*A note for Ao3 readers. Ao3's XIX - doors of death was split into the previous chapter XIX - sorcerers and the this chapter XX - doors of death

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The Sphinx pulled the sword out of Garreth's chest and walked back to Kendra. The seconds slowed down.

Kendra couldn't breathe. She couldn't hear. There was nothing. Terror overwhelmed her as she gazed at Garreth. His blank eyes stared at her and the green of his shirt darkened to deep red. This couldn't be the end. No, no, no.

Kendra felt so raw. Eviscerated. Someone had scooped out all her insides.

Garreth had sacrificed his life for her. She was so unworthy. Her heart tore in half. Visions of their beloved escapades overwhelmed her eyes until her tears gushed with pain. Their first meeting in the rain. The play. The treehouse. The endless courtroom drama they endured together. The walks in the garden. The warm hand-holding and soft cheek kisses. His arms wrapped around her. Sweet words whispered in her ear. Undying devotion. Forgiveness. Learning a new world for her. Following her into the most dangerous place in the world.

And, now. Dying. Dying at the hands of magic.

For her.

King Dalgorel had been convinced that Kendra would lead Garreth into harm. He hadn't been wrong.

Slick blood pooled underneath Garreth's body, sliding over the stone floor and staining the various scattered pillows. Kendra couldn't tear her eyes from him. She felt if she looked away, she'd miss a miracle where he sat up. That if she looked away, she was admitting death. No, she would stare because something would change. It had to.

Her plan failed as her tears blurred Garreth from her sight, and she slumped to her knees.

Kendra's previous explosion of vines, flowers, and plants died as the Sphinx strolled closer to her. Leaves curled into brown droppings and vines shriveled as the Sphinx laughed at her plight. As the life drained out of the plants, the cuts along the Sphinx's skin disappeared. It was the opposite of how Kendra healed. She poured her magic into others to heal them. He stole life to heal himself.

Kendra's eyes snapped open.

It was the opposite. A mirror.

Magic was a mirror. That was what the Sphinx said, right?

Kendra grew flora, the Sphinx snuffed it. She birthed light and he wielded darkness. Therefore, it stood to reason all dark magic had its counterpart.

If dark magic used ice, then light magic could use heat. It's not like Muriel or anyone had ever taught that to Kendra. But, as the Sphinx had said, magical knowledge had been lost a million times over. It was up to her to recover it.

Kendra pushed her magic to the icey bonds around her hands and feet and concentrated on forming heat instead of just light. She thought of hot summer days and crackling fires. It worked. Frigid water splashed to the ground as the bonds melted.

The Sphinx raised his eyebrows in vague impressment as he reached her. The last of the plants dropped dead to the ground, and their sacrifice showed in his glowing, smooth skin. With that final brown vine, Kendra's lost her ability to use plant magic. "Now, we might finally have a fair fight."

Kendra took a deep breath and got to her feet. She was done playing his stupid little games and continuing light-hearted banter while Garreth's blood stained his hands and the sounds of Gavin and Muriel's battle only grew.

It was time to see what she could truly do.

Maybe Kendra and the Sphinx had started out the same like he had said. But, they weren't going to end the same. He was driven by fear, bitterness, anger, and sadness. That wasn't Kendra. She wasn't going to allow her worst parts to overwhelm her. She wasn't going to allow her life to be focused on the low points.

Kendra had experienced so much love in her life, and as she stared at Garreth's bleeding form, she thought of the good. The warmth, the kindness, the love that they had shared. She thought of her brother—always there for her. Vanessa, Patton, Warren. Her grandparents. Her parents. The love they all shared crossed demarcated hatred, and it fueled her magic.

Golden light arced off her skin and Kendra's temperature rose like a sudden fever had taken her. The Sphinx narrowed his eyes and approached, but in the moment before he reached her, the room erupted into a blinding light. The Sphinx yelled and clutched his eyes, dropping his sword to the ground. But, Kendra could see just fine. She could see the scrambling Sphinx and her love's deathly form on the bloody ground.

Magic was a mirror. However, there wasn't a true boundary between the two disciplines. Most people were better at one or the other—light or dark, and could only handle wielding one. But Kendra? She was a prodigy. She was a priestess of the highest order. She was no layman.

Kendra lunged for the Sphinx, tackling the short man to the ground. He struck blindly at her, punching her face and kicking her body. But, it was no matter. She had a single mission. She dodged his attacks and her hands found purchase on his throat.

With her fingers around the Sphinx's neck, she could see his magic and his life force intimately entertwined. It was unlike any other mortal's. Kendra broke past the barriers and tugged it to her. She gasped as his very essence entered her. The vitality was more than one person should ever have in their body. It was exhilarating. It was drunken.

Kendra was like a magnet stuck to this power. Magic and life, one and the same, flooded her veins and inebriated her body. But, this wasn't for her. She ripped her hands away from the Sphinx's now lifeless neck and dropped beside Garreth. His glassy eyes stared up at her, seeing nothing. Kendra placed her two palms on his soaked chest and pushed.

Life coursed through her like rushing river rapids. There had been so much vitality in the Sphinx. Unnatural vitality. And she pushed it into Garreth's ripped heart. She kept feeding it until there was not a single drop left.

Nothing happened.

She laid her head down and sobbed onto his bloody tunic, red staining her cheeks.

Kendra had taken a gamble with the limits of magic as she knew them, and it hadn't budged the doors of death. Heart-shattering disappointment crushed her feeble hope.

But, just as Kendra's last tears dampened his blood-soaked tunic, fingers wrapped around her wrist. Her head shot up and through her blurry film of tears, there it was. There was that lightning smile she knew and loved. Garreth sat up and wrapped his left arm around her. His right one, the one that had been pierced, hung at his side.

"Kendra?" His breath ghosted her cheek.

"Oh, Garreth." She buried herself further into their embrace. With her head tucked against his neck, she could hear the steady beating of his heart. With her roaming hands, she could feel his now intact skin. There was a raised scar on his back and front where the Sphinx had rammed his blade, but it was only a defunct memory. Garreth was alive.

"You saved my life." He pulled back and kissed her cheek. His soft lips became covered in his own blood that Kendra had gotten on her face. She used her sleeve to wipe it off. "I love you, you know that?"

"I love you too."

She loved every part of him. She loved holding him and being held. She loved his easy conversation and corny jokes. She loved how he painted better than he fought but he still could beat any knight. She loved his forgiveness.

He kissed her forehead and rose to his feet, using his good hand to pull her to her feet. "Let's go help Muriel."

Both of them took a deep breath and readied for battle once again. Kendra melted the ice on the entry doors and Garreth wrenched them open.

The entry room was a mess. Blood dripped down the torn wallpaper, broken furniture littered the floor, and smoke filled Kendra's nose. Chaos overwhelmed her.

But what truly drew her eyes was in the center. Gavin held Muriel against him. His sword bit into her neck, and his eyes widened in horror at what he saw behind Kendra and Garreth. In a split second, he pulled his sword like a bowstring across Muriel's neck. No!

Muriel's eyes caught Kendra's and she smiled. Her lips whispered something, with blood gurgling through, and the brittle, brown vegetation from the Sphinx's room shot through the doors and wrapped both Muriel and Gavin into a cocoon. Kendra rushed to the brown tomb as it dissipated into dust. Only Muriel remained and she crashed to the floor.

Kendra dropped to Muriel's side and immediately threw up. Half of Muriel's neck was sliced, and blood and veins spilled out. There was no bargaining, no hope. There was no fixing this. Kendra screamed in frustration. She could never win. Never.

This was death.

Kendra cradled Muriel's body. Tears slipped out of Kendra's eyes like a waterfall and she screamed and screamed. Her magic could do nothing. Useless, useless!

If only Gavin was here and Kendra could kill him to use his lifeforce. But, Muriel had purposefully used the cocoon to kill him in a way that left no body. Why, Muriel? She must have known that Kendra could reroute life. She must have always known that. Muriel always knew everything before Kendra did.

So, why had Muriel taken Gavin away? Why?

Garreth tugged at her shoulder. "Kendra, I'm sorry but we need to go."

She had argued with Muriel. She had told her she hated her. She had been such a stupid girl. A stupid, naïve little girl.

Garreth pried one of her hands off of Muriel. Bells were ringing.

"No!" Kendra screamed. Her hair whipped around. They were inside, but a strong wind pushed everything around as a hurricane of magic brewed around Kendra. "Get off!"

Kendra was on her knees with Muriel's head laid in her lap. Garreth pulled away and Kendra looked up at the statues that lined the wall. In the middle, the statue of the fairy queen stood. The other likenesses must've been of the lost deities the Sphinx had spoken of, but she knew the middle statue was of the Fairy Queen, because she had seen that exact statue before. Just smaller.

In an instant, she was thirteen again. Thunder crackled as Bahumat rampaged, her family was nowhere to be found, and Kendra weeped as she cradled the statue. Asking for anyone, anyone please to help her. Asking please, if you're real, help me, Fairy Queen.

Now, the same scent of spring soil, jasmine, and honey enveloped Kendra as it had done years before.

"This is your fight, too," Kendra said with a wet voice. Her eyes focused on the beautiful, fairy wings of the statue yet the statue stood still. Kendra had done what Muriel had told her to do. She had followed the plan. She had killed the Sphinx. Goddamn it. What more did the Queen want? "I've carried out your will. I've done what was asked of my station. Help me."

Years ago, she had pleaded and laid out her humility with desperate niceties. She should've done that now. But Muriel's blood was on her hands, and she was so, so tired of being polite.

The scent of nature intensified and Kendra closed her eyes, causing fat tears to fall and sizzle on Muriel's skin. She was so fragile in Kendra's arms.

Kendra's eyes snapped open as a large crack accompanied a split on the stone floor. A spiderweb of cracks formed and pieces of stone began falling away. The entire section of the floor in front of the statue dissipated and in its place a rushing bright blue waterfall fell miraculously down into a pit of blue darkness. The rushing water overcame anything else Kendra could hear.

How was this supposed to help?

Muriel's blood gushed onto Kendra's white dress, and a lake of red formed to mirror the unnaturally blue waterfall. But when Kendra's sobbing tears mixed with Muriel's blood and the unholy concoction fell into the waterfall, everything changed.

An overwhelming sense of gratitude flooded Kendra, but it wasn't her emotion. It was the Fairy Queen's.

Horror dominated Kendra. It was gratitude for a sacrifice.

Do not be angry. Muriel Taggart knew what she was doing. She has lived and learned a great deal more than other mortals. Her blood and the blood of the former dragon will fuel the forces you need.

The words penetrated Kendra's mind. Taggart? She had never even heard Muriel's last name. She had always assumed she didn't have one. Kendra had never really known the witch, and that was reinforced until the end.

Muriel had smiled in her last moments. The conniving, grumpy old hag had smiled. Had this been her plan all along? Had Muriel come only as a sacrifice?

Even up to her death, Muriel had always been one step ahead of Kendra.

With a splash, a titanic fairy rose out of the waterfall with at least six feet of dark muscle and yellow wings that stretched from her head to her knees. Orange armor formed a titanium exoskeleton, and her expression held severity. If not for her wings, Kendra would've never connected her to the thumb-sized, twinkling, facetious fairies she remembered fondly. "We are here to help."

Another fairy flew out of the waterfall, and then another. These two were twins with blue skin and golden staffs. Three more came, each wildly different, and crowded the room.

This was the help. A seed of hope sprouted in Kendra's stomach. She was so tired and sad and full of grief. Darkness weighed her down. But, now she had others to help carry her burdens.

"Free the innocent in the dungeons," Kendra said. "Find my allies and bring them to the old temple southwest of here. From there, we're going to fly to Fablehaven and retake the citadel from the occupying forces. But, we will regroup first at the temple."

The fairies nodded in unison and fled. But as one left, another burst out of the water. A constant stream of fairies flew out of the rushing, blue rapids beneath the floor and dispersed through the many doors. Kendra counted thirty then forty and then lost count. She had full faith in their success now.

But, it didn't feel like a success at all.

Anger burned through her grief. She wanted to make the Sphinx pay but he was already dead; and so was Gavin. She wanted to push her thumbs into their eyeballs. She hated Muriel's death being some tribute to the Fairy Queen. It was an un-handmaidenly thought, but her thoughts were her own.

The last drop of blood trickled out of Muriel's neck. Her cheeks were pale and her open blue eyes stared up at Kendra. She still hadn't closed them. Was that selfish? People always closed a corpse's eyes to give them rest. But, the finality of that terrified Kendra.

She knew Muriel was dead. Her blood was all over her clothes and guts spilled onto her skirt.

But to break her gaze?

Garreth crouched in front of Kendra. Constant bursts of color behind him accompanied new fairy warriors. His dark eyes glistened and his lips parted in desperation. "Kendra. Let some of the fairies carry Muriel out."

"No." Kendra didn't look away from Muriel's icy eyes. This was her burden to carry. "No. I won't."

Rushing water and fairy talk filled the room with noise yet Kendra barely raised her voice.

He sighed and kissed the top of her head. "Okay. We'll stay here a little while longer."

A little while? No. There was no time after this.

This was the end. Grief filled Kendra's lungs and choked her. Dirt filled the former portal as the water dried up. The last five fairies stayed in the room. Two turned to hoist the statue and three walked over to Kendra.

"She died a hero's death, handmaiden. That is the best a mortal can ask for. Don't dishonor her by keeping her here in this temple to corruption." The fairy knelt to Kendra's eye level and urged Kendra to look up. She had piercing black eyes and curly brown hair. Pink ruffles peeked out from beneath her armor. Beautiful. As every fairy was.

"But—" Kendra cleared her throat. "Okay."

Kendra stood, Muriel in her arms, with support from Garreth.

The fairy kissed Kendra's cheek. Vitality rushed through her body, invigorating her tired flesh. Her mind was still an exhausted mess, but her exhausted arms no longer shook.

"Can you do that for her?" Kendra nodded down to her arms.

The sad smile the fairy gave her told her all she needed to know and Kendra sighed. She followed the fairy's wings through the winding ziggurat back to the trapdoor.

Kendra had to give up Muriel to another fairy to climb the rungs out. The fairy didn't give her back even when they all stood on the top of the ziggurat. But, Kendra's arms were exhausted and she couldn't imagine carrying Muriel any longer.

The sky was a brilliant blue, and the dazzling white sun smiled down on them. It had risen while they had been inside. Muriel hadn't even gotten to see her last sunrise.

The air was crisp and cold and Kendra mourned the loss of her jacket. She only had her flowy white dress and corset. The dress wasn't so white anymore, with dark blood crystallizing on every thread. Snow beat down at her face and her tears froze into a silent river down her cheek.

Kendra began to shiver uncontrollably, and so Garreth wrapped his good arm around her shoulders. He was solid and warm and so, so alive. His whispered assurances flew over her head, but the familiar sound grounded Kendra to the moment.

Rippling into existence, Raxtus descended onto the ziggurat. Garreth and Kendra boarded, but the fairies predictably didn't. Two shared the burden of the Fairy Queen statue, one carried Muriel, and the other two flew near Raxtus, scanning the area. They were personal guards, Kendra realized.

As they flew over the ziggurat, she couldn't process what she was seeing. There were remains of weapons and entrails scattered around the mountain, but overall casualties looked few. The fairies zipped around, towing people out of the mountain and towards the Southwest.

The fighting was over. It must have finished while Kendra had been frozen with Muriel.

In a way, she was glad she had missed it. Kendra hated the blood and loss and adrenaline. Never in a million life times could she have been a knight. And only in this one was she a handmaiden.

The warmth of Raxtus warmed her fingers and toes, but inside Kendra fought her own coldness. So many emotions bore down on her, and the familiar retreat of numbness enticed her.

But Muriel had told her not to. And Muriel had been right about the inextricable ties between her emotions, herself, and her magic. Being connected to all of herself was what had allowed Kendra to overcome the Sphinx.

But her feelings were disgusting and horrible and Kendra wanted to throw up. Nevertheless she didn't push them away. Her body began to shake. Garreth's good arm held her tighter, and Kendra thought back to the first time his arms had been around her on the horseback ride on their date. Despite the clear sky, she kept waiting for lightning to strike and throw them off Raxtus, just as it had done on Glory.

Kendra's eyes barely wandered from the fairy carrying Muriel, expecting the witch to wake up. From her angle, she couldn't even see the gruesome sliced neck. Muriel just looked asleep. Kendra clenched her fists. Her anger at Gavin, a dead man, terrified her. It was the one emotion that threatened her stability the most.

As Kendra began to recognize landmarks from this morning's flight, anxiety crept up on her. Her grandparents would be at the temple. In just a few minutes, she would see them again. She would see Lena and Trask and all of them.

What was she going to tell them?

By the time Raxtus touched down, she still hadn't figured it out. Kendra trembled as she slipped off the dragon's back and landed ungracefully on the snowy ground.

Seth bolted to her first and wrapped her in a hug. Garreth joined and then Eve and Warren and Vanessa. She cried tears of joy for their warm, living flesh. After enough time, the hug became stifling even in the freezing cold and they unwound. No one was free from a blotchy face and endless embraces abounded. The fairy with Muriel whispered to Kendra her destination and left with the witch's body.

Seth wrapped his arm around her shoulders and steered her toward the camp. "I have to warn you. They don't look good."

Kendra stiffened. "What do you mean?"

Her answer came as she entered the camp. She saw Patton first, who was cuddled with Lena.

Lena, the bright, kind soul she knew her to be, was a shell of herself. Patton was pain-stakingly combing through sections of her knotted hair and Lena had her arms around Patton's waist. Her bones looked like they were penetrating her skin. When Lena spotted Kendra, she smiled, opened her arms, and Kendra expected her skin to rip on the elbows.

Kendra dived into the hug and sobbed. This wasn't the Lena that made paint-by-numbers or stroked her hair when she was sick. She understood Seth now.

Patton hugged her too, and she couldn't imagine how he was feeling.

"My little Kendra, you are so brave," Lena said. She pulled back and cradled her teary face. "We are all so proud of you."

"I'm so sorry," she whispered. Her hoarse voice kept catching on the syllables.

"Don't worry about me. I'm made of stern stuff." Lena patted down her hair. "Your grandparents are waiting for you."

"I'm not ready." Fat tears ran down Kendra's face. If beautiful, strong Lena had buckled so under the Sphinx, how had her elderly loved ones done?

"Oh, baby." Lena took her hands. "You are. Don't make them wait any longer."

Kendra nodded. Lena led her to the back of the camp toward a fire where two figures were huddled. Her imagination and Seth's warning had fallen short. Her grandparents—the strong voice in her mind, the strong, iron figures of history books and Fablehaven—were wasted away.

Grandma looked up and reached a frail hand to her. Her hair was spotty, and her outstretched hand shook greatly. Her beautiful, beautiful grandma. "Look, Stan. It's Kendra, now."

Her grandpa followed her point and smiled. His gaze was unfocused and the smile was goofy-looking on his lips. Ugly unfamiliarity curled in her stomach. She didn't recognize them. "Dear Kendra."

Lena's hand hovered on her back, and she couldn't stop the barrage of tears that came. She had thought that she was all out, but like her endless spring of magic, her tears had no shortage.

Kendra knelt next to them and grasped their bony hands. Her apologies for her lack of haste that led to their conditions stuck in her throat. She had done her best, right? Could she have been better or faster and would this not have happened? Did she not do enough?

"Thank you, Kendra," her grandma said. "You're a worthy queen."

"Oh."

She broke and buried her face within their embrace. No other words could push past her sobs. Her grandma stroked her shaking hand through her hair, causing the strands to tangle but Kendra didn't care. Grandpa's hands around her waist had such a tight grip it hurt, but that was no matter either.

The Sphinx was dead. Her grandparents and their court were rescued. They had done it. Kendra relaxed into the hug with relief. With her arms wrapped around them both, she couldn't imagine ever letting go again.

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thank you for reading!

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