The onyx on his wrists pops out. Then another oozes out from under his sleeve. Shaun’s brows meet and he rips his shirt off. I gasp. The Chancellor’s a grid of black beads, onyx burrowed into every part of his skin. I draw my hands together and pull. Black siphons from him to my hands like ebony rain. My arms ache, but I lock my elbows. His whole body glows, his skin a matrix of red scars. He collapses once it’s done, and a pile of stones sits at my feet. Enough to bind a small army.

“We’re the same, you and I, you know that,” he says to me, trying to sit up. “Both strong leaders. I’m sure we could reach some sort of…”

“Strong? You think fighting and leading are the same thing. And you’re right, sort of. But you think one guarantees the other. And it doesn’t. A true leader fights for others. You fight for yourself. For power. You kill anything that gets close to you because you believe love is weakness, a liability. But I see through you, Xire. You try to exploit love in others, which says you understand it, personally.” I squat to his level and make him look me in the eyes. “To let yourself love someone requires courage. And at your core, Xire, you’re a coward.”

I push him upright, he twitches in pain. Still, I’m not done. “Taavi, come here.”

Taavi is huddled in a ball, weeping over her mother’s body. She pulls herself up and walks over.

“Look at her!” I hold her in front of the Chancellor. “This is your daughter.”

His eyes flicker with recognition.

“You knew,” I say.

“I-I heard the rumors.”

Taavi sucks in a breath.

“How could you hate her? She’s done nothing to you.”

He pants, haggard. The poison has sunken in his cheeks and shrouded his eyes in red. He’s wasting away by the second. A tear streams his cheek. “Hate her? I’ve done many things I regret. But I could never hate you, Taavi.”

I see through him. My anger burns hotter.

He opens his arms and Taavi looks at me for permission.

“Go ahead.” I hold on to the rest of my words.

Taavi steps into the hug and the Chancellor wraps his arms around her. She sobs harder.

“That’a girl,” he says. “That’a girl.” He whips her around and holds her to himself like a shield, shoving a blade into her side. She screams.

“Her lung is a millimeter from my blade. I press it in deeper, she dies. I do nothing soon and she bleeds out. Let me go and…”

Magic flies from my fingers straight through his eye sockets. The ground beneath him buckles and he cries, clawing at his eyes. Taavi pulls herself out of his grasp, shock stamped on her face.