Bile rose in my throat as I ran down the uneven ground.

"Wren, wait!" Purda called, but I had already left her behind me. The infirmary needed her, and the battlefield needed me.

The rock and roots woven through the earth of the lost elven city stuck out and threatened to trip me with every step. But I had to reach the ice peak that had just erupted beyond the trees.

Ice meant DuVarick. Possibly Schula, though I wouldn't have thought her abilities, though strong, could produce such a thing without her tirquetram by her side. Unless Spaulder...?

I glanced to the far side of the field where a fierce black dragon was wreaking havoc on a surge of Bara Khalja's risen minions emerging from the forest.

No, Spaulder wasn't with her, so the more likely culprit was the Winter king himself. Still, Schula could be close and my gut instincts feared that Nassir would be there as well. It was a conflict I knew was coming, though I still dreaded it. Nassir had changed, the moment Teyber uttered the words that sentenced Bara Khalja to Nassir's wrath back in Eidelhein. And the closer we drew to the Wyldes, the more fierce Nassir's rage to our enemies grew. He wasn't even trying to hide it anymore.

But still, his own triquetram. Even if Spaulder or Schula betrayed me, a foreign enough thought as it is, I couldn't imagine fighting them.

As I passed the open pit of disturbed earth and ancient bones now mending themselves together to stand again under the warlock's command, I saw the forces that had arrived to participate in the fight. Eberon led the newly arrived Autumn court to the conflict, as did king Diamid and the Spring forces. Many of the elven children were now mingled within as well, and a few witches were scattered about in small groups as they fought, moved, and mended what they could trying to sway the battle in our favor. But that would be difficult with an enemy that didn't react to having a limb cut off or flesh burned away. The only thing that could be done is to destroy them completely.

Past the earth and bones and dark magic, I broke into the trees near where the ice had erupted toward the sky. It grew cold. Impossibly cold, even for the early winter days we had been having. My steps slowed as ice began to encrust the plants and trees around me. I had to walk carefully so as not to fall. Going as quickly as was safe, I finally reached where an opening had been made as a circle of trees had been felled from a blast of power. In the center of the fallen trees was the mountainous shard of ice that jutted above the forest. At the base of it was DuVarick, holding a white form by her neck. Her hands were clutching at the mad king's around her throat.

"Schula!" I screamed, throwing out a hand to attack with purple witch fire. DuVarick 

He dropped one of his hands from Schula's throat and a sheet of ice shot up from the ground to form a wall between him and my attack. As my fire struck and melted the shield, his eyes were set on me. His clothes were tattered, his appearance that of someone who just clawed his way out of a landslide. I saw none of his army around him, only the ice, the mad king, and his scorned daughter.

"Lark, why did you betray me?" His voice was dark, dangerous, wounded, and completely serious.

Lark. His lost triquetram. His lost love. I looked the spitting image of my mother except for my father's gray eyes. Everyone said so, and if DuVarick's mind was as irrevocably corrupted as everyone thought it was, it was no wonder he believed I was his lost love.

My eyes flicked to Schula who now seemed to be able to breathe, though she was still at DuVarick's mercy hanging in the air by her throat.

"Put her down, DuVarick," I said, straining to keep my voice level. Maybe if he really thought I was Lark, even for a moment, he would listen to some reason. "She did nothing wrong."

"No!" He snapped, his eyes wild and bright with delusion. "Shala betrayed me! They all betrayed me, even you."

His voice cracked with emotion at the last word, and my heart nearly stopped worrying about what he would do next.

"I'm..." My eyes darted around, looking for any sign of what to do to make this better. What would DuVarick in his delusion want to hear?

"I'm sorry for leaving last time." I raised my hands in a sign that I wasn't going to fight him. And I wasn't, not with Schula's life literally in his hands and no one else around us.

DuVarick paused, considering my words with narrowed eyes. In that moment of brief reprieve, a wounded cry rang in my head.

Enraged. Pain. Fury. Spaulder.

'What happened?' I reached out, praying he was close enough and of enough of a mind to keep our link open.

'Swarm!' Spaulder cried, and I winced at the pain inside my skull. I tried to probe him again but his cries had become unintelligible to the point that I could not keep the connection up anymore.

Seven hells, would it even be possible to come out of this battle with all of the pieces of my heart intact?

My friends were scattered. Spaulder was in some kind of trouble, Schula was definitely in trouble. Thain was locked in battle, as was Eberon who I finally got to see a glimpse of since the terrible situation in Thanantholl. Mila and my other witch friends were scattered around the battlefield, and so was my father and the others from Eidelhein. Nassir was still missing, and the whole of the Wyldes was now fighting.

And then there was me. The little halfling from Silver Lake, and I was up against an ancient and powerful king.

My eyes met DuVarick's and I reached out a hand. Maybe this would be what it took. Maybe if I could just get him away from Schula we could come up with a plan, but I couldn't do anything while she wasn't safe.

"I'm right here, DuVarick. What is it you want to tell me? Surely you have something you've held in all these years."

His face twisted in confusion, then regained the wild sheen in his eyes as he looked at me again.

"You betrayed me, Lark," DuVarick said.

"Put the fae down and we can talk," I urged, looking again toward Schula who was beginning to look weak.

"Why should I believe you?" he spat. "You wanted to chase out the rest of our triquetram! Relinquish his power! I am a king, Lark. I cannot grow weaker."

I clenched my jaw, taking a step forward. "No, DuVarick. I wanted you to let him go. You can't keep your own triquetram imprisoned. Not for power, not for any reason."

"No," he snarled. "No! You can't trick me again. I'll keep you with Nassir, is that what you want? I'll put you where you can never leave me, just as I did him!"

DuVarick threw Schula to the side, forgetting her completely and discarding his own daughter to choke on the ground in order to lunge at Lark. He was fast. Ferociously so, and even the elven blood in me didn't allow me to escape his speed as he replaced Schula's neck in his open palm with mine as he lifted me off the ground.

"You will stay with me!" DuVarick snarled.

I could barely breath, my hands clawed at DuVarick's arms but they didn't budge. If I cast magic now, would it hurt him before he could choke me?

"Wren!" Schula called. And then, an explosion of earth and rock knocked DuVarick and me aside.

"Get your hands off of her!" Nassir called. He looked ragged but enraged. The calm and quiet Nassir was breaking through the massive pillar of ice with the stone and earth under his control. He helped Schula to her feet with one hand, but kept his eyes on DuVarick.

"Stay away from Lark!" DuVarick rose to his feet and lashed out with ice, but Nassir blocked it.

"She is not Lark!" Nassir snapped. "Lark is dead, and it is because of that wicked human you consort with for power!"

DuVarick's emotions flittered across his face in conflict with each other. I took the opportunity to climb away toward Schula.

"You killed our third, and you imprisoned your second," Nassir seethed. "Your mind and your heart are tainted, and with all the death and blood in your wake, it is finally time to end you."

Nassir's face was enraged, but tears dripped down the side of his face as he spoke. Could he really kill his own triquetram? It still seemed so impossible.

"Enough!" DuVarick let out a cry of rage and pain as he raised both arms in a motion and brought to life a blossoming forest of ice shards. The earth was flung upward with the force of it, and we were all sent flying.

The force of DuVarick's blow threw me so far backwards I was nearly to the place where Bara Khalja was locked in battle. Something got between me and the disturbed earth before impact, and a pair of blue arms locked around me as we hit the ground. Thain grunted and snarled on impact, and I held in a more painful cry as my leg bashed against an unearthed rock.

The sobering impact kept Thain's mind on our situation instead of rushing back into the fight as he often did when that beast in him rose to the call of battle. Instead, he set me down next to him as he got to his feet.

"Are you okay?" He reached out a hand to help me up.

I took the hand and winced as I stood on the leg with a bloody gash on it. "I'll have to be. Where is-"

The impact of a dark magic on me pulled a scream from my lungs. My eyes teared as I was locked in the forces of Bara Khalja's dark magic.

"Wren!" Schula screamed.

A shaking roar sounded over the battle, deafening the other sounds as Spaulder could sense what was happening to me. But there was little he could do when so overwhelmed with what I could now see was a swarm of moving bones. Skeletal structures formed to attack Spaulder, dragging him to the bottom of the pit where he was nearly buried by the bones. Bara Khalja stayed high on the sides of the pit, and yet he still controlled his hordes of minions well. And entire army of them was dedicated to keeping Spaulder trapped while other leagues of them were fighting the elves, the witches, and the fae courts.

Madness. A madness that I had to put an end to, and now that I had all the pieces of the puzzle, it was time. And I was ready to die for it if I had to, but this had to end.

My throat was still raw from DuVarick's hands choking me and from screaming on the impact of dark magic. After the initial shocking impact of it all, I could fight the pain and twist my body to see the devil of a warlock myself.

I looked down at my hands, with one I pulled forth blazing red flames, and with the other I coaxed to life the purple fire of the witches. Born of two worlds, and filled with two magics, I would latch on to Bara Khalja's darkness and finish this. Even if I didn't survive, I will have taken away his powers and I could rest knowing Bara Khalja would be killed by someone else.

I shoved my power forward together, twisting together the fires of witch and Wylde as they struck Bara Khalja square in the chest. His magic faltered and I was able to shake it off, if only for a brief moment.

"Get me DuVarick!" I screamed, letting anyone hear me. Nassir. Thain. Schula. One of them would succeed, they had to. If I was to be the Witch of the Wyldes, I would take care of all of this at once. The origin of so much longstanding pain. The mad king, and the warlock he let into the Wyldes.

Hands in front of me, I called out everything I had within me and outside. There was little in the way of grasses or plants to call from for the witch magic, so I had to exert even further out until I could feel the trees.

My focus was now wholly on Bara Khalja. I knew there was movement around me, around the pit below where Bara Khalja and I were now locked with each other.

"You cannot overpower me!" Bara Khalja snarled, lashing out with more of that dark power that burned pain down my limbs and fire in my lungs. I screamed, but I didn't let my arms or my magic falter.

"You will die because of your greed for power!" I screamed. "Ah!"

Sharp pain sliced through my leg. Shards of ice captured my feet, and one long rod of ice protruded sharply through my left calf muscle. Looking down my leg, blood dripped in streams over the ice while Bara Khalja laughed darkly.

"It seems my partner in conquest has arrived," he taunted.

Sure enough, DuVarick was close enough for me to see now. The shape of the ground and the scattered debris of ice and rock told me Nassir was the one who threw him this way. The mad king was bloodied and scraped all over, but still had enough in him to fight me now that we were close.

"Lark!" DuVarick snarled.

I bit down on my bottom lip to stop from screaming through the pain of my split leg and throbbing bones. This was it, this had to be done. The moment DuVarick attempted to bring his magic into this, I would have them both.

"Wren!" Schula called. "Hold on, I'm coming!" 

"No!" I grunted. She couldn't get involved. I was likely enough to die in this tangled web of magic, I couldn't imagine taking Schula with me.

That's when I registered the purple light that grew around me. No, not just around me, but around the peak of earth where I stood with Bara Khalja above me and DuVarick just down the slope. A barrier.

"Stay back, fae," Mila's voice was close. She sounded exhausted but steadfast in her resolve. "If anyone present can deal with the warlock, it is Wren."

There was shouting after that, but I had other things to concentrate on. All that mattered now was that Mila knew what was about to happen, and she was keeping my loved ones out.

My eyes sought out others through the barrier. This could be the last sights I take in. Eberon was on the battlefield below, fighting shoulder to shoulder with Kalor. I wondered if they would get along, and now perhaps they have the chance to meet after the battle.

Spaulder was in the pit. Bones and earth moving and shifting, trying to bury the great black dragon alive. But he fought with everything he had to stay afloat. Diamid was even wading in with bows and magic to knock away as many of the risen skeletons as he could to free Spaulder.

Then my eyes met Thain's. He stood near Mila, a mix of anguish and fear on his face. More expressive than I had seen him before. I couldn't hear anything once Mila's barrier was completed, so I assumed my words would be lost to him as well. I just smiled, a tear falling down my cheek as I turned to the last scene.

Schula and Nassir. They both look like it took everything they had to fling DuVarick to where I was. I'm glad they did, I had worried that Nassir would try to do it alone. At least this way the blood of his own triquetram wouldn't be on his hands.

I offered Schula a smile, then turned my focus through the pain to the two wretched people at hand.

My head felt light. The shard of ice through my leg had likely cost me quite a bit of blood. The pain was intense but I was growing numb to it. Probably not a good sign, but I still had to focus on my magic.

My magic was now entwined with Bara Khalja. It was just as Purda said, they mixed and fought and overpowered each other. No wonder I had such a hard time bringing my own powers together before, they didn't want to meld together. Not easily, anyway.

And now, we just needed one last component before I could lock us all in this battle to the death.

"I am not Lark, DuVarick!" I called. "You killed her, you killed my mother!"

DuVarick roared in rage. Maddened rage at me. At himself. At everything. He Threw his magic toward me, just as I hoped he would, and I latched onto it.

With a pained yell, I pulled us all into a cluster of magic that swelled to the size of Mila's barrier with an explosive burst.

I couldn't hear anything outside the barrier, but I could certainly hear the three screams inside of it. Pain. So much of it, it was overwhelming. It overloaded the senses and my body convulsed with shock. But I clung to everything I had to pour more and more of the missing component, my witching magic, into it.

"What are...you doing, girl?" Bara Khalja yelled. DuVarick just screamed in confused rage, locked in with the rest of us.

I didn't answer. I marveled that Bara Khalja had the willpower left to say anything at all. Instead, I focused on the witch fire and the fact that there was nothing left in here to fuel it with.

Nothing left, but myself.

I turned inward for the power I needed to fuel the fire, and the moment I did, I screamed. Sweat, tears, pain. My world was anguish, but I held on as I pushed my life essence out to fuel the fire.

I could feel it all now. The three conflicting magics swelling to a new height, draining all of us of what gave us power and yet unable to escape one another now that we were locked in this stream of energies.

I don't know when the last time the pinnacle of magic was even possible, but I was pretty sure few left alive had witnessed it before and surely none who had lived through it. I can't say having the first hand experience was pleasant.

My muscles weakened as I pushed through. Bara Khalja and DuVarick were also not giving up the fight, though none of us had a choice in the matter. It was no longer a battle of wills, but a battle of power and who would run out first.

My fear was that it would be me.

Vision blurred, burning breaths became ragged.

Come on, Wren. Hold on just a little more.

I gave up my fae magic first. DuVarick was already locked in here anyway, I switched my focus to the witch magic to hopefully last longer than I would have keeping up both.

The first to falter was DuVarick. His foot slipped, and though he recovered from it quickly, it was still a point of hope for me.

Just a little longer, then whatever happens is out of my hands. Truly out of my hands, because I was quickly running out of life left to give.

My world swam, spinning as I struggled to stay upright. But the Wyldes would not know peace while these two lived, and I pushed more.

'You have done well, daughter. Now, let me take over.'

I must have become delirious, because I was hearing the goddess herself in my head again.

At least, that was the thought before my entire body started glowing with silver moonlight.

Suddenly, I was as light as air. Or rather, I couldn't feel the heaviness of my body because my body was no longer my own. Someone else was in control, and I was glad to relinquish it to Her.

My body, alight with silver and now floating off the ground, moved a hand to each of my enemies.

Burst. The burst of purple flames was wholly overwhelming as it engulfed the barrier. It engulfed the entire battlefield in a cleanse of magics. My mouth was open, my eyes wide, filled with nothing but the heavenly silver light as I acted as a conduit for the Mother's purge.

I saw nothing with my eyes, but everything in my mind as she used what was left of me. The lost elven city was now bathed in purple flames, scorching the risen dead to nothing but ash and leaving the others unscathed. Elves, witches, fae of all courts and kinds were left untouched as the fire and light swept everything around us.

When the purge was complete, the Mother turned her attentions back to the two evils at hand. One hand pointed to each, she threw out one last surge of power until they wholly encompassed each of them.

Burning, searing pain shot through them. It ate everything they had left from the inside out.

"NO!" Bara Khalja screamed. His shrieks of horror as his own magic betrayed him, eating at his life essence until there was nothing left. His screams turning to a gurgling choke as blood poured from his mouth. In the end, he was left a husk to fall to the ground. The feeling of his life extinguishing when our magics were so intimately entwined was sickening, but I was still not in control of my own body and I couldn't even be allowed to empty my stomach.

DuVarick, a fae of great age and power, withered away in a much different way. Cold, insurmountable cold, loosed from him in a terrible burst of a blizzard. Shards of ice and wind flew around us in a tight and deadly circle, sending painful, thin cuts across our exposed skin as we remained locked in our magic.

The ice fae had more power in him than Bara Khalja, whether from the fact that the warlock used more of his during the battle so far or just because the ancient fae had more, it took a while to wear it all down. But still the Mother burned it all out of him until there was nothing left, and as his magic faded and his life dwindled, DuVarick...smiled.

His eyes were light as he looked at me, a clarity to them I had never seen before.

"L...ark." I didn't hear him so much as I could read the name on his lips. Even in the wind and ice, a tear escaped his eye as the last of his magic emptied out and was replaced with the purple fire and silver light of the goddess. And then, DuVarick fell away with the last of the wind and ice, another still form on the ground.

'You have done well, daughter.' The Mother's light was warm, but as she left me I felt cold in the wake of her heavenly presence. Suddenly back in control of my own body, the dizziness overtook me.

The last sight I saw was Schula and Thain rushing to me as my world tilted sideways. Wither I was caught or I fell to the ground I never knew, because before I could even reach the earth below, my world went black.

A/N wow. WOW. It's been so long since I started, and yet here we finally are. I hope you guys all know Wren lived through this! She's just... indisposed for a while now haha. I still have a couple chapters left so I can wrap up a bunch of things and set the Wyldes right, so look forward to that! Otherwise, thank you SO MUCH for sticking with me until I could kill these bastards. I love all of you, it was really you readers that pushed me to complete such a huge story and I thank you from the bottom of my heart <3