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I breathed in preparation; gripping at the floor, diggingthe first flicker of internal fla the rest of hno rest, I flailed helplessly on the floor, cuttingthe dirt next to me

If so's Curse or the initiation, I don't know if I could have said Both were the equivalents of the eternal suffering belonging solely to the gates of hell With the initiation, there was no one to help edeath and survive

I re's Curse It would be the saht Lucan with until the day he died It was the resolve that gave him confidence in the back of the prisoner's truck, surrounded by Guard and without ic to heal his broken bones It was the saive hi tortured and beaten Even then, he would not recall his ood Even then he would fight for justice

And that hat I needed to do I needed to fight Not just this excruciating torh to reood left, there was an end that needed writing and it was left to me

As the darkness clouded my mind, and the walls of unconsciousness closed in on me, I remembered Avalon and believed I would survive this I had to

My people had no one else to save them I was the last of the Rebellion There was no one, but me

I was the next Oracle

I woke up slowly My head was pounding and s and slowingheavily onme with thick, ashy snowflakes

I lay still for a ather co, but I was hot, so hot

My eyes flew open and I sat up quickly, not on the dirt floor of the underground cellar but in the middle of a forest… our forest

Our forest that had been set on fire Flarily engulfing the delicate petals, leaving no evidence of their beauty behind

I gasped, inhaling the ash I had mistaken for snow As it fell down from the ruins of our dreari outthe forest too quickly for it tobut scorched earth re place Kiran and I had fallen in love in

I shouted his na the very depths of thecahtwe had