The teen’s eyes are combative as they meet mine, as if she’s still engaged in battle. Her mother has backed away to the forest’s edge, her little girl swept behind her. The child’s tear-streaked violet face peeks at me from around her mother’s side and the terror on her innocent face rouses a fierce sympathy in me.

“Are you all right?” I ask.

The child startles and ducks behind her mother, who is watching me through fever-dazed eyes, shock evident on her wan face. The young teen glances at them, then me, and nods stiffly.

Forcing my bruised body into motion, I resheathe my blades and stalk to one of the smoldering bats. Through the flames, I yank the girl’s knife from its tough hide. Then I turn and stride to her, ignoring the stabbing pain in my ankle. I hold the weapon out to her, hilt first.

She meets my gaze, vulnerability breaking through as she lets out a quavering breath, then nods, relief overtaking her expression as she accepts the blade.

The immensity of the situation is suddenly bearing down on me like deadweight. I’m outwardly calm, but my blood is hammering at my temples, dread unfolding in the pit of my stomach.

I’m on a collision course with Vogel and the Prophecy.

Lukas is gone. Chi Nam too. And Ancient One knows what happened to Valasca.

I rake my fingers through my tangled gray hair, a barrage of grief and longing for Lukas—for all of them—hitting me with eviscerating force. I’m splayed open by it, unmoored, my breaths coming in uneven, shuddering waves. How can I face this alone?

A heart-shattering memory of Lukas’s voice fills my mind. You’re stronger than you think. I’m sure of it. I always have been.

The will to fight back wrests hold, spearing up through the grief.

Fueled by it.

It surprises me, how intensely and tenaciously it grips hold. It’s what he would have wanted, I insist to myself, tightening my chest against the upswell of sorrow. It’s what they all would have wanted. They’d want me to stay sharp and persevere.

Steadied, I stride back toward the bats, their charred heads spitting flame and dark smoke. I pause over the nearest corpse and survey the unfamiliar Shadow rune on its chest, knowing that I’m looking at my enemy.

The enemy who killed Lukas.

“Watch for movement in the trees or sky,” I caution the teen over my shoulder. She nods and grips her blade tighter as I set my gaze back on the corrupted beast and lower myself to one knee before it.