My breathing is fast and labored as I sprint across the graveyard. The wind rushes past me in a hurry.

I cannot let Niko win.

As I run the headstones get more spaced out, until there's fewer and fewer, then, none. Trees take their places.

"Mom? Dad?" I whisper call. My hands cup my mouth. "Where are you guys?"

A laugh echoes against the trees.

My eyes widen. Without wasting a second I form an ice dagger in my hand. "Niko," I say, dropping the whisper. "Are you scared to show yourself?" I turn in a slow circle, scouring the area to try to find his hiding spot.

"Oh, Lumi. I have never been scared." His voice seems to come from every direction.

"Then why are you hiding?"

"I'm not." Comes from behind me.

I have just enough time to turn and hold my dagger up to intercept his own weapon. They clang together, the ringing from the contact silences the whole graveyard.

"Is that the best you've got?" I taunt with a smirk.

He growls, and pushes away. The force of it sends me stumbling backwards.

"By the way," I say, as I sort through the spells that would best benefit me right now. "Nice trick with Mia."

Niko smirks. "It worked pretty well since it got you here. Lava Arrows, 50."

My eyes widen as fiery red arrows pop up in front of Niko. All of them point right at me. "To'siq," I cry as they shot at me. The arrows collide with the invisible shield seconds after. "Distraction." A horde of animals appear in between us, all their gazes land on Niko.

"Is that the best you have?" he asks. "Elemental Explosion!"

"To'siq!" But the shield doesn't go up in time. Snow hits me, followed by fire. A gust of wind hurls me off my feet and back into a tree. The contact makes all the air explode out of me. As I fall to the ground it rises up to meet me and sends me flying into the sky. The second fall, I fall stomach first onto the ground.

A shadow covers me, and with the little energy I have I look up to Niko towering over me. "Given up yet?" he asks.

"Never," I growl.

He tilts his head to the side. "Well that's too bad." The smirk returns to his face. "Guess I'll just-"

"Niko!"

He looks lazily over his shoulder. My gaze follows the sound of the voice to Mia. Who holds Amber with a knife against her neck. Fear is written plainly on her face. Her eyes wide as she stares at her neck, her body is tense and her neck is strained backwards as she tries to avoid the blade.

"Mia? What are you doing?" I ask.

"What I have to," she replies, forcing the knife closer to Amber's neck.

My breath hitches. And by the sounds of it, so does Niko's.

"She means nothing to me. So what's the point in hurting her?" He glances down at me from the corner of his eye. "Unless this is your way of telling us you've changed sides?"

Mia barks a laugh. "I would never join your side. But I think you're lying about not caring about Amber."

"And why would I lie about that?" he asks, turning fully to face them.

I start to push myself up off the ground as quietly as I can.

"Because somewhere in there, you care about her. She's still your cousin. And even though you're mostly Neo's hate, you still have some of his love."

Niko's hands clench into fists at his side.

"So if I," Mia presses the blade into Amber's neck until it draws a drop of blade, "do this."

"Don't!" he cries out, taking a step forward.

I jump up and grab him. Pulling him back as I bring my dagger up to his neck. He tries to wiggle out of my grasp but I hold tighter, and force the dagger into his neck. He freezes in my arms.

"Let me go!" He wiggles once, but that only gets the blade to dig in deeper.

"Do it, Lumi." Mia says, releasing Amber. "Kill him."

I look from her to Amber. My best friend, the one who's cousins with the look alike. She gives a nod, even as tears flow from her eyes.

"Are we sure we can't get Neo back?" I ask.

At that moment Zach and Revaa enter the clearing.

"Lumi!" Zach cries.

"Finish him off!" Revaa says.

I look down at Niko. Can I really kill him?

"You don't have it in you," he says quietly, so that only I can hear him.

He's right.

I don't have it in me.

But I can't let him go free. "Hallow." He goes slack in my arms, and I drop him. He falls to the ground with a thump.

"I can't kill him," I say as the others close in.

"Do you want one of us to kill him?" Zach asks, coming to stand beside me.

I shake my head, because really, do any of us have the courage to kill him? It would change us forever. I can't let any of them stain themselves, not for me.

"So what do we do with him?" Amber asks. She hugs herself. Fear is still clear in her face, but now her mouth is pulled down in a frown. I want to reach across and hug her.

I look over at Zach. "Do you know if there's any spells that would allow us to get rid of him and bring Neo back in his place?"

His gaze moves down to look at Niko. "I'm not sure. I've never heard of a spell like that."

Out of the corner of my eye I see Mia shift.

"Even if you could, you'd be bringing Neo back from the dead," Revaa says. "That's against the laws of nature."

"But... I can't just leave Neo as dead."

"It's what he wants," Mia says so quietly I almost miss it.

Amber scoffs. "And how would you know that?"

I expect Mia to sneer back at her, but she doesn't. She wraps her arms around herself and gazes down at Niko. "Because when Niko had control of me, I was able to speak with Neo." She looks up at me, her brown eyes piercing right through me. "He would agree with Revaa."

It's like my breath is knocked out of me.

"He doesn't want to be brought back?" Amber asks.

Mia stares at the girl for a moment before nodding slowly.

Ambers hand covers her mouth. Her gaze flicks to me.

Oh, how I badly want to hug her, and crumble right alongside her. But I can't. I need to be strong, I need to be brave. I need to figure out what to do with Niko. There still seems to be only one option though. "I'm going to have to kill him."

"You can't kill him!" Amber cries out. Tears fall from her eyes.

"Are you sure?" Revaa asks.

"There has to be another way." Zach says. His hand held up to his face as he thinks.

Only Mia is quiet, but even her gaze says plenty. She was the only other one there when we fought Niko the first time. She knows how ready I had been to kill him.

I hadn't thought about it then.

Even now after I've thought about it, I know it'll change me. I'll never be the same again.

Mia makes her way over to me, and asks, so I'm the only one who hears, "Do you want us here? Or do you want to do it by yourself?"

I look around at the others. Amber who's fallen to the ground and is crying out. Most likely she's grieving the last chance of her cousin ever returning, or even whatever messed up friendship she had with Niko. Revaa starts to make her way over to her. When I look at Zach I find him already watching me, no longer lost in thought.

I turn back to Mia, "Take Amber home, okay? Oh! And take my parents with you. You know where they are?" I glance at Zach out of the corner of my eye. "And take Revaa with you too."

She nods. "What about him?" Mia asks, following my stare.

"I don't think he'd leave even if I did ask."

Mia smiles knowingly. "At least one good thing came from this mess?"

I chuckle. "I guess so."

With Mia following I make my way over to Amber and explain that they're going to take her home. She doesn't argue, but she grips my arm to the point that her fingernails dig in. "Be careful, okay?" she says.

I nod. But how careful can you be when you're about to kill someone? Even if they are evil.

Revaa and Mia help Amber up, and then they're walking back through the graveyard.

"What do you want me to do?" Zach asks, coming to stand beside me.

"Can you just be lookout? I'd like to be alone when I do this." I go to point where he can stand but when I bring my hand up, I find it shaking.

Zach takes it and grabs my other one, holding them between us. "I'm here for you, okay?"

I nod.

He brings my hands up and places a gentle kiss on them before walking away.

I take a deep breath and turn to the still Niko. As I walk towards him, I swear his eyes follow me. Coldness seeps down my arm and out of my hand until it forms my dagger.

As I stand over him, I push all my thoughts, all my fears, and all my doubts to the back of my mind. Then, I drive the dagger into his heart.