It’s so obvious now, how to beat him. Eric wonders why he never saw it before.

He summons the magic, one last time. He imagines a world where children play games at the local park and walk home unafraid at sunset. Where their parents love them unconditionally, even when they break a window or come home with an F or get pregnant in high school. Where no monsters dwell behind the smiles of people who wear uniforms or clerical collars or coaches’ whistles. Where no one is ever lost or abandoned. Where they will all grow up healthy and happy and safe.

Eric believes in that world more than anything. Not because he has ever seen it, or lived there. But because he wants it for Jeremy. And so, for a moment, it’s real.

In this world, there is no place for a thing that feeds on children. There is no room for a thing like Colchester.

A patch of bright blue sky opens overhead, and yellow sunlight from a perfect summer day in that world pierces the gloom. It shines on Eric’s hand, and the little scrap of darkness writhes and smolders and burns down to nothing, screaming in useless fury the entire time.

Then it’s gone.

Eric opens his hand, and there’s no trace of it left. Nothing.

The rain stops instantly. The clouds part, and a gentle summer breeze blows through the meadow. Looking at Jeremy, he sees a boy who is drenched, scared and open-mouthed. But a normal little boy.

Eric smiles at him. Then he drops to the ground, hemorrhaging liters of blood.

Jeremy rushes to his side. Alana kneels down, and cradles his head in her lap.

“I’m sorry,” he says to her.

“Shut up,” she says. “Just shut up.”

She whispers something in the language of the Fair Folk, the last thing she remembers her mother taught her, a benediction of sorts: May your death be swift and painless. It’s meant with more affection than it sounds.

Eric only has enough time to look at Jeremy. He tries to tell him, with that look, that it will be all right. From here, he can see over the horizon into the future, and he knows it will all work out. Eric couldn’t return him to his parents — that was a trick he couldn’t pull off — but he has given him the best foster mother and father he could imagine, and a badass fairy godmother as well. He has given him a place where he can live and learn and grow.

He’s given Jeremy the life Eric always wanted. All it costs him is everything.

All magic requires a sacrifice. This is his. And in return, he gets a whole new world.

Merlin was right, as it turns out. He was fated to die in battle with his greatest enemy. It just took a while.

“Goodbye,” Alana says, and closes his eyes.