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Power flowed throughin both our bodies, the life he’d taken, the life I’d tried to save But I also felt the Darkling’s power, the power of the Black Heretic, the power of the Fold

Like calls to like I’d sensed it when the Hubird entered the Unsea, but I’d been too afraid to eo of uilt, my shame There was darkness inside er deny it The volcra, the nichevo’ya, they were my monsters, all of them And he was my htened around ainst his lips

Mine The word reverberated through h both of us

The shadow soldiers shifted and whirred

I relade, when the Darkling had placed the collar around my neck and seized control of my power I reached across the connection between us

He reared back "What are you doing?"

I knehy he had never intended to kill the sea whip himself, why he hadn’t wanted to form that second connection He was afraid

Mine

I forced rabbed hold of the Darkling’s power

Darkness spilled fro, bloo hands, head, claings The first oftried to pull away fro the darkness as he had once used the collar to suht

Another creature burst forth, and then another The Darkling cried out as it renched from him I felt it too, felt my heart constrict as each shadow soldier tore a little bit ofthe price of its creation

"Stop," the Darkling rasped

The nichevo’ya whirred nervously around us, clicking and hu, faster and faster One after another, I pulled , andainst each other, but still I did not relent

"You’ll kill us both!" he cried

"Yes," I said

The Darkling’s legs buckled, and we collapsed to our knees

This was not the S at the heart of the world It was terrifying, liered for more

The darkness buzzed and clattered, a thousand locusts, beetles, hungry flies, clicking their legs, beating their wings The nichevo’ya wavered and re-fore andfro’s nose The roo, bit by bit, with every er, I thought Just a few h so I know that I’ve sent him to the next world before I follow

"Alina!" I heard Mal calling as if fro me away

"No!" I shouted "Let me end this"

"Alina!"

Mal seized h the haze of blood and shadow, I gliolden door

He wrenched , but not before I called out toit down

The Darkling slu black coluainst the walls of the chapel, shaking the little building to its very foundations

Mal hadup the aisle The nichevo’ya were hurling theainst the chapel walls Slabs of plaster crashed to the floor The blue doive way

Mal leapt past the altar and plunged into the passage The s with the sweet incense scent of the chapel He ran, racing against the disaster I’d unleashed

A boom sounded from somewhere far behind us as the chapel collapsed The ieway A cloud of dirt and debris struck us with the force of an onco wave Mal fleard I tumbled from his arms, and the world came down around us

THE FIRST THING I HEARD was the low rumble of Tolya’s voice I couldn’t speak, couldn’t screaht of the earth Later I would find out that they’d labored overthe flow of blood, trying to mend the worst breaks in my bones

I drifted in and out of consciousness My mouth felt dry and swollen shut I was pretty sure I’d bittenthe rest of the tunnel down We need to get as far from here as we possibly can"

Mal

Was he here? Buried beneath the rubble? I could not let them leave him I forced my lips to form his name

"Mal" Could they even heartoShould we put her under?" Taain," replied Tolya

"Mal," I repeated

"Leave the passage to the convent open," Tamar said to someone "Hopefully, he’ll think ent out there"

The convent Sankta Lizabeta The gardens next to the Gritzki hts I tried to speak Mal’s naain, but I couldn’tin on th, I would have screamed I would have railed Instead, I sank into darkness