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“I got you, Ki,” my friend said, pressing my back into his chest. I melded against him, allowing Jake to hold me.
“Is this real?” I asked, swaying as the black spots grew. Shock and exhaustion threatened to steal my consciousness, and I didn’t have much fight left in me.
“I’m here, Kiara,” Jude said, grunting as he sat up. “I felt myself leave, felt death grab me, but…” He paused, searching for the right words. “Then I was jerked back and my body was on fire and you were above me.” He grasped both of my cheeks now.
Alive. Jude was alive.
“You brought me back,” he whispered, pressing his brow to mine, our noses touching. “You fought for me.”
Patrick’s stolen light. It had saved him. Mymonsterhad saved him.
In my daze, I smiled. If anyone deserved such power, it was him. Jude had lived a life of endless pain, of cruelty even I hadn’t known. I wanted him to feel peace, even if I understood what had to be done in order for him to attain it.
For him to save the world, save our friends and loved ones, he would have to take from me what I’d just taken from Patrick. But that was all right. I’d happily carve out the last piece and hand it to him as I took my final breath. For Asidia. For Jake and the recruits we’d lost. For Liam.
I would give all of me to them, to Jude, and when the day returned, I wondered if I’d be able to watch it all unfold from beyond the veil of death.
It had all been worth it.
Jude drew back, eyeing Patrick’s body, a deep crease forming between his brows. Slowly, he brought his gaze back to me, pain and regret shining as clear as any sun.
My lids closed just as Jude uttered, “Kiara, what have you done?”
Chapter Fifty-Three
Jude
I just need him alive a little longer. Soon, he will discover everything I’ve searched for, and it will be mine.
Letter from King Cirian to unknown recipient,
year 47 of the curse
I held her in that clearing as she closed her eyes and slept.
Jake hovered nearby, his face riddled with scrapes and cuts, but his eyes narrowed on the trees, ready for any danger that might leap out at us.
I didn’t care.
Kiara had given me the second piece of Raina’s divinity. Her light. She’d carved it right from Patrick’s chest and given it tome…and saved my life.
Peeling back my tattered shirt, I took in the scar across my chest—the one from Patrick’s blade—and then the tendrils of black coiling up around it. She’d thought I’d been dead, and yet she’d taken a chance and done the unthinkable.
She had hoped.
I groaned, taking in Kiara’s matching scar, the wound I’d healed. We were tied together, two halves of a whole.
Kiara had chosen me, and when she woke, I had no doubt she’d hand me the Godslayer and demand I save our realm. I held two of the three keys. In order to unite all three, she would have to cut the final piece of power from herself—give up her own life—and join the three pieces together at last. I knew she would do it—she would do anything to save the realm. To save her brother. To saveme.
And that was why I had to go.
“Jake.” I cleared my throat, each swallow painful and raw. “Protect her.”
I lifted my gaze to his. Seconds passed, but then he finally nodded, his jaw clenched. “You’re leaving, aren’t you?” he asked. It wasn’t accusatory. Only understanding soothed the clouds in his eyes.
“You know what she’ll do once she wakes.” I looked down, memorizing her delicate and fierce beauty. For a moment I allowed myself to think of what could have been. Of the stolen kisses we’d share, the taste of her on my tongue. Of a life where she fought by my side, my partner, my friend, my lover. The heat in my chest flared, as if in warning. I ignored it.
I recalled what Patrick had mentioned during his speech. The sun priestesses and their prophecy. It was contained in my mother’s book, and I’d memorized practically every single word.
