Before Alina could rise, the demonic insect swooped toward her, wings buzzing, eyes spinning. Wreathed in firelight, Ciana leaped from the saddle, landed gracefully upon the mountain, and held a sword to Alina's neck.

Alina froze, staring up at the woman.

Ciana trembled, and her lips peeled back into a snarl. Her eyes burned and leaked tears. "Where is Tanin, the creature who lied to me, who tried to sneak into my bed?" Her tears splashed down, and her sword shook. "Where is Jeid, the King of Reptiles, the one who burned me?"

Such pain in her. Alina winced. Such grief, such rage. She had never seen a child so lost, so broken.

"We never meant to hurt you, child." Alina pushed herself onto her elbows, her blood still trickling. "I'm so sorry for how you suffered. Let me help you. Let me pray for you. I can heal the pain inside you, can—"

Ciana drove down her sword, piercing Alina's thigh.

Blood spurted and Alina screamed.

"You will be silent, creature!" Ciana twisted the blade. "All you creatures do is lie. You took my face. You made me somebody else. You will all die here this night, and I will laugh and spit upon your graves."

Alina grimaced, crying out in pain, the sword in her leg. "Listen to me, Ciana. You don't have to fall to evil. Look above you. Look at the demons that cover the sky, that spread across the world. Is this what you fight for? A world of demons?" She reached up a shaky hand. "You need not do this. You can find another way. You can be forgiven."

Tears streamed down Ciana's cheeks, collecting on her new face's stitches like dew on cobwebs. "It's too late for me. Too late. When Jeid burned me, he burned all compassion from my soul. When he took my face, he took my heart too. And now I will do the same to you." Ciana knelt, driving her knee into Alina's belly. She tugged the sword free from Alina's thigh and brought it to her face. "Now I take your face. I will peel it off, creature, and leave you alive and screaming."

Alina tried to summon her magic, to become a dragon again, but she had lost too much blood. More blood was flowing from her thigh; she thought an artery was cut. Poison from the arrows still flowed through her. Her magic eluded her, and she could only raise her arms weakly, uselessly trying to shove Ciana off.

The blade pierced the skin under her ear.

"You made me do this," Ciana said, trembling. "You made me who I am."

She moved the blade, cutting a line from Alina's ear down to her chin.

Her blood dripped, and Alina tried to rise but could not, and she cried out to her stars, but she could not see their light, only the face of her enemy, a face stitched onto a broken soul.