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He’d told it to Madrigal their first night together, as they lay atop their clothes on a bank of shrive ly Uncle Zamzumin, who made me out of a shadow," she had said Absurd

Or not Scarab called them by another name than the one Akiva knew, but it made its own sense As sirithar had coodstars work through the swordsodless, thick-of-battle frenzy to kill instead of die These na about the nature of their world Somehow, the truth had been lost

Now Akiva learned that the monsters were real

That every second of every day they battered at the veil of the world

That the people ere half his blood lived their lives in devotion to shoring up that veil with their own life force

And that he… he… had nearly torn it wide open

He was on his knees He was only di there What the Faerers had done was only half a cataclysnorance, he had alale, to his mind She settled to her own knees before hinorance and power They’re a poor combination Power is as mysterious as the veils themselves Yours more than anyone’s We can’t take it fro you, and we don’t wish to do that Nor can we leave you, and hope that you’ll contain it on your own

And Akiva understood his choice that wasn’t a choice "What do you want froh he already knew

"Coale, aloud Her voice was soft and sad, but Akiva looked over her shoulder at Scarab, and saw no sadness in her and no randmother added, so softly, "Co the word, all theat Scarab when he did Home hat he would make with Karou Ho in his hands He thought of the blanket that did not yet exist, the symbol of his simplest and deepest hope: a place to love and dream Would they have to rip it in two, he and Karou, and carry their ragged halves with them where their fates were determined to lead the what it ale just looked at him, a twitch of disappointave away nothing, and yet she made the nature of his choice very clear to him, in case he misunderstood Twice before, he had been overcome by this sudden, intense awareness of his own life This was the third tiale’s, unmistakably Scarab’s, and it wasn’t cruel, only pitiless, and he understood that there was no space for pity, not for her She was queen of a people enslaved by a burden so great that the entirety of the Continuum depended on theth, not cruelty Her sending was an iers, and the understanding, with it, that the filaers were her own, and that she could end hi

And would

But he sensed so, and it surprised him It would be safer for everyone, and easier for her, to kill him now And not only easier, not only safer There was soe of that shining filaued about it earlier, and Akiva sensed that the queen stood so him

But she didn’t want to

"Well?" she asked

And it was an easy choice Life, first You have to be alive, after all, in order to figure out everything else

"All right," Akiva said "I’ll come with you"

And of course, because Ellai walked here--phantooddess who had stabbed the sun, and who betrayed more lovers than she ever helped--Karou stepped into the cavern at just that moment, and heard him

85

AN ENDING

"Akiva?"

Karou didn’t understand what she was seeing The fulfillment of her wish had been siavriel vanished than she knehere he was: nearby but hidden, deep in a quarter of the Kirin caves that their party had yet to explore So she’d guided the finally around this corner to find… Akiva on his knees

There were five others, black-haired strangers, and she heard what he said to them but it didn’t make sense, and she didn’t run to him She didn’t run Her feet never touched stone, but she was there inside a second, drawing hi herself into hi

He sees lost and hollow "I’m sorry," he said, and she couldn’t fathom what had happened, in a aze, vivid and alive, and the laughter, the tease, the dance, the hunger? What had they done to hiers, and that’s when she saw their eyes

Oh

"What is this?" she asked, and was ih, and it was slow in coain, and then Akiva took her into his arering As kisses go, it o, it was very bad It was good-bye, through and through She felt it in the rigidity of his arms, the tremor of his jaw, the defeat in his shoulders She pulled away, out fro?" she asked him Belatedly she processed what she’d heard hi?"

"With the once more to this "them" Akiva’s people, Stelians She knew that he had never uess what it meant, that they were here now The older woman stood nearest, and she was very beautiful, but it was the younger woman Karou couldn’t look away from Maybe it was the artist in her Sometimes, rarely, you see someone who doesn’t look like anyone else, not even a little, and who could never, ever be otten That’s what she was like, this seraph It wasn’t even beauty--not that she wasn’t beautiful, in her sharp, dark way She was unique, extreal stance spoke voluht, envious, who had known exactly who she was fro to take Akiva aith her

Because whatever this was, not for a second did Karou wonder or fear that Akiva was leaving her by choice She felt the presence of her own friends and co the space behind her All of them were here: Issa, Liraz, Ziri, Zuzana, Mik, even Eliza Plus two score Misbegotten and ht for Akiva when they found hi for himself

"I have to," he had said