There's a bag over your head. Do you hear me? There's a bag over your head. Don't act panicked when you open your eyes to black. Sit upright on your knees and wait for command.

The Void Queen's order comes to me in my sleep. Somehow, my mind digests it as a familiar voice, as someone trusting. Like the trickle of snow melting to water, the world comes back to me. The Fulgur Turrim as it comes to a rocking stop, clattered footsteps upon soft terrain, a familiar breeze whistling in the distance.

We're here.

My eyes snap open from a deep slumber, and I'm not surprised to come face to face with light breaking through a burlap sack over my head. She must've slowed my heart rate enough to keep me from waking, or I really lost all sense of desire to protect myself from anyone stepping close. If she slipped the sack over my head without my fight, I really need to reevaluate allowing back-stabbing friendships.

Never be too trusting.

The Void Queen takes hold of the collar around my neck, chattering chains following it, and gives one soft yank. I respond to the order given in my dreams and bring myself to my knees, keeping my head low. My hands gather in my lap and metal manacles knock together to keep me from threading my fingers together without restraint.

"Spin," I hear her order.

The Fulgur Turrim shakes as it's rotated once more. All I can feel is the heat of my breath ricocheting off the sack and warming my nose. No voices. No bombs. Not a single weapon disengaging to rattle a stone wall. Just silence around me, ringing in my ears.

"Remain where you are."

That, I react to with ease. I don't want to move; I fear I can't. My legs are numb after sleeping in a cramped ball, and my neck is stiff from hanging to rest against the platform. At least I'll have a shred of pain to accompany these wounds.

The fog in my head clears after a moment. I might die soon. If we're at the capital, if we're facing the Raven Queen's army that she's slowly building from the ground up, a ticking clock waits over my head. The numbers are dwindling, farther and farther until valuable seconds remain. We ran out of time every winter and watched as the old, frail, and the young died off because of frigid temperatures. When the ground defrosted, our lives were restored. But never to their former glory.

Those we lost weighed on our shoulders. We mourned them. But we moved on. There will be no second chances here, no winters turning to spring to restore life and faith in food, shelter, and strength. Nobody creates a weapon without the desire to see what it can do. And I'm already chained to it with nowhere to go but burn my way through.

Through the bag, I see the sway of her white robes following the click of heels. She stands at my shoulder and a new, cold wind pushes at my face. A new direction.

A fist clenches the top of the back, narrowly missing gripping onto the white, manicured braid Fidibi gave me before I departed with my life intact. A shout cuts through the silence, chilling me to the bone, and against my better judgment, I jump. "I have your prize!" she shouts, her voice riding the wind.

The sack yanks away, tearing off my head, and warm sunlight blinds me. I squint from pain building behind my eyes and lift my head to the best of my ability, taking in the different shapes looming in front of me. A wall. Familiar. Half constructed and repaired from previous damage. An archway leading into cluttered streets of ordinary citizens waiting to fight.

At the front, spread across untouched land—an army. In similar formation to the last time I saw them, only with reinforcements. I don't have to look hard to know billowing red robes belong to the Luminaries thrust into Millicent's forces without a choice. I blink away tears forming in my sensitive eyes and trail the cluster of bodies. Each of them has a different skill, something to benefit the woman standing at the front of them all.

My breath catches in my throat at the sight of her. The raven feathered chemise around her throat and branching over her shoulders, seemingly bleeding into her dark hairline. A sweep of charcoal covers her eyelids, edged in feathers that trail down to her cheekbones. Even her lips are painted a shade of night.

But it's not the Raven Queen I find to be the most intriguing. Her children stand with her, all four of them. Cloak's face is the first I find, and at the same moment I meet his eye, he meets mine. Even from our distance apart, it's clear when they grow wide with recognition and every inch of my face is recognized.

The bruises.

I nearly forgot. What he sees is not the truth; these bruises are meant to ignite the fire within him. And it's working. Cloak attempts to charge forward, but his mother raises a hand to stop his attempts. The man that existed before the prince wouldn't have stopped; courtly ways have altered his desire to act on impulse. His mother's hand is as strong as a shield and carries a similar order.

Her mouth moves. Remain where you are.

She never looks away from her sister standing at my shoulder. To them, the rest of the world doesn't exist and what they stand to lose from each other is physical, like a blockade they have to chip through to survive. Neither of them cares about the other's army or hidden reinforcements. Hundreds of us stand on this field, and we're waiting by during an intense staring contest.

Gustus grips tightly onto his brother's shoulder. Cloak appears to be shaking like a sodden dog, only he's not trying to fight the cold. Rage claws at his being. He has stopped looking at me long enough to seethe at the woman standing at my back, maintaining a firm hold on the collar leading to the tower. I don't desire to see it in action. Whatever it can do, it won't benefit me.

The two Terravale sisters, daughters of the Raven Queen, are better at hiding their emotions than their brothers. They dip their chins low, never tearing their eyes away from a target. Setsuko is strapped to the teeth with poisonous powders and matching explosives. Red wristbands stand off to the side, closer than the rest, and wait for her order. More than last time, and with a cluster of different tools. Rivian has employed siege weapons of their own—cocked and ready to fire.

The eldest of the two breaks first. "I will exchange Marie Rithorne's life for a simple meeting with Millicent Terravale, queen of Rivian and ruler of the rose thorn throne," the Void Queen demands.

Mutters break out from both sides. Heads turn and break that preexisting stillness established from differing armies. We're smaller than the Void Queen should like. Unless she plans to unleash something else up her sleeve.

I watch the four royal children exchange knowing looks. They're on board with a simple meeting, as long as the right conditions are applied. Wyetta Terravale won't walk into Exole without an iron escort and blades digging into her spine, ready to impale with one wrong move. She has terrorized the Void for long enough, and it's time she comes home.

Aela nods firmly towards her brother when Cloak cranes his neck to look at her. She's on my side too. Their mother raises her hand to halt deals being made through other bodies, and stares daggers at her sister. I wait with bated breath.

"I object to this."

Faster than lightning can strike, Cloak whirls. A second before the remaining three children. His angered shouts sting through me and create unease thicker than I had when I climbed onto this platform willingly. I feel the weight of his terrors more than I do the metal collar. They're similar to my own, to free air squeezing from my lungs and leaving me with nothing but shriveled hope.

The Void Queen never told me what would happen if her sister rejected the option to have a meeting. I never thought she would allow this to happen, I thought she wanted to work with her sister for at least a short time before deciding what to do with her. To give up so quickly means she has confidence in what she can do compared to what her sister has presented.

The surface of water is not all it seems. Monsters lurk underneath, waiting to grab at ankles and drag victims to the depths. That's why we don't swim in the river circling the capital and protecting Exole from outside intruders. The last defense. Flooded with dark terrors. If Millicent Terravale wades in the water, she shouldn't be astounded when her sister tries to drown her with a surprise.

She'll drown us all.

"You have one last chance," the Void Queen shouts. "Or she dies." She gives the chain a firm yank, forcing my head back. I wince as metal digs into my throat.

Cloak takes matters into his own hands. Gustus follows the same route, and shoving through the Luminary forces standing at Millicent's back, Theo appears. The three of them break from their mother's front lines, and all it takes is a simple wave of her hand to freeze them in their place. Aela and Setsuko were smart enough to stay behind, but they receive the same fate.

Trapped where they stand.

Cloak, trying to wiggle himself free, screams through his teeth. The magic taking hold of his body does not relent, and he can't even reach for his sword to swing at his mother. Gustus can't fend against her with his Luminary powers; he won't reveal them in this moment to protect me from what I realize is inevitable. My heart begins to pound harder, breathing rapid.

These really are my last moments. I take another quick scan of the city lines and don't find the three faces I wish to see most. Castiel isn't here, but I suppose that's for the best. Chaska isn't either, unless she hides within Millicent's ranks. Theoden won't dare step this close to the battlements for he knows they never end in a winning side. When lives end, it is never just.

Keeping that hand raised to lock her children, Millicent's dark lip curls into a snarl. "Do your worst!" she screams as loud as she can.

I practically hear her sister grinning wide, her cheeks stretching. The rumbling laughter, similar to a cat's purr, is my first indication. She drops the chain swiftly, and it slams at my back. The Fulgur Turrim rocks—her stepping off.

Again, she's met with Mutes. "What is about to happen?" he asks desperately.

As if he's not there, she continues to walk. He backs up, following her, but she never breaks stride. Her mind is already made up.

Something moves above my head and I glance up, only to look back. Dark clouds, similar to what I manifested in the lower courtyard of the Void Palace, gather overhead. The first rock of thunder settles deep in my stomach, and I look to the only source of protection I have had since the start. The reason for the raven pendant against my chest.

Cloak can't move, but he's already staring at me. I plead for him to break from his mother's bonds, for someone to rescue me from this fate, but the Void Queen seals it with one order. "Zikkora, restrain him."

An iron band slides around Mutes's wrist before he can calculate how to fight for anyone other than himself and Zikkora grabs onto him from behind, practically pushing him into the ground. Zikkora's mass is much too strong for Mutes to fight off and after a quick attempt to shake himself away, panting breaths and grunts are all that remain.

Somehow, he finds his voice. "This can't happen! You promised you wouldn't hurt her." He spits on grass and dirt, but the words come out clear.

Standing off to the side of the Fulgur Turrim, there is no kindness in her voice when she speaks. "No one wearing a crown can be trusted. No one looking for revenge tells the truth."

Lightning blisters overhead, flickering through the clouds. Desperate to get out and reveal its strength. The clouds are moving fast, like ocean waves crashing against the shore and fighting against a raging storm of wind and terror.

This is my last chance. I wrap my hands around the chains and throw all my trust out the window. Heat pours from my palms as I attempt to melt through the thick chains. Suddenly, I feel the tug against my wrists and my arms are pulled away from my body as two soulless soldiers thread the chains through loops at the top of the two towers, raising me higher. I'll nearly be branded as a cross.

With more desperation, I force all my power into heating the chains. They're too thick to get through. Panic sears through me, ice crystallizing in my veins. It's too late. I have tried and failed to find company in enemies. I have forgotten the values I should've remembered from the moment my mother told them to me.

She never trusted royals. I should've followed in the same footsteps.

They pull the chains high enough for my arms to splay at my sides, halfway between reaching towards the sky and arching straight outwards. Like I'm welcoming an embrace. I have no choice but to bring myself to my feet.

Mutes struggles harder against Zikkora's grip, but the Luminary trainer shoves him further to the ground. My chest heaves with rapid breaths.

One last chance. "Clo—"

Shredding lightning breaks from the clouds, brought down by the Void Queen's command in a deadly pursuit, and strikes directly into the middle tower of the Fulgur Turrim. I'm only granted a moment to absorb the blow before that lightning travels through the chains of my collar and to the manacles around my wrist, and something shatters within me. A hold I have kept—control—dissipates in shock.

Unwanted magic rocks through my soul and the Luminary takes over. The sensation of being stabbed repeatedly sears up and down my spine, and I scream out. I rush forward in a desperate attempt to escape the pain but the manacles around my wrists yank me back; the collar doing the same.

Lightning explodes from my chest, a horizontal bolt stronger than I could create tearing across the open field. It all happens so fast. My body forced to remain standing, arched forward, unstoppable lightning searing through a reserve. So much pain.

Blue lightning of my own design. I squeeze my eyes shut, unable to keep them open any longer. The last thing I see is that lightning bolt slamming into the Raven Queen's Luminary forces. They can't react fast enough. Like the branches on a tree, it extends in all directions and seeks out a target to strike. A snake moving underneath water, fluid and corrupt.

Anything the lightning makes contact with turns to ash.

My body begins to levitate over the Fulgur Turrim's base, pulled higher by the lightning pulsing through, and out, of me. A shattered scream out of my dry throat is all I can muster. My insides feel ready to tear themselves to shreds, blood pours from my nose.

Then, I hear it. The reason for the Void Queen's use of my power. The full force of my lightning tears through an army with ease and finds its true target. The entire world seems to shake in answer when the strongest thread of my power slams into the wall protecting Exole from the Void. Incomplete. Lightning encompasses the middle and takes on a foamy consistency, pulsing and buzzing.

A puddle of electric discharge wraps around both top and bottom of the wall and tears outward. It blows to pieces. I can only hope the royal family managed to duck in time to avoid the lightning, not coming from the sky, but from me. For the sensation of having something to hold on to, I wrap my hands around the chains and grit my teeth together.

Too many are screaming. Pleading for an answer, an order, something to grip onto while the world goes to hell.

A whoosh of air sounds near the capital at the same moment I consider giving up. And I should've. Already, the pain is too much to bear. I don't know what's coming when the lightning bolt shooting from me snakes back across the field, a band pulled tight—only to snap—and strikes my chest with a firm, electric crash. After being arched for so long, pulled forward enough that the collar digs into my neck, my body flies backward. From the force alone, the chains snap from the manacles.

My arms circle forward before I'm falling. The only thing to catch me is the Fulgur Turrim and the tower in the middle. If it weren't for the wooden beams holding it together, it wouldn't give. But the tower cracks when my body slams into it and practically turns to mush. Metal and wood dig into my chest as I lay face down on the remnants of what the Void Queen created for this moment, to obliterate her sister's forces and the remainder of her wall.

My arms splay over my head, legs crooked beneath me. They continue to buzz with the remnants of lightning. Blood. I can't reach down to wipe the stream pouring from my nose, nor from the fresh wounds in my forehead after slamming down onto splinters and jagged pieces of the tower's intricate design.

The last thing I hear before my body gives in to the darkness is the remainder of the Void Queen's forces appearing from the dark. The last surprise up her sleeve. She gives them the order to sack the city and all her weapons are deployed. And the worst of it all isn't the rupture of large stones hurtling towards the city or flaming arrows arching across the sky, snapped from bowstrings, it's the lack of energy from the other side.

Pure silence through Rivian's forces. Peaceful. Deadly. They might be dead. Every single one of them, blown to ash by the lightning that sought them out. No amount of defense could stand against it; any Luminary shield would crumble underneath the blast.

If they're dead, it's my turn to do the same. Unable to see, hear, or think straight, I close my eyes and slip into endless dark.