Selvanyra had won.
And maybe my mother was right all along. She always was.
The sudden thought of her cut through me sharper than the knife in my stomach. Tears gathered, burning at the corners of my eyes, not from pain but from regret.
I should have talked to her more. I should have asked her about her and Franklin, pressed her for every detail of her life, told her Iloved her until she got sick of hearing it. But I hadn’t. I had shifted all of that to later. Later that would never come. And I couldn’t bear to imagine her face when she heard the news of my death.
As if my body breaking apart wasn’t enough, my heart shattered too, splintering into pieces at the thought of her blaming herself, regretting sending me here.
I didn’t want her to have regrets.
Because I didn’t. Not one. I had no regrets about coming here, no regrets about the path that had brought me to this moment. The only regret was not talking to her more. She had been my entire life, my safe place. And still, even now with death clawing at me, I wanted to spend my last moments with her. She deserved that. She wasn’t just losing a daughter, she was losing her best friend.
And Thrax.
Thrax.
He had told me I brought light into his dark world. HisNher. Hislight. I was his light. And if I died, I would be taking that from him, plunging him into the very darkness he had lived in for centuries. I couldn’t do that to him. I didn’t want to. Even if I wasn’t here anymore, I wanted him to hold on to at least a sliver of light. A sliver of peace.
I wanted his time to start again.
I wanted him to be mortal.
I wanted him to have a chance at happiness—even if that happiness didn’t include me.
I wanted him to be mortal.
Mortal.
Only I could make him mortal.
“I’m going to die anyway. Why waste it? Do it now.”
Kalimetryna’s dying words crashed into my skull unbidden, sharp as the biting cold. Strength surged back into me, lighting up my veins with a desperate clarity as the idea bloomed bright in my chest.
I was going to die anyway, I might as well die properly in a way that’d benefit Thrax. Why waste my life when I could make him mortal again? I could turn my end into his beginning.
Maybe Selvanyra hadn’t won after all.
I pulled at what little strength remained and tried to reach for Amelia, because she wasn’t even looking at me. Her head was bowed, her shoulders sagging as though she was cradling her grief already.
Merton tapped her, and she lifted her head. They both leaned in close, waiting for whatever words I could give them. I dragged at the strength scattered through my body, forcing a single breath of sound past my lips.
“C…cave.”
“What?” Merton bent closer, his ear almost at my mouth.
“Did you say cave?” Amelia asked, eyes searching mine for certainty.
Thunder rumbled above, lightning flaring across the sky.
I nodded.
“You want us to take you to the cave?” she asked, confirming.
I nodded again, firmer this time.
Amelia looked at her brother, horror flickering across her face, before she shook her head. “No. We can’t. We can’t go anywhere near there. It’s dangerous—”
