I felt it all fall apart. I looked up and saw the sky in shreds of light above me.
I had made a horrible mistake. I had failed, and I had handed Aefe— Reshaye—everything she needed to end the world.
I slipped from consciousness with this final thought, draped over Max’s unmoving body.
But then—
The stirring in the layers of magic beneath me kept the darkness from taking me fully. A strange magic reached for me—like a healing, beckoning hand, gently shaking me awake. There was no sight here, no sound, no voices, but I knew it was Aefe.
I felt her magic struggling to contain it—struggling to hold everything together.
I could have wept with relief. “Max,” I breathed.
I could barely feel my own body. I shook him. His breaths were weak and shallow.
“Help me,” I whispered in his ear. “We’re almost done. It’s almost over.”
Gods, I prayed it would be true. Faintly, he squeezed my hand.
I opened my palm, and then his, and then I pressed our hands together. I reached into the mind I knew so well, deep into his magic.
Together, we let ourselves fall, fall, fall, to the furthest layers of this power. I offered Aefe everything we had. One final push, to reshape the
world, from all three types of magic—Valtain, Solarie, Fey.
The last thing I thought:
This is either how the world ends, or how it begins.
