IT WAS A feeling I had deep down inside of me. Not like the way the stag’s abilities or my connection to Soren felt. It was 100 percent my own—not tainted or touched by anything. It frightened me, but it also hardened the resolve around me. That I didn’t need the stag’s power or any magic or weapons to do this.

I didn’t know why it was that way, just that I did, and I knew to trust it.

I left the burrow early, before the dawn’s light began to brighten the sky. My only weapons were my bow and one arrow, the tip soaked in flammable fabric that I managed to find. A piece of flint and steel. Other than this, I was going in empty.

Praying to myself that my intuition was true, I stroked the stone until it sparked and until that spark caught the edge of the flammable fabric and burst into flames. Standing, I notched the arrow and with one more silent thought—please see this, please come to me—I let the arrow soar through the sky like a comet, farther and farther away until I could no longer see its light.

Heading to the mouth of the cave of Fjalar, I found a safe spot to sit and wait until morning light came. For the moment when the gray sky turned pink with dawn just as Soren liked.

I wouldn’t risk any more friends’ (and enemies’) lives during this fight. A hardened ball of resolve was in my stomach. Somehow I knew the way we approached it—all of us together—was wrong. There was some sort of spiritual residue I couldn’t pin down that came from Fjalar, and if I was right about my feelings, if I could trust them, this would work.

It had to. There were no other options.

I breathed in and out. Calm, like Diaval had taught me. Clearing my mind of all my fear and anxiety, all my doubts and worries, until the calmness flowed through my body like clear water, washing away everything. I knew what I had to do, and for once, neither doubt nor fear lingered with my knowledge, only surety and focus.

The sky began to turn a pale gray ever so slowly, and with each dark shade that faded into brighter ones, my stomach clenched with doubt. I forced myself to swallow it down and go back to my breathing. Even if my gut feeling was wrong, this was still how I chose to go out.