"It's over now, Kristen," said Kommora. "Give up. How far does the inner circle spread?"

Kristen said nothing, keeping her eyes trained on Seiren. Seiren continued to retreat, her heart squeezing so tight she could barely breathe. Kristen was her mother, and not her mother at the same time. There was no warmth to her. It was as if a demon had taken over and masqueraded with her mother's face and pulled these terrible stunts. She gripped the rune Kommora gave her, trembling all over.

Seiren, do you hear that?

Seiren frowned and turned her head. She wouldn't have heard it if Madeleine hadn't pointed it out. A thick pile of rubble lay at the main door opening into the front garden. She was certain it had been intact when she first passed it. On the other side came the low voice she knew well: Rowan. Except she had never heard such a callous tone before.

"Now you'll truly know the pain."

A shrill scream followed, sending shivers down Seiren's spine. She tugged out chalk and, having ran out of rune paper, kicked the rug aside and sketched directly on the stone ground. She snapped her fingers. Her magic reserve dipped again, leaving her short of breath and with double vision. The red rune glowed and shot into the pile of rubble.

Seiren's mouth dried the moment her red rune blasted the pile out of her way, revealing the doorway that opened into the main courtyard. Disaster. The topiaries she'd passed earlier were incinerated to a crisp. Half the wall to her left had collapsed, with deep craters on the surface.

And standing amongst the rubble, torching Karis Bonneville with each clap, was Rowan.

She had never seen his face like that before. The lively glow in his blue-green eyes was dull, his cheeks sunken, his movements rigid like a statue. He clapped rhythmically, without passion, releasing burst after burst of increasingly hot fire, scorching Karis Bonneville, who was only recognisable by her white-blonde hair. The rest of her body was mangled: one arm was a bloodied stump, the other was missing completely, and both her legs were charred until they were black strips across white bone. She continued to scream, but Rowan appeared to not hear her, carrying on with the slow and steady torture.

"Rowan! Snap out of it!" begged Tylene. She knelt beside an unconscious Dent, both of them battered and bruised. Seiren staggered down the steps towards him and slammed a hand over Rowan's as he raised them to clap again.

"Rowan, don't!" she yelled.

He jerked his hand, and then whirled around, turning his arm as if about to strike her. He hesitated, recognising her face at last.

"This isn't you, Rowan," Seiren said, breathless. His eyes were hollow pits. His hand shook. She almost expected him to slap her, but he froze in his position.

"She killed Loren," he said in a broken voice. Seiren nodded, anxiety swirling in her stomach. Bonneville no longer stirred. "I couldn't stop her. It's my fault. This is all my fault."

He's hurting.

"Killing Bonneville won't bring Loren back. And she wouldn't have wanted this. Not you. Not like this."

He paused, and for a moment, Seiren thought she'd gotten through to him. He ripped his hand out of her grip, eyes ablaze, an expression so tortured she didn't recognise him for a second.

"She deserves every bit of this!"

He slammed his hands together. A pulse of powerful magic tore down his arms. Seiren recognised the flux: it was flash magic.

Seiren, don't!

Without a second thought, she leapt in front of him, arms spread.

"This is not what you're fighting for!"

"Out of my way!" he roared.

Electricity crackled down his arms; a faint scent of singed flesh hovered in the air. White light danced from his wrist down his fingers, casting dark shadows over his eyes. Madeleine shrieked in her head.

"How can you protect your teammates like this?!" Seiren screamed. A flash of white light blinded her. There was a bang so loud Seiren lost her footing and fell on her backside. The ground rumbled and a cloud of dust soared into the air. She coughed, her eyes watering and ears ringing. When it all settled, she could see the gouged-out front wall of the palace had collapsed to rubble. He'd redirected his flash. She eased out a breath she didn't realise she'd been holding. Madeleine gasped as if she'd run a marathon.

That was so dangerous. Her voice rose clearly above the deafening roar in Seiren's ears. She blinked. The cacophony began to settle.

He wouldn't have shot me. He couldn't.

What if he had?!

Rowan stared down at his shaking hands, horrified.

"What have I done?" he whispered. "I--I--"

He looked up and met her eyes before his face crumpled.

"I'm a monster."

"No-one can convince me you're a lost cause. Not even you, Rowan Woodbead," Seiren said, gripping him by the shoulders and meeting his gaze head-on.

"What are you doing here?"

"Did you really think, after all we've been through, I would just leave you behind?"

He let out a hollow laugh. "Have our roles reversed?"

"Sometimes even the geniuses are allowed an idiot moment."

He shook his head in disbelief. "I... I'm sorry. I can't believe I put you guys through that."

Seiren touched her forehead over his sweat-drenched, bent head as he clutched his temples.

"I'm an idiot. I could have killed us all."

"It gets hard being by yourself all the time. But you know we're here for you. We're your team."

She lifted her head as Tylene approached, a relieved look on her face.

"I just want to stop making promises that I can't keep," Rowan said in a tiny voice.

"Then keep them. You said you'll never abandon your team again. You said you will always be there for me, for Tylene and Dent, through thick and thin. Keep your words."

He shook his head again. "I can't believe I'm being lectured by a brat."

Seiren snorted. "You're hardly a sage yourself, Rowan Woodbead."

He clapped her on the shoulder, looking more like himself. Colour returned to his cheeks and a familiar gleam sparked in his eyes.

"You're... okay?" he said, hesitant.

"Perfectly fine. Almost got struck by flash magic, but otherwise, dandy." She paused. "Was that lightning flash?"

He grinned, sheepish, and slid down to his knees.

"I'll look after him," said Tylene, crouching down beside Rowan. She offered him an arm, but he ignored her, staring blankly ahead. Seiren stood up and backed towards the palace; she wanted to see it through to the end, see her mother's awful aspirations put to rest. She'd made it through the archway when Maura's dangerous voice cut through the air like an icy blade.

"Do not move, Nithercott."

Maura stood closest to Seiren with her back to her, focused on Kristen and Kommora. Kommora's face was black with thunder. She clutched all the white runed rope that wrapped Kristen like a cocoon, from shoulder down to her toes. Kristen sat with her knees drawn, bent over. At her feet in a small, perfect circle was an organic magic pool, swirling in their unnatural silvery white colour.

"There is no reinforcement for you. Deactivate the Karma rune now!"

"The rune's active?" Seiren said faintly.

"No, but it's primed. Came out of nowhere. We're not out of the woods." Maura tensed. "She isn't giving up yet."

"But why? The king's mages have fallen. There aren't even any soldiers around any more!"

"She must have something up her sleeve." Maura's voice was low as she scanned the horizon beyond the windows. "The organic magic rune is catalysed by life or death. She is a powerful mage, but even she can't power a nation-wide rune by herself. That must be why she's killed off so many people, to kick off the reaction... and the fact that she's holding out means the rune may still work."

She caught sight of Seiren's horror.

"Don't give up yet, Nithercott," she said in her usual snappy voice. "As long as you're alive, there's always something you can do. Once you're a dead sack of meat, then it doesn't bloody matter what happens to you, or me, for that matter, but we can still change this."

"The rune's working," Seiren said in a small voice.

"It won't be if I kill her right now," said Ashworth, striding forward with a throwing knife gleaming in her hand.

"It won't stop it," Kristen said, looking up with a sweet smile that chilled Seiren. The organic rune's light gave her otherwise gentle face a sinister hue. "All it needs is a spark, and I've given it that spark. The catalysis will do its work."

Madeleine, huddled in Seiren's mind, could only watch in horrified silence.

"Well, nobody's died for your scheme yet, and nobody will, because all your little weapon stashes are closely guarded by Edgard Woodbead and his men. Nobody will be able to access it from the outside." Kommora tightened the runed ties around her. "This is nullifier-infused, so don't try anything. We can activate it before you can even blink."

Kristen's eyes gleamed. "That is where your confidence becomes your downfall, Kommora."

She pitched forward. Kommora reacted at once, tugging on the ties. The rope tightened around Kristen's body, glowing violet and spreading over her body. Kristen's face scrunched up as her link to magic dissipated temporarily. The rope held her up, preventing her from collapsing onto the ground.

In the distance, several deafening explosions rumbled through the city. Small black mushroom clouds erupted.

"No!" Maura yelled. She stormed at Kristen, rune paper and chalk in her hand, only to be halted by Kommora.

"Don't go near her, Woodbead!"

Maura halted and snarled before she whipped her head back at the growing clouds of smoke. Seiren followed her line of sight.

I wonder what's over there, said Madeleine.

"What the hell have you done?" Kommora snarled, yanking at Kristen's ties. "You blew up our soldiers?!"

Kristen panted, sweat glistening at her brow and a triumphant grin on her face. "I knew you would do that. You just spelled your own downfall."

It was a trap?

She... wanted this to happen? Seiren's blood ran cold.

As the smoke dissipated, the ground turned a swirling, blinding mix of colours. The light spread as small tendrils from beneath Kristen, linking with each other as well as branching outwards. The light made everything difficult to see, bathed in stark black and white, the silvery mix a wholly unnatural shade of magic. At the same time, an overwhelming, crushing sensation descended like a fog, almost forcing Seiren's knees to buckle.

"Activate the nullifier -- now!" Kommora hollered.

Seiren pulled out the rune Kommora had given her and, along with the other rune mages, knelt down and pressed her magic into the sketch.

The last of her reserve melted away. Her rune glowed violet, sinking into the ground before exploding outwards with needle-thin bouts of light. Her magic reserve poured like an opened dam into the paper. The same happened with the other rune mages. They panted, limbs trembling from fatigue and sweat pouring down their faces. They must already be exhausted, and further drained from the widespread rune magic.

It was a peculiar sensation, nullifying her own magic. The last of Seiren's magic reserve drained away until she was a mere shell of a body, a dull ache deep within her chest. It hurt to even exist. A few of the mages who had already taken a beating, like Halen Ashworth and Kommora, looked as if they were ready to keel right over.

Kristen laughed, a hollow, chilling sound. Ashworth got up and swayed before advancing towards Kristen with her knife.

"You want to risk that, Ashworth?" Kristen said softly. "You may have slowed the rune with the nullifier, but you saw what happened when Kommora severed my magic. It was only my magic that prevented those weaponry collections from exploding. Do you want to find out what I'd tied my life to?"

She knew Kommora would nullify her, said Madeleine. Kristen's level of manipulation was more sinister than Kommora's; Seiren swallowed, almost afraid to see how this would pan out.

Ashworth hesitated, her knife still raised.

Despite the nullifier, the organic-coloured swirls expanded, bathing everyone in its vicinity in the same ethereal glow. It slowed as it reached the edge of the chamber. That must mark the end of the centre of the circle.

Seiren was barely conscious from exhaustion, watching the whole scene unfold with numbed horror. Edevane, Bellamy Southwark's junior, collapsed, unable to withstand the suffocating effect of the country-wide organic rune.

"And now, we reap our rewards," said Kristen, triumphant.

Seiren's body froze.

"Rowan's still outside!" she gasped. 

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