His eyes blaze up at me, murderous. He flares luminth from his palm. My head jerks to the side, the strike grazing my cheek and searing my skin.
He has nothing left. My dagger strikes down once more, toward his wrist.
“You killed my mother,” I keep my voice low. This is between us, between him and I and twenty-five years of pain. “You hurt me for your amusement and called it duty. You called itprophecy. How does it feel to see it fulfilled?”
He shakes his head once. Gold, highborn blood trickles from his mouth. His nose, soaking into the ground below us. “Everything I did was for Solvandyr.”
“No,” I snap. “Everything you did was foryou.”
He lifts his injured hand, trying to summon luminth again, but nothing happens. He chokes, more blood bubbling. “Healers—,”
“There’ll be no healers.” I raise both my palms and pour luminth into the air, creating a single, focused shape. A blade longer than his. Thicker. Brighter. A guillotine of light.
“Lyra,” he breathes, and for a heartbeat his voice holds something that could have been pleading. “Think. Reena—”
I glance sideways. Reena stands rigid. She nods at me.
“You made your choices,” I whisper. “And I’m making mine.”
The blade slides through the armor that covers his abdomen. Straight through, severing his spinal cord so deeply that it almost cuts his body into two.
Commander Vaelion, Lightbringer leader, my father, mytormentor, lays dead at my feet, his blood glistening gold against the ground.
Slumping, my knees hit the floor.
For a moment, the battlefield sound rushes back in. Screams, and shouts, and the clash of weapons. And I drink it in.
They’re still fighting.
The Lightbringers nearby have gone still. Some take a step back, others raising weapons uncertainly. The line wavers.
And as one, they look to Reena.
My sister meets my gaze again. Her face is shattered, lined with fear and grief and something like relief warring behind her eyes. She swallows hard.
She’s the Solvandyr Commander now, whether she wanted it or not.
I never asked her if she wanted it.
And I am… my stomach twists. They called me a kin-killer in the Veilspire, and now I wear the mantle in truth.
I turn away from my father’s body, forcing myself to breathe as I push myself upright. “Reena. You can end this war. Right now.”
Her eyes flicker. “The wielders—”
“They don’t want it,” I breathe. Desperation tightens my lungs, my chest. “Kaelen doesn’t want a war. They haven’t for a long time. Longer than his lifetime. They just want to be left alone.”
I wonder what she sees, as she stares at me. Reena takes a step back, her lips parting. “You speak of him with such familiarity, Lyra. And what happened to yourface?”
The battle rages on. He could lose his shield at any time. My heart thumps, unsteady in my chest. “Please.”
I don’t think. I drop to my knees. “Please. Blow the horn, and end this before there’s nothing left.”
Her cheeks darken, as if she’s embarrassed. “This display is unbecoming. Whathappenedto you?”
Tears spill over my cheeks, making her waver in front of my eyes. “They saved me. And now I need to save them. I can’t lose them.”
“Them?”
