of turning against me.

Given what I’m about to do, I don’t deserve it.

But I can do this. I have to. After all, I’ve done it before—when I left the Winter Court, crossed the ravine, and spilled my own knights’ blood just to get to her. I killed them easily then. Without hesitation. Each strike was efficient, calculated, and necessary.

But that was different.

That was before I knew what it felt like to be hers. Before her touch rewired every instinct I once trusted. Before her love became the compass by which I judge every act and every sin.

She didn’t just touch my heart—she dismantled it. Slowly. Lovingly. Without mercy.

Back then, killing was strategy. A necessary sacrifice. Something I’d been born and bred to do.

Now, my fingers tighten around my sword’s hilt as I face Calder. My mentor. The man who taught me how to wield this very weapon.

He was like a father to me, I think as I look at his frozen form, ice crackling along my blade. I trusted him with everything.

Now he’s a statue of betrayal, and I’m his executioner.

My blade meets resistance as it slices through his neck, separating his head from his shoulders in one clean arc. No blood sprays—the compass’s magic holds it suspended in his veins. When time resumes, there will be nothing but the aftermath… and the echoes of my choices.

My new water magic trembles beneath my skin, churning in protest. It recognizes what I’m doing as a slaughter, not a battle. It knows this isn’t war, but grief with a blade.

The bond between Sapphire and me pulses with each flash of my sword.

Can she feel it, too? This growing fracture inside me? Probably. But still, she stays quiet. Because she knows I have to do this—that this is my burden to bear.

And so, I return to the task at hand. Each frozen guard is a monument to my failure—my catastrophic lapse in judgment that nearly got Sapphire killed.

I memorize them all as I move methodically through the clearing. These are the faces of my mistakes, and I will not forget them.

I pause before the guard Sapphire mentioned. Bastian, who appears to be fighting for us. He and I occasionally trained together. Now, his blade is angled to block Kyler’s attack, and his eyes hold no malice. Only determination.

My sword hovers at his throat.

What if I’m wrong? a voice inside me whispers. What if he was one of the good ones?

But I can’t risk it. Not with her life.

So the blade slides through, precise and terrible. But while my hands stay steady, my soul doesn’t. Because he may have been loyal. He may have fought for us.

But I’ll never know for certain, and certainty is the only currency I can afford right now. Love demands sacrifice… and I will always choose her.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper to no one. To everyone. To the man I used to be. Because these were my people—my knights—sworn to protect me. And here I am, extinguishing them like candles .

Kyler’s face is the worst. Just this morning, he’d joked about his wife’s terrible cooking. Now, his eyes are filled with hatred as he lunges toward where Sapphire was standing before she gave me the small mercy of turning away.

Every laugh, every shared drink—was it all the practiced charm of a man waiting to draw his blade the moment I turned my back?

I can’t think about it. Can’t dwell on it. There’s only the mission now: protect Sapphire. Get us safely to the Summer Court. Find Zoey. Defeat the Night Court. Save the world.

The compass’s ticking grows faster. Time is running out.

And so, coating my heart with a layer of frost so thick that it burns, I return to the task at hand and finish it.