Nick’s father falls in slow motion, hitting the ground on his side. The spear tip glows, bloody from his back, and the shaft hovers above the pavement, shuddering with his final breath.

Isaac’s guttural scream splits the air.

Nick dives to his father’s side.

Sel releases me to the ground completely, jaw slack and open.

I just… stare.

Lord Davis’s body is lit an eerie blue, illuminated by the aether spear dissipating into nothing.

It leaves behind a bloody hole in Davis’s red plaid flannel, and a growing pool soaking the pavement beneath him.

Isaac is at Lord Davis’s body in a blink. “Martin… Martin…”

“Dad?” Nick’s voice breaks me, and Sel, too. Beside me, his fists are balled at his side.

Erebus steps forward. “I am sorry that it came to this, Nicholas.”

Nick’s head jerks up, eyes red and shiny with grief and fury both. “No, you aren’t.”

In an instant, full armor flashes into place around his body, and twin blades appear in his hands.

Max lunges.

Faster than a Merlin, Nick’s crossed blades meet his opponent’s throat, then part—cleaving Max’s head from his body.

40

THE BODY FALLS at Nick’s feet. He stares down at it, panting, eyes wide, stricken. His face is covered with red spray.

I forget to breathe. Beside me, Sel’s hand grips my wrist. Neither of us can move.

Erebus releases a long breath. “Nicholas, drop the swords.”

Nick shakes his head, but I don’t know if it’s at Erebus, at the sight of Max’s head on the dirt below him, or at what he’s done.

Before Erebus can ask again, Isaac rises slowly from Lord Davis’s body. Turns, chest heaving. For a split second, I recognize his face, because it’s one I have worn myself. This agony, I know. I remember.

It is rage, expanding so fast and so hot that it fuels itself beneath your skin. Grief so deep you are only an open wound, only pain. Pain so fresh that the world itself feels like it should be burning.

In a flash, he and Erebus are locked together, rolling in a blur of aether, punches rattling my teeth.

Sel is already at the tree line, eyes darting between the two Merlins and his charge. The motion catches Nick’s attention, and he finds us across the driveway. His eyes widen at the sight of Sel, then me. Flutter, as if he’s not sure he can believe them.

I have imagined this moment so many times. What it would feel like to see him again. I never imagined that Nick would be standing before us splattered in blood from delivering a death blow.