Gabrielle shouted to be heard over the howling storm. She was looking right at Alana, moving her lips very slowly and deliberately, so she would be understood.

Alana heard her mother’s words very faintly over the rushing wind in her ears. She did not say “I love you” or “I missed you” or even “I’m sorry.” It wasn’t the time for that.

She said, “Kill him.”

Alana knew what came next.

She drew her sword.

Who does the harsh things?

She who can.

She put her sword straight through Colchester. It went into his hollow chest, out the other side, and into Gabrielle.

“Goodbye, Mom,” she said. They locked eyes, but all Alana saw was pain. She didn’t know if her mother heard her.

When Danny could think again, he remembered what it had been like to hit the ground after his jetpack crash. This was much worse.

He realized Carrie was pulling him along and yelling at him. The entire school seemed to be coming down around their ears.

“Come on, move your ass!” she shouted.

Danny looked back. The dragon was still there, writhing in its death throes. Its wing caught one of the Followers and sliced him in two.

“We can’t let that thing — ” he began.

“We won’t,” she said. She showed him what was in her hand, and he got it immediately.

The communicator. The one he’d told her not to use.

He limped along, leaning heavily on her shoulder.

They made it to the parking lot. Carrie pressed three buttons on the touchscreen and made a call. 911.

On the other side of the gym, the radio waves hit the bomb’s receiver almost immediately. And the cheap, badly designed bomb exploded, like Danny said it would.

The blast took out half the school, and all of the gym.

Everything in its radius, including the dragon, was blown to pieces.

Colchester looked at the girl, then at the sword in his chest, and laughed.

He backhanded her away from him. She’d killed her own mother, and it was not enough. He was not dead. He could survive this. He had survived so much.

The woman behind him was still holding him, but he could deal with her. It would only take a moment.

Suddenly, he felt weak.

He reached out with his mind, but there was nothing to draw on anymore. Someone had wounded his dragon, and it was dying. His Followers were dying, their belief in him, their devotion winking out like candles in a high wind.

There were still a few left. He thought he could drain them dry, take their lives for one last burst of strength, break free —

Then, in the town below, a massive explosion tore his dragon to nothingness, and wiped most of his believers out of existence.

He felt the power shut off like someone flipped a switch.

Beneath Colchester, the Well of Stars began to close.