Cold metal pressed to the base of her skull.

“How gallant,” Lowry said. The safety on his pistol clicked off. “You’ve come after me all alone.”

Wren’s shoulders bunched around her ears. “Are you so afraid I’ll hurt you?”

“You are quite unpredictable. And frustratingly resilient. At any rate, you’re a convenient shield should anyone else decide to be a hero tonight.”

If he wanted her as a hostage, she had at least a few minutes to live. It was time to end this.

Hal’s knife was tucked into her belt. For one weak moment, she remembered the sled driver she’d knocked unconscious. Imagined him blue and stiff, buried beneath the ice because of her. It was one thing to kill in self-defense. It was another thing entirely to mete out justice. Could she forgive herself if she did this?

She thought of Jacob Byers, who had died brutally and all alone.

She thought of Una, her life pouring out of her onto the cold stone floor of the Tower.

She thought of Hal, pale and bruised on that operating table.

Yes. He deserves it.

Wren unsheathed the blade and slashed it across Lowry’s shoulder. She carved out an arc of blood that spattered into a pool of rainwater. He hissed in surprise. Wren jumped back, but he caught her hand too fast. His pistol came down hard on her arm, and she screamed at the burst of agony, the snap of bone.

As her vision blackened, she doubled over and dropped the knife. It clattered to the ground, gleaming with water and blood and poison. Wren cradled her arm, her eyes watering with pain and hatred. The poison would already be making its way into his bloodstream. She just had to survive longer than him.

“You could have ushered in the beginning of a new era. One of peace.” He retrieved the knife. “You stupid, selfish girl.”

“How?” she shouted. “In what world would this bring peace?”

“How can you not see that Danu and Vesria will never end this of their own accord?” He trembled with the force of his rage. “No matter what you believe you can do, you cannot throw off the weight of centuries of violence. Look around you. Your land has been burned and salted. Your economy ruined. Your children orphaned. This world is a mess. Do you think your people will forgive Vesria without the proper guidance? Do you think we can ever see progress without intervention?”

She thought of Hal. The brightness of her love for him, the hope he filled her with. If two people like them could love each other, then maybe one day their broken nations could learn to coexist, too.