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I n that moment the world as I knew it had shattered, my body going limp in Nik’s grasp. I pressed my eyes shut tightly, praying that when I opened them, this would have simply been a terrible nightmare. That I would still be asleep in my bedroll beneath the night sky.

But I wasn’t.

It was Annelise whose cry had broken us.

“I didn’t have a choice,” Puck kept saying, rocking Tess back and forth, his words on repeat. “ I didn’t have a choice .”

Isaac was dead.

His heart had been run through with a blade not coated in the antidote.

I didn’t have anything left within me to break. Not with Nik’s life still hanging in the balance.

“There hadn’t been time,” Puck cried, his voice cracking as his body racked with sobs .

Even the few Noctani that remained alive were motionless. Still. As if they grieved him, too.

A flash of light blinded me and I lifted my hand to shield my eyes. It easily slid out of Nik’s grip. When the blinding brightness finally dulled, my arm fell back to my side, the earth beneath Isaac glowing luminescent. The light dulled slowly until it was gone.

“What was that?” Puck asked in a cracked voice, his gaze snapping to Zion.

Zion didn’t have time to respond, the Noctani had begun to move once more.

We needed to end this.

Now .

I wasn’t about to lose Nikolai, too.

I drove Stormslayer up, jabbing Nikolai in the stomach. The wind left him and his grip loosened on my other arm as he fell to one knee. I crawled away, but only enough to turn around and face him.

I poised Stormslayer over his heart as the earth became still once more.

Isaac was dead.

Tess was gravely injured.

I couldn’t stand one more loss.

One more disappointment.

If Alastir’s spell didn’t work… it would all be over. I wouldn’t have the strength to go on. Whatever happened next, it would change us forever.

My gaze held Nikolai’s as his mouth opened to speak.

But I didn’t let him .

With tears streaming down my cheeks, I pushed forward. With one final thrust, I drove Stormslayer—coated in ancient magic—into his heart.