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She smiled, then held up her hand, her face going still with concentration. But it wasn't working, nothing was happening, and Lend's sacrifice would be for nothing. I put my hands to my mouth in horror. Then the edges of the gate went fuzzy, the rem
ains of Virginia night curling in around them, eating at the light until it started collapsing in on itself.
Vivian met my eyes for the last time, and she winked. And then, with an ear-rupturing silent pop like all the air pressure in the world had changed, the gate connecting us closed forever.
I didn't realize I was sitting on the frozen ground until Lend collapsed next to me and put his arm around my shoulders.
"She did it," I whispered, the silence nearly as deafening as the wind had been but so empty it made me ache. If I didn't have Lend here, I didn't know what I'd do. It was almost like I had sent my soul through the gate. So much of who I had been-the people who had defined me, even the work that I'd lived for-was gone now. I felt small, and cold, and a little bit lost.
"We did it. " Lend smoothed my wind-tossed hair away from my face.
"It's really over, isn't it?"
He laughed and pulled me into his lap. "That's the beauty of it all. Nothing's over. It's just a new start. "
"Re-forming after the chaos," I said, remembering Raquel's words. "Choosing what we'll do with how things are now, who we'll be in this new world where the only magic left is what we make ourselves. "
"Exactly. So who do you want to be?"
I smiled, resting my head against his chest. "I'm not sure yet, but I'm looking forward to finding out. "
