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With that, she spun me around I felt dizzy from the movement, and it took me a ht, but once I did, my heart jolted painfully in my chest

Tobias He stood not ten feet away, just outside the edge of the circle, his head hanging as though he was only standing due to some force other than his oill His face was bloodied, his clothes ripped I let out a cry, and Davina dug her fingers intoto need to be quicker on your feet this time He’s so close to dead anyway that it won’t take er to knock hiht now, babyis it yes or no? Give ic noithout any more of this foolishness, and he lives Hesitate even for a second, and you atch him die, just like you watched Millie What’s your answer?"

I opened my mouth to squeak out a helpless, "Yes," but the dizziness overtookeird, and it took ; it was both faer than I had felt it earlier, and coht it wasat Tobias’s feet, uncapped and empty I raised my eyes to his face and saw that his eyes were closed, but there was the tiniest trace of a smile on his lips

He’d finished off my concentrated conduit potion

He wasthe borrowed power from Tobias, and I curled upher sprawling The pure shock of the non-Magical attack did what I had hoped it would: her concentration faltered, and what grip she’d had on Tobias ebbed away He was open now, a true conduit of power, only instead his life force flowing back into Davina, he now served as a connection between her and ot to her knees and touched her face, s the blood on her lip where I’d struck her She looked at me, her eyes wide and shocked, and I could tell she still didn’t knoas happening She probably thought the drain on her poas fro Tobias up; she hadn’t yet noticed that he was standing just fine on his own, his head raised as he watched us, holding his place, keeping the connection open

God, I loved that man

"Oh, " I took a step toward Davina and crouched in front of her "My sister’s power doesn’t want you, does it?"

Iroot, finding home

"That’s how you found me, isn’t it? It wants me; it drew you toIt wants me too much, and you can’t hold onto it"

I tested this theory, pulling Davina to her feet,her step closer to littered with fury as she did it, but she stepped exactly where I coht, then," I said "As long as we knoho’s in charge here"

Sweat broke out on Davina’s upper lip as her eyes widened in fear

"You can’t do this," she said, gasping as she struggled to fight me "You need my permission to take itmy will"

"Hmmm, that is a sticky point Let’s test it, shall we?" I concentrated on her and began to pull At first, it was slow going, a lot of effort for very little return, but eventually, I could see the gray sht curled around it, pulling it back to h Tobias, the portal between us, and with every breath, I felt it settle home inside of me - a power unlike mine, darkened and brittle, but there was also a hint of familiarity in it Davina had corrupted my sister’s power, but my sister was still in there, her power different from mine, but ultimately co, not quite all of it, but ht a candle without a match, I’d have been surprised

"I thinkDavina to her knees as I released my hold on her "I think it’s not your will, it’s Holly’s After all, it was her ic with round, fighting me as much as she could, but she eak Eventually, she stopped , and only then did I disconnect fro both her and Tobias in a rush of relief

When it was done, and Davina was passed out on the ground, I stuet myself to the flat rock by the brook The power made th to wield it all, not at the moment Someday, I would, but for now, it was all I could do to maintain consciousness

"Liv!" Tobias was besideh to ht?"

"I’m okay," I said "How are you?"

I looked at his sweet face, bloodied and beaten, but still, my own Tobias I put ers

Mine

"Don’t leave ht out loud

He wrapped his ar anywhere"

I pushed him back so I could look in his eyes "No, I ain Ever"

He smiled "Never"

"I mean it," I said "None of this ’when they come to take ue Whatever I don’t care, so long as we do it together"

He took ers "Deal"

"Really?"

He nodded, and brushed some hair away from my face "Yeah I’m in"

He ss crunching as footsteps approached Instinctively, I flinched, and Tobias tightened his grip around e into the clearing

"For fuck’s sake, Liv," Stacy began, "we’ve been waiting for you What the hell happened?"

I didn’t say anything, just watched as Stacy caught a gliround, and she whooped

"Yeah, that’s right, baby!" Stacy said "The bitch is - "

And then she stopped, frozen, and her eyes landed, as I knew they inevitably would, on Millie Cain, a second too late, stepped between Stacy and Millie’s body, putting his hands on her shoulders and angling her away

"You don’t wanna see that," he said, his voice as soft and kind as I’d ever heard it

"Millie?" Stacy’s voice cracked as she said the na in the wetness in her eyes as she looked at , so I just squeezed Tobias’s hand "Take Stacy back to the van Can you find it?"

Tobias nodded "Yeah, I passed it on the way in, but - "

"I’ll be okay," I said "You can co anywhere Please, take care of Stacy I need to deal with Cain for a bit"

Tobias kissed ently, then walked over to Stacy, put his aruided her out When I looked back at Cain, I saw hilint of the gun he’d just pulled out of the back of his jeans barely visible in the ht

"Please, Cain," I said "Don’t"

He didn’t look atat Davina "Have to"

"I took the power," I said "All of it She ht as it is But you have toyou, for Holly Please don’t"

He raised his head at Holly’s name

"I’m so tired," I said, not to hirowing stronger as her power found home with mine

Please There isn’t much time

"Please," I repeated "There isn’t much time"

His entire body froze as I said the words, and I felt the memory; the darkness Holly had felt, the coldness even as he held her to him There isn’t much time I love you

"She loved you," I said

He has to move on

"She wants you to un"

Please

There was a protracted silence as Cain stared down at Davina, the gun still in his hand Finally, I heard a clatter as he dropped it to the ground When he spoke, his voice was thick with emotion

"Tell her" He cleared his throat "Tell her"

"She knows," I said She was gone by then, but I kneas the truth She loved him so much that I could feel that love for him withinelse in the world Most of that love was hers, but some of it was my own to keep In a weird way, he was the only family I had left A brother, of sorts; the man who had loved the sister I’d never known

I’d take it

He looked ata white T-shirt that glowed an ethereal blue in the ht He draped the shirt over Millie’s head and shoulders, then picked her up and disappeared into the forest, leaving me alone with Davina I took a few deep breaths, and drehat strength I could for the last thing I had to do

I got up, stumbled past Davina and the circle, and found her backpack It was i it back to the brook One by one, I e water; she may be able to build herself back up as a conjurer one day, but at least she wouldn’t have a head start

Once I was done, I went intoand pulled out the second bottle I’d had tucked in there, one I’d taken from Cain’s stores I walked over to Davina, tilted her head, and poured it into her hed, then sed I left her there to voet back to town on her own If she died in the process, it wouldn’t be on athered up what strength I could, and finally stood up As I took my wearied and wobbly steps past Davina, I said, "Set foot in this town again, and no force in the world will save you"

A powerful, rage-filled screarip pulled on my ankles I went down, face-first, into the dirt Before I could gethard hit me on the back of the head, and I saw stars I scraped and pulled at the ground,to flip around just in tie rock in her hands Her eyes ild and glassy, her hair matted with dirt and leaves Guttural, primal sounds ca sharp shards of pain throughherself back and lifting the rock, preparing to brain ic through the haze of my exhaustion, and unable to physically move or scramble out of the way

Never underestiht, and waited for the blow that would certainly kill ht, and heard a strangely innocuous-sounding pop It took me a moment to place the sound, as I’d only heard one like it once before, when Stacy’s e

Davina jerked back and fell away froht off ofa few feet between us, and the pop happened again The world started to spin around ain Pop Pop

"Cain!" I called out into the dark, not sure where he was, but sure he could hear me "Stop!"

I tried to focus, but all I could see was a dark forht froun

Pop

"Cain," I said "No"

Pop Davina’s body jerked again, but there was no life left in her She was gone He’d killed her

I fell back onto the ground, barely able tome away

"Liv" Tobias’s voice, quiet, shaky "Are you okay?"

"Tobias?" I was dizzy, and confused "Where’s Cain?"

"Back in the van," he said "It’s okay I’ve got you"

And then, everything went dark