“We’ll hide.” So much blood. “Let Mykaela find another apprentice. Let them take care of the rest of the daeva. I want a small house by the shore, where no one can bother us.” I couldn’t stop the bleeding. I pressed harder. “Or by the forests. We’ll grow our own food and herbs. No one will know our real names.” Harder. “Or we can travel. We’ll see the rest of the world and wear different faces.” Harder.

“I would like that,” Kalen whispered. “A house with you. Traveling. Everything, with you.” He laid a hand on top of mine. “I would like…daughters, with your eyes and your terrible singing voice. I am so sorry, Tea.”

“I’ll give you everything you want, Kalen,” I said fiercely. “I will—” My voice broke, and I could no longer find the words.

“No grave will hold me, Tea. I swear it. I’ll never leave you.”

“I love you,” I sobbed. “I will love you for the rest of my life.”

“And I will love you for the rest of yours.” He sighed, long and low, his voice growing weaker. “The song you sang once. At Thanh. Sing it again.”

I held my hands over his heart, kissed him on his bloodied lips, and sang for him.

Only Lord Fox’s timely intervention saved her. The former Faceless’s teeth had sunk into the man’s neck, which spurted jets of blood. He tried to push her off, but her grip was a vise.

Lord Kalen’s blade was true. It slashed across her face, forced her to drop her hold on the other familiar. The Deathseeker attacked again, in a combination of flame and fire and steel, and the blighted was forced back. Her serpentlike face was a ruin; the man had succeeded in taking out an eye, but she showed no outward pain or dismay, only hate.

“Fox!” The Dark asha went down on her knees beside her brother as the latter struggled to stand, hand clasped over the side of his neck. “I’m fine,” the man said through gritted teeth. “Are you hurt?”

“You cannot be reckless here, Fox! She is stronger than most!”

“She’s right,” Lord Kalen supplied grimly. “Remember the elder asha in Daanoris—stronger, faster, angrier.”

“She blighted herself?” Lady Zoya breathed out, staring in horror at the new abomination. “But why?”

“Her last resort. Because she’d rather be damned than give Tea what she wants.”

“From where I stand, she already looks the part.”

“We need to get out of here. Outside of the range, where we can use the other daeva against her.”

The blighted Druj lashed out again, a coiled strike, but Lady Zoya clapped her hands together, and the sand sank beneath the creature again, putting her off balance. A whip of fire struck the abomination across the chest, and she keened.

“Run!” Lord Kalen roared, and we obeyed without question.