“So our Graces are just gone?” Hector asked, panic edging his tone.

“Anton?” Ephyra asked, tilting her head to peer around Jude’s other side. “What about you?”

Anton was on his knees in the sand, not looking at any of them. His hand, down at his side, was wrapped around the Oracle Stone.

So one Relic had made it out. And Anton still had his Grace. But the other Relics were destroyed, and with them, any way to bind the god again.

Anton’s head bowed toward the sand. He still didn’t look at them, but Jude knew what he was thinking. The world was on a precipice. They were out of options.

“Anton?” Ephyra asked again.

Anton slowly picked himself off the ground. His movements seemed measured, almost calm. But when he turned and locked his gaze on Jude, Jude saw the cold, fathomless anger on his face.

He stalked up to Jude without a word, grabbing a handful of his shirt and shoving him back against the piling. Seawater splashed up at their ankles.

“What were you thinking?” he demanded. “How could you do that to me?”

Jude met the blaze of Anton’s eyes evenly, his own anger sparking back to life.

“It was the right choice, and you know it,” he ground out. “You can run from that like you’ve run from everything else in your life, but you know it’s true.”

Hurt flashed across Anton’s face before his features hardened into icy anger. “You lied to me. You and the Wanderer. And now she’s dead.”

Tears glimmered at the corners of Anton’s eyes, and Jude could see the wave of grief he was holding at bay. He knew that Anton and the Wanderer had a complicated relationship, but he also knew that she was one of the few people who knew Anton, really knew him. Perhaps the only other person aside from the ones with Anton now.

“The Wanderer died doing what she knew she had to,” Jude replied. “Doing what was right. That was our one chance. I knew we might not get another, so I took it. And I knew you wouldn’t accept that so, yes, I lied.”

Anton’s hand slackened on Jude’s shirt, hurt crumpling his face. “How can you look at me and be so calm? How can you just accept this?”

“What do you want me to say, Anton?” Jude snapped. “That I’m angry? Of course I’m angry. But it doesn’t change the fact that this is the only way to stop the god. To protect our world. To protect you. All of you. And if you’d accepted that sooner, none of this would have happened. We spent weeks wandering through the mountains, looking for saviors who weren’t there. We are the saviors. And we weren’t strong enough to do what needed to be done.”