Grunts of effort, shouts of triumph, and screams of pain made a gruesome soundtrack to the battle that raged in the Atacama Desert. Valerie's eyes scanned the scene, and the horror of it all overcame her. She threw up on her shoes.

Thai held her hair, and she was grateful when he didn't say anything about it. There were no words of comfort for what was happening now, all under her direction. She could tell herself there was no other way, that this was all in the name of keeping Earth free, but a part of her couldn't justify the carnage.

Henry's mind touched hers, and her gaze flew to a glassy dune to the north of where she stood. She saw Kanti's swan flag first, a rallying point for her soldiers. Nearby, Henry and Kanti were fighting back-to-back. Kanti held her staff, but it was more of an accessory than a weapon, since she was using magic to conjure up thorny branches that pricked her enemies with light.

Henry wasn't using his light-infused machete much, either. Valerie peeked in his mind and saw that he was using his psychic powers to confuse the Fractus's minds, like his fellow Empaths were on the Globe. Valerie wished that she'd had the foresight to have a contingent of Empaths on Earth.

"To Henry," she said to Thai, and together, they entered the fray.

With their hands clasped, Thai and Valerie became a powerful force. If Reaper's dark particles were chipping away at the magic within her, she couldn't tell while touching Thai.

Even fighting one-handed, she had to rein herself in so that she didn't cause fatal damage to the Fractus she encountered. Thai's hand was tense in hers, and she knew that he was also struggling to wield the immense power they created together.

Though they were holding back, they slammed through the fighting like a freight train, leaving a path of unconscious bodies littered on either side of them. In her peripheral vision, Valerie thought she saw Reaper's dark scythe cutting through her soldiers, but when she turned to verify it, he was gone.

They were still a distance away from Henry and Kanti when Valerie saw Ani walking through the crowd. Valerie's guess as to Reaper's tactic was apparently correct—he was sending his best soldiers to Earth.

Ani's sweet voice worked its magic. The soldiers it touched dropped to one knee, heads bowed, creating a path for her to walk down unhindered. Her gaze was sharp and focused on one thing—Kanti.

"Look out!" Valerie shouted, her voice lost in the battle sounds.

But Henry's mind was connected with hers, and he spotted Ani when she was a few yards away. Ani's eyes went black, and Kanti's staff and Henry's daggers flickered as darkness descended around them like a fog.

Both of their weapons had been embedded with Cyrus's new light treatment, but it was no match for the power Ani was wielding.

Ani spared a glance at Valerie and then shouted an order that Valerie couldn't hear. Quickly, she and Thai were ringed by a dozen black-eyed Fractus.

Valerie was forced to focus on the battle in front of her, and she only saw snatches of Henry and Kanti's vicious fight with Ani. She saw Ani strike Kanti, sending her reeling, and Henry's ineffective swipe with his dim weapon. She made out the screech of frustration when Ani sprang on Kanti, and Kanti's vines wound around her arms and threw her off.

Valerie didn't see the blow that killed Ani. She and Thai broke through the circle of Fractus and saw Kanti's white face and bloody staff. Ani lay still, her skull dented, at Kanti's feet. Henry's arm was around Kanti's waist, but he was concentrating on diverting the attention of any Fractus near them so they didn't attack while Kanti was stunned.

Kanti's eyes connected with Valerie's. "I killed her. I've never killed anyone before."

"You were defending your life, and making the world safe for people with no magic," Valerie said.

Kanti nodded once, and she seemed to shake off her stupor. "I knew one of us had to die, and I'm glad it wasn't me. But she was my friend, once."

Thai squeezed Valerie's hand, and she jump-kicked an approaching Fractus. She hit him in the chest, and he flew twenty-five feet.

"We have to get to the tent with the Carne," Henry said. "I saw Cyrus and Sanguina go in there a while ago, and I don't know how many Fractus they had to battle once they were inside."

Kanti sucked in a breath and dashed away a stray tear. "I hope my soldiers didn't see that. Not good for morale to see your princess crying like a teenage girl."

"We are teenage girls," Valerie said. "Ones who save the universe."

Her words had the desired effect of eliciting a little smile from Kanti, and the four of them began making their way to the tent with the pool of Carne inside.

Valerie didn't know if the Fractus were actively avoiding the four of them, or if they simply fought together efficiently, but battling their way to the tent only took minutes.

Valerie pushed her way into the tent, which was partially shredded on one side. Inside, she heard a strangled scream and saw Sanguina writhing on the ground. Reaper stood over her, his eyes glazed and his body humming with power.

Cyrus had his arm in the black pool up to his elbow, and all of the light that usually surrounded him was gone. He was pale, and his face was covered in sweat.

"I couldn't alter it," he said, his voice weak.

Valerie yanked Cyrus out of the pool, and Henry threw himself on top of Sanguina. He moaned as his body took the brunt of Reaper's punishing magic.

"No," Sanguina said, and she heaved Henry off of her. "Do what you came to do. Follow the plan."

Juniper and Elden stumbled through the tent, a half a dozen Fractus on their heels. Valerie saw Reaper's eyes flicker over the group of them and land on the glowing poppy in Elden's hands.

Reaper raised a hand in the air, and Sanguina's scream reached a higher pitch, and then ceased. Her body dissolved before Valerie could reach her side. She didn't have time to react to what had happened to her friend before the Carne crawled out of the pool and surrounded Reaper. This time, it covered his entire body and disappeared into his pores.

As Valerie stared at the space where Sanguina had been, her grief choking her, one of Reaper's Fractus landed a blow to her skull. She fell, releasing Thai's hand.

Before the Fractus could follow up with another attack, Kanti smashed him in the chest with her staff. Henry gave Valerie a hand to stand up, and their power joined, giving her a jolt of energy.

Valerie examined Reaper, and even wreathed in Carne, she could read the fear in his eyes. All four of the pillars were in one room, and Thai was there to amplify their powers. Somehow, they'd all made it to this spot, alive, as she'd planned.

She stood, gripping Henry's hand, and Henry reached for Kanti, who reached for Cyrus. Valerie staggered to Cyrus and grasped his other hand, creating a circle with Juniper, Elden, and the poppy in the middle. Their shared magic flowed between them, and Valerie shuddered at the sweet burn of it within her. Then Thai laid a hand on her shoulder, and the sensation peaked as it ignited the power embedded in the glass dunes that surrounded them.

Her friends all gasped at the same time she did, and their heads snapped backward. Valerie was blinded by the light pouring out of them all, lighting up the circle they formed like a star. The tent surrounding them crumbled, and the Fractus near them were blown back like they were at the epicenter of an explosion.

Even Reaper staggered backward. He struggled to come closer to them, but it was like he was fighting a strong wind. Inside the circle, though, everything was warm and calm. The dark particles of Carne had been eviscerated by the light.

Their combined magic settled in her core, and her friends' trust poured into her mind. It was hers to wield, to steer, as she willed.

She turned their magic on the remaining Carne in the pool, and it started to bubble. As it boiled, the color changed to something molten, and when it flowed toward Reaper, he grunted at its touch. With all this power, they could end his life, turn the Carne in his pores to lava that would burn him alive.

"It's not enough," she whispered, knowing that her friends could hear her. "We end this for now, but for how long? We have to use this magic for something greater than a victory today."

The solution she had searched for had been behind a door in her mind that now sprang open. Her friends' magic surged in response to her own at the realization of what had to be done.

They sent their magic out, out into the world in an ecstatic burst of power, exploding like a nuclear bomb. But instead of ending the world, they would save it. Their magic rippled out, igniting the spark of magic within the first human it touched.

Soon hundreds, thousands, millions of people were touched by the burst of power, their magic awakened, and it continued to spread until it encased the planet in a glow.

As quick as a thought, they were in Arden, in the middle of The Horseshoe, and their combined light detonated again. The pulse was less powerful than the one on Earth, but Valerie knew that it was enough to drive out the poisonous particles of Carne that Reaper had released into the Globe's atmosphere. She caught a glimpse of Skye and Jack's twin expressions of surprise before they flicked back to Earth.

In its sheath at her side, her sword trembled, as if the soul of Pathos was sending her a message. Without reading the words on its hilt, Valerie knew that its promise had come true today. The Balance was restored. Humans would never be under the thumb of Fractus or Conjurors, because now, they were all united by magic.

Juniper gripped the poppy, ready to bind Earth's magic. She smiled. They didn't need it now.

"It's okay. Don't—" Valerie began, when a movement at the edge of her vision distracted her.

Before she could turn to face Reaper's raised scythe, Cyrus shoved her, hard, and she fell to the ground. Abruptly, the light, the connection, the pool of magic within her vanished.

The absence of her link with Henry, Cyrus, and Kanti was so disorienting that her brain didn't process what happened.

She touched something warm and wet and red. Reaper had cut through Cyrus with his scythe, slicing him cleanly through his torso. He'd been aiming for her, and Cyrus had saved her. Again. Without pausing, even to gloat, Reaper stomped on the flower that Juniper dropped when he raised his blade.

Valerie hardly noticed. She could think of nothing except saving her best friend. But when she gripped Cyrus's hand, she couldn't release her power into his still form. He was gone.

Valerie opened her mouth to scream, but she wasn't sure if she made a sound, because for a few seconds, she couldn't hear anything. She almost gave in to the darkness at the edges of her vision, but then her mind became clear, more focused than she'd ever been before.

No. She would not allow Cyrus to be dead.

Thai hauled her to her feet as Reaper turned to her. She was his next target. Her emotions were curiously absent, even when his face was inches from hers. In one swift move, she knew that she could unsheathe her sword of light and plunge it through Reaper. It might kill him, and there was a kind of poetic justice that the sword Cyrus had crafted with a piece of himself would be the weapon that killed his murderer.

But she couldn't summon any hate, staring into the eyes of the man who had tortured her brother, murdered her father, imprisoned her mother for eternity, and now slayed Cyrus. Instead, something more powerful rose in her. She didn't want any more blood and ugliness in the world.

She'd heal Reaper. If she saved him, she'd save Cyrus. Together, they'd bring her best friend back, use Reaper's magic to turn back time or activate his cells or something. They'd find a way.

Valerie's vivicus power leaped to the surface, and with Thai's hand gripping hers, its flow was hers to control. She'd find whatever darkness lived in Reaper and snuff it out, like she'd done with Henry's depression.

Whatever Reaper had been expecting, it wasn't this. She poured her power into him, chasing out the darkness inside him. The Carne oozed back out of his pores, pushed out by her magic. But the darkness was still there, embedded in the fabric of his being.

Reaper's mouth was open, and his hands opened and shut helplessly at his sides. Valerie attacked the evil inside of him with every drop of her magic, knowing that she was going farther than she ever had before. She was fearless as she poured herself into him, driving out the evil that was intertwined with his soul.

A part of her mind heard Henry screaming at her to stop, to let go of her power, but it continued to pulse out of her. It wasn't that she couldn't stop its flow—she didn't want to. She'd take the evil that had killed Cyrus and banish it from existence, even if she sacrificed her mind in the process. If she poured enough of herself, enough of her magic, into Reaper, she'd bring back Cyrus. The alternative couldn't be borne.

Her power blew through Reaper, dissolving all of the darkness it found, until there was no more, but whether it was no more darkness or no more of her own magic to fight it, she wasn't sure.

She was limp, but remained standing, only swaying slightly. Reaper's gaze was puzzled, as if he was staring at something inside her that he couldn't understand. His pulse beat erratically in his throat, and then he moaned, gripping his chest, and collapsed to the ground.

Thai knelt beside Reaper and gripped his wrist. "He's dead."

Valerie started shaking all over. "No, that's not right."

Henry's mind touched hers as he held her hand. "It's okay. You didn't kill him. If you did, you'd be dead, too. Remember?"

"I healed him. I saved him," she said, knowing she was babbling, but unable to stop. "He's alive, and good, and now we're going to save Cyrus."

She got on her knees and tried to pour more of her vivicus magic into Reaper, but it met a wall.

"It was a heart attack," Thai said, his tone gentle.

"I killed him," Valerie said. "And Cyrus...Cyrus..."

If the ground beneath her feet dropped out from under her, it would make more sense than Cyrus being gone. The pain went too deep for tears.

"Oh, please, don't let it be true," Valerie whispered, as Thai pulled her to him.

Henry rested his hand on her shoulder. "You can't fold yet. Stay with me. We're not done."

The raw pain of losing Cyrus threatened to swallow her, but she pushed it back. Not yet. She sucked in a steadying breath and turned to meet Henry's eyes, allowing him into her mind so he could see that she'd hold it together, for now.

She took a step forward and almost tripped over Reaper's corpse. She'd almost forgotten about him, even as she'd tried to heal him. She was surprised that she felt nothing toward Reaper anymore. No rage for what he'd done, or guilt over causing his death. Only a little relief that her greatest enemy—the world's greatest enemy—was dead.