I glanced outside and noticed the pulse as it traveled across the darkening sky, like a moving crease in the fabric of our existence… an omen of something worse to come. Thunder boomed in the distance, like giants clapping from the clouds, laughing and jeering as death came for us.

"Zeriel… I think this is it," I said to him. "I'll… I'll see you again soon."

"Vesta…" he mumbled, unable to say anything else.

I moved back from the edge, my heart breaking slowly and painfully. I couldn't look at him anymore. The murmurs and cries of the fae in the sanctuary were too much to bear. Turning to face the Novaks again, I smiled. Though I was shaken to my core, I didn't want my death to be choked in struggle and grief. I'd been born and raised a warrior, mostly by circumstances I'd had no control over.

This wasn't all that different, if I were to think about it.

"It's starting," Malleus said grimly.

We could all feel it. The hum of the sanctuary got louder. The air denser, heavier than lead. Energy crackled around the building like whiplashes of lightning. Snap. Crackle. Pop.

It coincided with my life-chain breaking. I held my breath as I stared down and watched the blackened link split in two, the pieces falling on the marble floor with an insufferable clang.

That was it. My life gone, in the blink of an eye.

A chill ran through me, my soul no longer connected to my body. It felt empty and lonely. I was a solitary rock in the heart of a desert. A thorn fallen from a rose's stem. A broken dream abandoned on the bottom of existence.

I was not alone, though. No, not at all.

The last links cracked on every fae left living in the sanctuary. Snap. Crackle. Pop. Like the thunder exploding outside, the life-chains came down, severing the connection between the souls and the bodies of five million innocent creatures—not only here, but all over the In-Between and the Supernatural Dimension.

My head felt light as a feather. A sense of relief threatened to skew my resolve, because I was not yet ready to say goodbye to anyone. Not Zeriel. Not any of the Novaks. Not my life or my world or my parents and friends.

"I am sorry, Vesta," Rudolph said to me.

A single tear escaped his dark, starry eyes, and it surprised me. I'd never seen a Reaper cry before. I hadn’t even thought they were capable of such emotions, not after everything they'd experienced, even prior to this calamity.

The droplet landed on the floor, seeping through the marble. Its surface crackled, and a green seedling poked through, with three vibrant and daring leaves as it reached for the sky and the sun.

"What… How?" I wondered aloud, not yet able to accept the harsh truth of my condition. I'd yet to say it aloud.

"The Reaper's Tear." Rudolph sighed. "We don't normally cry, you know."

"But when we do, life comes through," Sidyan said, one hand resting on Lucas's shoulder. "Our tears are special, I suppose. When we cry for the end of one thing, we cause the beginning of another."

Ben, Grace, Vita, Caia, Lucas, and Kailyn all looked at me, their life-chains gone, quietly blackening at their feet. "I'm sorry," I whispered. "I'm sorry this is happening to us."

"It's not over yet," Caia insisted, even now. She amazed me. Though, I had to admit, I wasn't sure whether she was truly resilient, or maybe just delusional.

"We've all just died," I said, using the D-word for the very first time. It crushed me.

"It's not over, I can feel it," Caia replied.

Everything brightened around us as the sanctuary's hum got louder. I gripped Rudolph's wrist for a moment and glanced back down at Zeriel. He'd taken a couple of steps back, worriedly looking up at us, but he couldn't see us anymore. I shot Rudolph an angry stare.

"What did you do?" I asked him.

"You're dead, Vesta. Stay dead. Please," he replied, genuinely tormented. He'd made me invisible to the living again, and, as much as I hated it, I had to admit… I could see the reason behind his decision.

The light swelled, almost blinding me as everything turned white.

"It's about to begin," Malleus shouted. "Everyone! Stay calm, please! The Hermessi can no longer hurt you!"

As if that mattered.

Sofia

When the news broke from the In-Between and the Supernatural Dimension, we were all floored. I couldn't even stand anymore. Derek held me up, his arms firmly gripping my shoulders.

We'd all gathered in the grand hall of The Shade. My husband and I, our daughter, Rose, and Caleb. River, joined by Lawrence, Bijarki, and Blaze. Jax and Hansa. Jovi and Anjani. Harper and Caspian. Vivienne and Xavier. Victoria and Bastien. Aida and Field. Corrine and Ibrahim. Claudia and Yuri. We were all here—all of the first, second, and third generations of supernaturals who'd fought against the odds for as long as we could remember.

Yet fate had trumped us this time.

Five million fae had been touched by the Hermessi. Killed in the ritual, which was now entering its final stage. We'd held on to our hopes for as long as we could, but there was no denying it anymore.

Silence filled the hall, while the realization of what had happened and what would come next drew tears from our eyes. Rivers of sorrow flowed quietly down our reddened cheeks. I gave out a heartfelt cry, from the bottom of my chest, as I'd lost my son, my baby boy, in this war.

"Ben…" I sobbed, hiding my face in Derek's chest.

River was devastated, broken and kneeling on the floor, flanked by Lawrence and Field. They couldn’t do much to help her, though. No one could. She'd lost a husband, a daughter, and two granddaughters in this. Tears flowed, but she could no longer speak, lost in a catatonic state. Her family was gone.

"Shh… Sofia…" Derek whispered, and I felt his tears dripping, joining mine in their seemingly endless stream.

We cried for a long time. All of us. There wasn't a dry eye in the entire Shade, as we came to terms with the colossal loss of life we'd just suffered. Our families, our close friends and allies… Creatures who'd never deserved such a fate to be thrust upon them.

"All hell is about to break loose," Corrine said after a while.

At first, I didn't even register those words. Grief had rendered me speechless, eating away at me like a cancer, consuming my very soul and replacing the holes it left in its wake with pain—the kind of pain that would never heal or go away. If, by some fortunate twist of fate, we survived what came next, I doubted these wounds would ever fade.

Nearly half of the family I'd built with Derek was gone. How would we ever recover from this? How would I find the strength to get out of bed in the morning? How could I even breathe?

My gaze wandered across the hall until it found Rose, nestled in Caleb's arms and crying her heart out. There she was. My resolve. My strength. The one creature I could still fight for, along with those who'd come from her, whom we'd raised and loved as our own. Our family wasn't dead yet.

The Hermessi had not annihilated us all. The Novaks were still here, dammit. And we had no intention of going down without a fight!

"Let them try," I said, wiping my tears. "Let the bastards try and come after us!"

"Sofia!" Corrine said, downright astonished by my outburst.

I kissed Derek on the lips, drawing courage from his love, and decided to channel my energy into something I still had a remnant of control over. Our Shade. Our beloved home. Our planet. And the entire Earthly Dimension.

"No, I'm serious! Brendel thinks she can wipe us all out. We can't let her. This isn't the In-Between or the Supernatural Dimension," I said, raising my voice as I addressed everyone inside the great hall. "We may have lost the battle, but we have yet to lose the war. We still have an advantage here. Our dimension may be easy to breach, now, but our Hermessi stand strong in our defense! Taeral is still looking for Death. Even if we lost the other two dimensions, it doesn't mean Death will allow this one to be lost, too."

"But what can she do?" Rose asked, her voice raspy and low. I had a feeling her strength was on its last legs, barely holding on. "The Hermessi have full powers now. They can come in and do as they please. They're more destructive than ever."

"And so are Earth's Hermessi," I replied. "Whatever powers Brendel and her cohorts, it also strengthens the rebels and our elementals. We cannot, and we will not succumb to this! We… We can't."