He took a deep breath to steady himself. “Sweetheart…sometimes killing is necessary. Sometimes it’s the only path to take in order to save what is good.”

“I know that.” Jaenelle slammed a book on the table. “I’ve spent the past three weeks searching for an answer. No, I’ve spent longer than that, but time is running out. I can feel it.”

“Jaenelle,” he said carefully, “you have the strength…” The look in her eyes was almost hateful, but he pushed on. “A portion of your strength would eliminate a Terreillean army.”

“And while I was eliminating that one, six more would be killing the Kaeleer Blood in other Territories. Even if I do destroy them, one army at a time, it won’t make any difference.”

“You wouldn’t be the only one fighting,” Daemon insisted, bracing one hand on the table to lean toward her. “Hell’s fire, woman, look at the strength of the males in this Realm. Look at the Jewels. The Blacks. The Ebongrays. The Grays. We have the dominant strength.”

“Kaeleer had the dominant strength in the last war, too,” Jaenelle replied quietly. “And Kaeleer won—barely, but Kaeleer won. But all those males died. And it didn’t make any difference. The taint that fed that war is still in the Blood, even stronger now.”

“Hekatah and Dorothea can be destroyed.”

Jaenelle moved around the table in order to pace. “It wouldn’t do any good at this point. Even if they’re destroyed, even if Kaeleer wins the initial war, the Shadow Realm won’t win. The taint’s too widespread now. Terreille will keep sending armies. Will keep sending them and sending them, and the fighting will go on and on, in Terreille as well as in Kaeleer, until the Blood can’t remember who they are or that they were supposed to be the caretakers of the Realms.”

“We’re at war, Jaenelle,” Daemon said earnestly. “It doesn’t matter if it’s been formally declared or not. We are at war.”

“No.”

“You have the strength to make the difference. If you unleash—”

“I can’t.”

“You can.”

“I can’t.”

“WHY NOT?”

She turned on him. “BECAUSE, DAMN YOU, I’M TOO STRONG! If I unleash my strength, it will destroy the Blood. All the Blood. In Terreille. In Kaeleer. In Hell.”

Daemon’s legs turned to water. Weakly, he pushed aside some books so that he could sit on the table. You had said she was six times stronger than our combined strength. Oh, Father, you were so wrong. Six times? Six hundred times? Six thousand times?

Enough power to wipe the Blood out of existence.