Dread tugged at Dante. Something was wrong. Catastrophically wrong. The sensation flowed through his emissary bond, overwhelming him. He slumped down onto one of the couches in Jarrett’s sitting room.

“Are you okay?” Jayden asked. She took a seat next to him, hovering worriedly. “Your face went white.”

“Something’s happening.” Dante tried to swallow, but his mouth was dry. “Death—” The inner turmoil was too much. He shuddered, and doubled over.

“What’s going on?” Dante could hear Barek asking. He sounded so distant, though he was only a few paces away.

“I don’t know.” Jayden’s voice wavered. Dante barely felt her hand on his back. “Something with Death, he said.”

More talking, but Dante couldn’t hear anymore. Everything was wrong. He was lost, he wanted to puke, to escape his body. He could feel rage. Death’s rage. She had lost control. Something sinister was taking over. A sly grin. Riordan.

He’d come to get Death.

Dante couldn’t let this overwhelm him. Riordan was draining Death’s energy, and Dante’s would get sucked along with it if he didn’t stop it. He found his emissary bond and pinched the flow. Suddenly, he could breathe again, the world slowly coming back into focus.

As he settled, he realized there were more people in the room. Jarrett had returned from the meeting he’d been called to, and Ange stood near the doorway, each of them holding a sword with a blade of crystal. They must be the godslaying artifacts he’d been told about. Everyone was watching him, faces drawn with concern.

Most importantly, Ange had arrived. That must have been why Jarrett had run off in such a hurry.

“Do you feel it?” Dante asked her. “I know you aren’t an emissary anymore, but…”

“Riordan got to her, did he?” Ange said quietly. “I wasn’t sure, but I am now. Death has been captured.”

Dante lost himself for a few more moments, before he was able to pinch off the emissary bond more firmly. “We have to stop him.”

“Tomorrow,” Ange said. “It’s happening at first light. There will be consequences that will be felt around both the World and Crossworld without Death performing her duties. There’s no time to waste.”

“What do you mean?” Jayden asked. “What kind of consequences?”

“This is unprecedented. So I can’t say exactly,” Ange said. “But without Death’s oversight, when people die their souls will become trapped, either in the Crossworld or in the World. This would build up to be a large amount of unstable energy. It could wreak all sorts of havoc. Natural disasters. Spontaneous combustion, maybe? Magic going haywire.” Ange wavered. “And, it’s possible that people could be born without souls. Or I suppose, not born at all.”

A somber silence followed.

“So those are the stakes,” Ange said. “Not to mention anything else that Riordan has planned. For example, a second Magus war. Any questions?”

Dante cleared his throat. “What about Scarlet?” he asked. “And Bronwen. Do you know if they made it out safe?”

When Ange didn’t reply at first, Dante thought that he might be drifting out of reality again, but then he realized she was simply stalling.

“I don’t know where Bronwen is,” she said after a long moment. “Knowing him, he probably stayed with Death.”

Dante’s heart dropped. He hoped his mentor had been wise enough to run. “And Scarlet?”

“She’s not at Deianira. She came to me in Cascara’s realm.”

“So she’s safe?”

Ange shrugged. “More or less.”

That didn’t give him comfort. “Where is she now?”

“Riordan’s realm. Or, hopefully back in Cascara’s by now.”

“So she’s alone?”

“I didn’t have a choice.” Ange’s voice was growing sharp with impatience. “She couldn’t come to the World, and she wouldn’t let me leave her behind in Cascara’s realm.”

Wait, if Ange knows Scarlet can’t come to the World… “Scarlet couldn’t come with you because of Death’s compulsion, or—”

“She… I helped her break her compulsions. And she broke her tether to the Crossworld. I didn’t realize it was there, that it was helping to keep her alive…”

Dante went numb. Jayden still had a protective hand on him, but now he couldn’t even feel that.

“She wanted to come to the World anyway,” Ange said. “I thought that, maybe it would be okay, Death was feeding her energy to keep her stable but… I realized she was doing worse than I originally thought. So I told her to head back to the border between the realms and wait for me. If we can save Death, she might be able to save Scarlet still.”

“You realize she’s not going to do that, right?”

“Death will help her. We just have to—”

“No, not that.” Dante’s rising voice made Jayden flinch away. “Scarlet isn’t going to walk away. Not if she can get here. At best, you left her there for Riordan to find on his way to us. At worst, she made a portal to come here, which would kill her.”

“If she did anything other than go back to the border, that’s ridiculous and wildly irresponsible—”

“That doesn’t mean it’s not exactly what she’d do. Where’d you come through? At the waystone?”

Ange nodded and Dante bolted out of Jarrett’s house. Ange followed him, leaving the others behind without another word. Dante hadn’t spoken about Scarlet to any of them, but alleviating their confusion was low in his priorities right now.

The night’s chill air bit through his tunic as he ran through the plains and pushed his way through the narrow game trail, but it took seeing Scarlet slumped on the ground next to the waystone to turn his blood cold. He shot an accusing glare at Ange before rushing to Scarlet’s side.

She was unconscious. He cursed under his breath when he felt her skin. Cold, so cold. He could feel her pulse, faint and slow. She was still alive, no thanks to Ange, who caught up and loomed over them both.

“How could you do this?” Dante started to gather his energy. He’d need to infuse Scarlet with it, she wouldn’t make it otherwise. “You helped her break the bonds that kept her alive, then left her to die.”

“I didn’t know. And I wasn’t the only one to leave her.”

Guilt and anger coursed through Dante. “I didn’t leave her like this. And I had to, I had to come help—”

“So did I,” Ange growled. “I made the same decision, Dante. What was I supposed to do, stay with her in the Crossworld until she dies? I can’t let her hold me back, we have to stop Riordan, and we’re running out of time.”

Dante took a deep, shuddering breath. “Go. Just go back to Jarrett’s. I’ll take care of Scarlet.” He had to heal Scarlet, and he couldn’t concentrate with his anger toward Ange taking over.

Ange left the clearing without argument. Dante closed his eyes and gathered himself, letting Ange’s vitriol wash away. He drew deeply from his well of energy, and poured it into Scarlet. It wasn’t a complicated healing; there were no problem areas to focus on. She just needed energy, pure and simple, to keep her soul from completely detaching and drifting into the Nextworld.

Scarlet stirred as he rejuvenated her. When he was done, her eyes flickered open. The blue of her irises was still captivating, although duller than before.

“Dante,” she mumbled. She pulled herself up and took in their surroundings. “Where are we?”

“Saridian. We’re near a village called Rosewood.”

She gave him the slightest nod.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“Bad.” She paused, running her hand through her hair. “I… did something I don’t think I should have.”

“Ange told me about breaking the bonds. You shouldn’t be in the World—”

“It doesn’t matter anymore.” Scarlet sighed, and laid back down on the grass. She looked up at the singular moon shining light upon them. “My bond to the Crossworld is broken. Being there won’t help me. And Death can’t help anymore. Our emissary bond remains, but I’m sure you’ve felt by now… Death has nothing left to give me.”

Dante knew he couldn’t sustain her with his own magic for very long. “So what do we do?” he whispered.

It was a long time before Scarlet spoke again. For a moment, Dante thought she had passed out again, but he saw her eyes flicker across the sky, from star to star. There was still a distance between them, an awkwardness from her rejection. He wondered if anything would ever be the same as it was before.

“We fight,” Scarlet said. “We win. It’s the only way.”

#

Nightmares took over Dante’s sleep that night. He supposed it was inevitable his visions would hit him full force right before an event that was as important as this was. Everything was about to change.

Dante shook himself from the dreams periodically. He got up each time he woke to check on Scarlet, who was sleeping on the couch opposite him. She slept soundly, conserving what little energy she had.

Either of them could die. Both of them could die. He saw it in his dreams, the infinite permutations of results that Io had given him.

As dawn came closer, he pulled the crystal orb out of his pack. It was a solid weight in his hands, though always a bit lighter than he expected.

Io had compelled him to repair this orb to help clarify the visions they gave him. He’d always kept it tucked away, under his bed or in his bag. But if there were ever a time when he needed every drop of information from his dreams, it was now.

So far, he had only dreamed of their defeat.

How could they win? How could they survive? He repeated these questions in his head as he fell back asleep, a prayer to Io, crystal orb clutched to his chest.

And it came to him: a vision, fast-forwarding through events, quick but clear. It split into twin paths, two different roads to victory against Riordan.

Both plans were so unlikely to work just right, like they had to. They were both ugly, difficult paths. But there was a chance, and Dante knew he had to do whatever it took to make one of them happen.

He woke again as the sun rose, but this time he wasn’t grateful for the reprieve from his visions. It was time to prepare for the real thing.

Scarlet stirred as the sun began to peek around the curtains, and Jarrett’s house bustled with a quiet intensity as everyone rose. Then, everyone ran off—Jarrett and Ange went to organize their troops, and Barek was escorting Jayden to take shelter at town hall, at least supposedly—and Scarlet and Dante were left alone.

Scarlet took a seat beside him at the kitchen table as he stirred a bowl of porridge that was destined to remain uneaten. “I want to fight today,” she told him.

Dante nodded. She would be there, no matter what. Jayden would join them too. There was nothing he could do about that. No point in trying to stop either of them. “I’ll give you as much energy as I can to get you through today.”

Her face relaxed with his easy approval. “Thank you.”

He took in a deep breath. “Look, I know you didn’t want me to become an emissary—”

“It was your choice,” she said, averting her gaze. She seems more defeated than angry. “You found your sister. That’s what you wanted. I’m happy for you.”

“Look,” he said, “about before. Back in the Crossworld. I—”

“This isn’t the time,” Scarlet cut in.

“If not now, then when? Scarlet—”

“I don’t know.” Scarlet’s fists were on the table, clenched tightly enough to make her knuckles white. “Later. After the battle.”

“There might not be—” Dante had to pause to steady his words. “There might not be an after the battle.”

“You can’t think like that.”

“I have to think about it. I’m forced to. Trust me, I’ve seen today in my dreams a thousand times by now.”

Scarlet’s hands went limp, and her voice grew soft. “What did you see?”

“Death. Not the god just—dying. So much of it. Scarlet, even if we win this battle, it doesn’t mean everyone gets a happy ending.”

“I’m not ignorant. I know we’re at a disadvantage, and not everyone’s going to survive. But—”

“You don’t want to face it.”

“How can I?” she whispered. “Everything’s a mess, Dante. Including me.”

“I just want—” Dante stopped. What did he want? He was so far from what he wanted. Even though he had found Jayden and accepted his powers, he’d lost so much. His parents had died hating who he was. His first mentor, Ferrick, had nearly changed his life, but he was gone too, along with Dante’s hope for his own future. Dante had become an emissary in hopes of saving Bronwen, and now his new mentor’s fate was uncertain at best.

And then there was Scarlet, who he’d foolishly allowed himself to grow feelings for. It wasn’t like she hadn’t warned him away. Even though they’d become friends, and had moments of closeness, she still held him at arm's length. Maybe he had been unknowing using the insight powers that Leandra told him about, and it’d built a false, one-sided sense of intimacy.

Maybe Scarlet had been right; he’d loved her because she was the only person around.

He was so close to having nothing. He was so close to dying with nothing.

But he wasn’t going to say any of that to her.

They were rescued from continuing the conversation by Barek coming in the front door, crystalline sword in hand. Jayden was close behind.

“I’m coming with you,” Jayden told Dante.

Barek eyed Dante apprehensively. “I can’t convince her otherwise.”

Dante nodded. “I know. Come on, we’d better get out to the field.”

Jayden gave him a tight hug before the four of them walked together out of Rosewood, to the area deemed ideal for the confrontation against Riordan. Most of the Vanguard was worried that Riordan wouldn’t even show up. Dante knew for a fact that he would. Whatever Riordan wanted from Jarrett or the mage that had sealed his memories, it was enough of a draw that he would come.

By the time they arrived, it looked like most of the Vanguard and the Ravens had assembled already. So many people, and yet, so few to fight a god.

Since Barek had one of the magus swords, he and Jayden split off to take their place inside the circular formation. The magus sword wielders were spread out evenly throughout. Scarlet and Dante were on the outer edge of the circle, in case Scarlet faltered.

It was nearly time, though Ange and Jarrett had yet to show up. Dante knew things would happen quickly once they did, though. Riordan would portal through the Crossworld to navigate over to them in no time at all.

“Scarlet,” he said. “When the time comes—you know what you have to do, right?”

Scarlet’s forehead wrinkled. “What do you mean?”

“Take Riordan down with a magus weapon. You have to do it.”

“I don’t—Dante, I don’t even have one of the swords.”

“But you do,” he said.

She furrowed her brow further. “Is this something you saw in a dream?”

Dante paused. If he told her too much, would it change the whole path he’d seen? He spotted two figures in the distance. “I think Jarrett’s here. Ange, too.”

Instantly, Scarlet glanced over to where Dante was looking. “That man—something about him—”

“What?”

Scarlet shrugged. “I’m not sure. My head is foggy. It’s been getting this way for a while, but since I broke the Crossworld bond… it’s so much worse.”

“We’ll get you back to normal soon.”

Dante took Scarlet’s arm so that he could transfer energy to her more easily, and make sure she was at full capacity for the battle. The tension in her body was easy to feel, she held herself stiff as they waited for Jarrett and Ange to take their places. He would give her everything he could.

Now that Leandra had pointed out his insight powers, they were becoming more obvious to him, especially with skin to skin contact. He wasn’t sure it was a power he really wanted. It seemed invasive, and had led him astray with Scarlet. Yet, it was something he had apparently done his whole life without knowing. His magic subtly prodded at those around him, seeking out their inner feelings.

Dante tried to restrain himself from reading Scarlet and to focus instead on channeling energy to her, but it was difficult while holding her arm. She flooded easily into him.

Scarlet was tense. Anxious, yet confident. She was a muscle coiled, ready to spring. A weapon honed for this very purpose. This was everything. Everything. It all came down to this moment. This intensity consumed her, even as her energy faded. A chance to slay Riordan, rescue her mother, keep Dante safe.

He managed to pull himself back from prying deeper. He needed to keep his distance. It tortured him, to be so close yet so far from her. He hadn’t yet convinced his heart to accept the error of its ways. The tiniest things were sparks that reignited his hope—like how strongly she felt the need to protect him.

If only she could protect them all. But she couldn’t. Truly, what either of them did or didn’t feel for each other wouldn’t matter soon. His last vision had been clear.

Maybe there was a way to change it, like when he had twisted fate and saved Jayden. But this—it was so much bigger, the threads of the future tangled so intricately—Dante was ready to accept what he had to. His dreams had shown him the way to victory.

One of them had to die today.