Kanti left to find Henry on Earth, and Valerie searched the Black Castle to see if any Fractus remained from Reaper's original force, but all she found were bones. Whether they were soldiers of the Fist, or prisoners Reaper had executed, she'd never know. But the castle was abandoned.

She knew that she was delaying the inevitable. Chisisi and Skye would be awaiting her direction, and Thai needed to know what had happened to his brother.

Valerie looked over the throne room one last time and turned when she heard footsteps. Sanguina walked over to Zunya's remains and paused.

"Artificial," Sanguina said, nudging Zunya's hand, which was the only part of him that hadn't disintegrated, with her toe. "Reaper took his real hand as punishment. Later, he gave Zunya a fake hand and animated it with his magic, but Zunya always rubbed it, and I'm sure Reaper made it hurt as a reminder never to betray him."

"Are you sorry he's dead?" Valerie asked. She couldn't summon up any regret in her own heart for the man who'd made her life hell from the time she was a child.

Sanguina's face twisted. "He turned me into a vampyre. My only regret is that he didn't die by my hand."

"And that his death didn't give Henry any peace," Valerie said.

"Kanti is with your brother now, but he is a shell. Even she cannot penetrate the fog of his pain," Sanguina said.

"I don't think anyone can," Valerie said.

"I know something about being lost in your guilt, tortured by decisions made that cannot be undone," Sanguina said. "And I know that it is possible to find your way back to yourself."

Valerie couldn't speak, not wanting to let her emotions escape the tight rein she had on them. But she gripped Sanguina in a brief, tight hug.

"You have my forgiveness, and my friendship," she said.

Chisisi was in a safe house in India when Valerie found him at last, but he wasn't alone. Crammed into the tiny space were at least twenty people, many of them shouting.

"You will be heard, but only if everyone stops talking at once," Chisisi said, and the crowd quieted slightly.

"Why should we show the Fractus mercy when they give us none?" Elisabeth asked, and the murmuring that followed her words sounded like agreement.

"Because we're trying to create a better world than the one the Fractus are forcing upon us," Valerie replied.

All of the heads in the room swiveled to look at her, and now the quiet in the room was complete.

"I know what it is to have the Fractus attack you and kill the people you love. My father was killed by Reaper, as was one of my closest friends only a few months ago. I have the ability to kill my enemies on the battlefield, and even though sometimes I'm so overwhelmed by rage that I could choke, I choose to stay my hand. I do it to make the world a little better, so that one less child loses a parent, or sister loses a brother, or husband loses a wife. And so far, I don't regret that decision."

"Are you asking us to be martyrs?" Elisabeth asked.

"No! I know that some Fractus will die when we fight them, and though we grieve, we have to move on," Valerie said. "But when we can, let's capture them. It will mean that both Earth and the Globe will heal faster when all of this is over."

"I've seen too much death in my line of work." Dr. Freeman's deep voice calmed Valerie's heart, like it always had when he'd taken care of her at the hospital. "I, for one, will follow Valerie's lead in this."

"As will I," Chisisi said, his voice quiet but powerful.

Valerie was reminded that even with her advisers dead or sick or absent, there were always friends who understood her ideals and would stand with her to defend them.

The debate continued, but much of the anger in the room had dissipated. When people drifted away, she made her way to Chisisi's side.

"Did the Fractus retreat? Is that why people have gathered here instead of fighting?" Valerie asked.

"They didn't so much retreat... More like they vanished," Dr. Freeman said.

"My contacts all say that battles were raging, people were falling on both sides, but then the fighting ceased. It was as if the Fractus had received a signal to stop attacking," Chisisi said.

"Somehow, I doubt this is good news," Valerie said.

"Indeed. My guess is that Reaper has located the flame," Chisisi said. "He was drawing away our forces from the Atacama Desert so that he could search without interference."

"But the charm that binds magic on Earth is still in place, right?" Dr. Freeman asked.

"It must be. I'm as weak as a kitten from all the fighting I've done today, but if I was on the Globe, I'd be fine," Valerie affirmed.

"Everyone on the planet will know when the spell is broken," Chisisi said. "It is very powerful."

"We have to get to Reaper before he figures out how to put out the flame," Valerie said.

"I will continue my search in the desert. My contacts had several leads they were following," Chisisi said.

"Good," Valerie agreed. "But I'm going to try another angle. I'm going to go directly to Reaper."

After leaving Chisisi and Dr. Freeman and briefly contacting Skye, Valerie returned home. It was dark out, and she saw Cyrus sitting on her stoop, a slight glow coming off of him as it always did. As she came closer, she saw that he was sitting next to Thai.

Cyrus handed him a curved, double-bladed knife that glowed brightly with his magic embedded in it.

"No weapon is more powerful than this one, except Pathos," Cyrus said. "It's from the People of the Woods, and I've woven as much light as I can into it. It will shatter any black weapon you meet."

"Thank you," Thai said. "But—"

"I didn't make this for you because I want us to be friends, okay? It's for Valerie. She's lost enough people that she loves, and I don't want to see her lose anyone else. Now you can protect yourself when she'd not around."

They both saw her then, and Cyrus stood. Valerie was glad it was dark so that he couldn't see her expression. He brushed past her, but as he did, he squeezed her hand once, and Valerie let a little hope flutter into her heart that maybe they'd be friends again someday. She couldn't bear to believe the alternative.

"Thank God you're back," Thai said as the gate shut after Cyrus. "I've had the strangest feeling that something was wrong, missing somehow, and I thought maybe you'd been hurt."

Thai folded her in a hug, and she breathed in his smell, relishing it before she had to deliver her bombshell.

"Something awful did happen today," Valerie said. She could barely look him in the eye as she gathered the courage to tell him of his loss. "Tan died today."

The rest of her account of what happened came out in a rush, while Thai stared at her, stunned. He sat back down on her front stoop, his head in his hands. He raked his fingers through his hair.

"I'm sorry I couldn't save him," Valerie said, resting her head on his shoulder. "Not just today. I should have tried harder to rescue him, to drag him back to us so we could make him see reason. He wasn't bad, not at his core."

"Maybe not just from Venu's poison. It changed him, but it was after he murdered Venu... Another piece of the good part of him died. Still, I loved him. You don't stop loving a brother, ever."

Thai let her hold him, and they stared up at all the stars from her stoop.

"Maybe it's wrong, but I can't stop thinking that I'm glad that my bad feeling today wasn't that I lost you," Thai said, his voice low in her ear.

Valerie knew that she should tell him that she would be seeking out Reaper soon, and that they could never truly be together, even if they won the war, but it wasn't the time. Instead, she said what was in her heart.

"I love you."

The next morning, Valerie got ready with extra care, making sure to tie her hair back in a long braid so it wouldn't get in her way, and carefully strapping Pathos tightly to her side. But she wasn't afraid of what the day would bring. Before, Reaper had always sought her out, and a part of her was always tense, waiting for their next encounter. This time, it would be on her terms.

Before beginning her search, Valerie headed to The Horseshoe to check in with Skye. She found the centaur in his office in the Relations Guild. He was neighing lightly, and Valerie realized he was asleep. But when she crossed the threshold, he awakened with a snort.

"A bit early for your morning call, aren't you?" he asked.

"Sorry for waking you," she said. "But I have an idea, and I don't think we can wait. We're almost sure that Reaper has the flame. We can wait for him to figure out how to put it out, and then incite war on both worlds, or we can beat him to it."

Skye flicked his tail as he considered her words. "An act of aggression. Not your usual style."

"Humans will be slaughtered if the Fractus can unleash their full magic on Earth. We have to cripple them now, and I think we should wage that battle on the Globe to keep innocent people from getting caught in the crossfire."

"If we attack now, it will be bloody," Skye said. "And we will lose. The Fractus outnumber us, especially with so many of our soldiers on Earth."

"The Fractus are spread all over the Globe. What if we attacked only where we could maximize the damage we cause?"

"Of course. Plymouth," Skye said.

Valerie pulled out the map Willa had given her of Plymouth and traced her finger over the river that she had found with Cyrus. Her gut told her that Reaper would want to be close to his new source of power, exploring how he could exploit it to his own ends.

"If I'm right, these caves will have the greatest concentration of Carne. Let me sneak in and signal you if it turns out I'm right. Then you can burst in with a hundred of our best soldiers, and we'll destroy it all."

"I agree with your logic, but how will we enter Plymouth?" Skye asked.

Valerie grinned. "That's where a little help from Willa comes in."

"Should we call on the Knights in the Fractus to turn to our side for this battle?" Skye asked, pawing at the ground.

Valeriehesitated. "Not yet. If this plan fails, those Knights will be our last chanceto stop Reaper if he attacks Earth."