“You can’t. Silver heartsglass, remember? Tricky stuff. Wield all the magic you want in your first life, but you don’t get a chance at a second. Fair trade, I’d say.” Fox picked up the sword that had stabbed Kalen and eyed it critically. “No different than the one that got me. A sword or a savul’s claw—as long as it gets the job done, what difference does it make if it is human or daeva? That doesn’t make you a different kind of dead. Now, Kalen—that’s a shame. He was devoted to you. Even now, I reckon he’d die saving your life.”

“I have to bring him back!”

“You can’t break the rules simply because you want to. More often than not, the rules wind up breaking you. You’re gonna save the world, Tea. But you’ll return to Kion to mourn on graves. Kalen’s gonna have to pay the price for your impulses.”

“I don’t want to save the world!”

“If you don’t save it, then everyone dies anyway. Then what difference will that make?” My brother grabbed my chin and forced me to look at him. “Love requires sacrifice, Tea. If it’s real love, then it will hurt. You’ll need to give him up. He’s a distraction and a weakness, and you can’t have more of those. Don’t you remember? Love is what got you into this mess, Sister. Love is the reason you raised me from the dead, and we’ve both been paying for that ever since—and all because you couldn’t let me go. Do you still find yourself worthy, Tea of the Embers? Do you still accept?”

I screamed, and this time the walls shuddered and collapsed. Rocks toppled toward us, Kalen and Fox and me. I closed my eyes. Briefly, in that expanse between fainting and waking, I saw a vision: Kance on a white horse, his army charging into an unending tide of Drychta—transformed, blighted Drychta.

When I opened my eyes again, I was sitting by the cave’s entrance, my teeth chattering. Kalen—alive and breathing—was by my side. He hastily pulled the hood from my head, his worried, brown eyes staring into mine. Khalad put his hand on my shoulder, scanning my heartsglass and breathing a loud sigh. “She’s scared and a little confused, and there’s a burn on her hand, but there’s nothing else wrong with her.”

“Tea?” Kalen asked hesitantly, gently nudging my face toward his. “Are you all right? You stumbled out of the mountain and fell. You’re crying… What happened in there?”

I hugged him tightly, my tears wet against his cheek. “I couldn’t accept.” I touched his jaw, his nose, his hair, every inch of him that my numbed hands could reach. “I failed, and I am so, so glad I did.”