Nilsa shook as she waited for the pain to come, for the afterlife Chryseis promised to come into view through her closed eyes, but nothing ever came.

She'd either unfortunately succeeded, or she'd failed miserably. In complete honesty, she wasn't sure which one she prefered more; the satisfaction of slipping through Corvina's fingers or the selfish want she had to live, even in such confinement.

Nilsa trembled as two hands slowly pulled the dagger away from her grip. Metal clattered as the weapon met the floor, and those warm hands clutched either side of her face. It had gone absolutely silent.

"Nilsa," a warm voice said. She knew that voice. It was impossible.

Her eyes threatened to open but she made sure to keep them shut. "No," she replied. Tears, either from watching the gods' last moments or the terror she felt while shoving a dagger into her stomach, were fresh on her cheeks, but two thumbs gently brushed them away.

"Please," the voice begged. "Open your eyes." She could feel their breath on her face as they leaned closer. "Look at me."

"If you're talking to me, it means I've failed."

She forced her eyes open, shocked to find a softly-smiling blue-eyed god staring back at her. "Good thing too," he said. "Because that was certainly not part of my plan."

Nilsa gazed past him, but her eyes only met a wall of black shadow. "What's happening?"

Ronan's head turned with her. "Every witch, guard, and Velpavanian royal is meeting the wrath of eight gods." The corners of his lips pointed upward. "I thought you should receive a moment or two before the Archai warrior joins in."

Tears ran down her face in a mixture of joy and horror. "I was going to do it."

"I know."

"For your kingdom. I was going to do it."
His hands tilted her face to look directly at him. "I know. But you don't have to."

"I was going to do it for you."

He went silent in thought for moments on end. Weapons and screams echoed behind his wall of shadow but it was oddly peaceful on their side, almost wrongly so.

"I thought you were going to die," Nilsa tried to explain. "It was all I could do to keep fighting. They took me away from all of you and threatened everything I love. I couldn't-"

"Then we kill them before they have the chance to do it again," Ronan stated. Not a suggestion, but a promise. "You know, nobody in this entire world can blame you if you walk away right now. You've given enough." Nearly given her life for their cause.

Nilsa shook her head. "I'd never think of doing such a thing."
"I know," he replied with a sad smile. "But you cannot blame me for trying." His hands slipped from her face as he bent down to grab the fallen dagger from the floor. When he stood back up, he pushed it into her hands. "Please, for the love of all gods, do not do that again."

"Okay," her voice cracked as she nodded.

"We're going to kill her and everyone else that hurt us," he said.

Nilsa managed to smile. "Or we die trying," she finished.

"I hope it doesn't come down to that." Then, the wall vanished, and so did they.

Nilsa blinked and whirled around to face a familiar palace, this one full of bright and lively windows that she'd come to adore. "Why are we here?"

Ronan grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the doors. Havoc ran outside, palace workers sprinting away from the upcoming battle. Velpavanian guards already lay dead on the pavement alongside witches and warlocks dressed in red, green, or black. "This is where the real battle is."

"But Corvina-"

"Is here, I'm sure," he growled, and they stepped into the palace.

Men in Lennox's golden armour immediately flanked their sides, mostly for the purpose of extra protection while they sprouted off information to Ronan as they rushed through the palace. Ronan never let go of her hand, his firm grip running a thumb up and down her wrist with every turn if not just to check that she was there with him.

"All Velpavanians have been wiped from the palace," one of the guards mentioned, he being the only one trusted out of the entire group of them to talk to the god. "There's still a coven's worth of witches trying to hold ground in the fields, and we have our archers spearing them from every hidden angle." Not even the Outlaws could kill what they couldn't find.

"All of them are in the armory?" Ronan questioned.

"You're siblings? Indeed. They arrived only a few moments before you did."

Nilsa squeezed Ronan's hand to gain his attention. His slight tilt of head told her she had it. "What happened? How did you all escape? I thought-"

He didn't let her finish her sentence, didn't want her to. "My father had control over the darkness before he gave that control to me, but neither of us ever owned it. The Eldergreen poison weakened our physical bodies powers."

Nilsa figured it out by herself. "But it didn't stop you from contacting the shadows."

Ronan gave a stiff nod. "I was too weak to summon anything like shadow, but everyone has a darkness inside of them, darkness that I can control."

"That's how you were able to control that girl." She realized what she said when Ronan's grip went still on her hand. "I'm sorry."

"You don't need to be, you're right. It was an Eldergreen witch, one who felt guilty about shoving poison down Thorin's throat. Her father used to work on Thorin's ships."

Nilsa's brows pursed. She'd assumed that all of the witches were from Velpavane, not that they'd grown up right under the gods' noses. "You were able to contact her?"

He nodded. "She was the one controlling my cuffs. She was unlocking them the entire time Corvina was talking. She'd just finished when-" his voice cracked but he quickly recovered. "Just being free of them was enough for me to summon Shadow, and he released the rest of my siblings while I stopped you. An Outlaw whisked away Corvina and Kielle before Caspian could put lighting through their hearts."

Nilsa couldn't manage to utter a single word. She'd been so close, and if Ronan hadn't gotten to her even half-a-second later, she wouldn't be here. She would have missed all of this, and it all would have been for nothing.

"Giselle betrayed us," she pushed out, just to get her mind off of the gleaming dagger. "I thought I should tell you. Arran is in on it too."

Ronan frowned. He must've not known either. "I wouldn't have guessed."
"I'm the reason she got so close to him," Nilsa admitted. "I made him go after her. What if-"

He stopped them in the middle of the hallway, surprising both her and their silent guards whom Nilsa had forgotten were walking right beside them. "You told me I couldn't blame myself for the actions of others. Now, I need to tell you the same thing." He tugged her closer. "Giselle made her own choice. Love is blinding."

It reminded her of something Giselle had said to her that morning. It felt like days since she'd made Giselle bawl all over the bathroom floor. "Corvina offered me your life in return for my full cooperation."

He stared into her, and the silence felt like it was killing her. "And I was on death row," he finally muttered.

Nilsa's eyes had never stopped watering, but the tears ran faster now. "I considered it, I promise I did-"

"There was no other option but the one you choose." He wrapped her arms around her waist and buried her face into his chest. "Thank you for being stronger than I would have been," he said with his chin atop of her head.

"I didn't it want to be," she weeped. "I wanted you to live, damned the consequences."

"I had a chance to kill Corvina yesterday," he replied. "And she said it was either you or her. I could have destroyed Velpavane right there. They wouldn't last without Corvina, but I choose you. I let her go. I can only hope that you forgive me."

"Stop that," she demanded, her voice muffled against his tattered shirt. "None of that matters now."

"I wish that was the case," he murmured into her hair before he separated from him. "I want nothing but to spend these moments with you, but we have a battle coming at rapid speed."

Nilsa nodded, wiping tears away from her eyes. "Yes. Yes, we do."

Ronan tightened his hold on her hand and continued their descent down the halls. Rieka's nurses sprinted past them to tend to the wounded and other guards ran to join the battle. Men and women alike rush around in Alaeca's signature red, signalling them as being part of her war council. The palace was in complete havoc.

The guards flanking their sides drifted off into the hall as they approached the armory, and Nilsa wished that she was more prepared when Ronan ripped open the doors and seven pairs of eyes glanced up from their tasks.

Nilsa recognized surprise, terror, and relief in most of them, but none of that even compared to the raging silver gaze that seemed to burn right through her.

They didn't know if you were dead or alive, Nilsa realized by how frozen they stood. They didn't know if you'd succeeded.

Nilsa didn't see the dagger coming, but she barely flinched as it embedded itself into the wall inches away from her ear.

Everyone turned to Chryseis in shock, particular towards her empty hand that had held a silver dagger only seconds ago. Chryseis was in no state of frozen.

"I wouldn't have been able to revive you, you fool!" She yelled, and Nilsa nearly took a step back as the goddess stalked across the large armory. Gideon started to get up and stop his sister, but he was no help against the angry force that quickly, and to Nilsa's amazement, wrapped her arms around Nilsa's waist.

Nilsa, along with everyone else in the room, stood solid at the goddess' unexpected display of affection. She was the first to move, although it was only a single hand that wrapped around the goddess to return the embrace. Neither of them let go.

"There was a possibility I was going to die there, and you did it anyways," Chryseis whispered.

"I did," Nilsa replied. "I did it to save lives."
"But not your own," Chryseis hissed, squeezing her hold around Nilsa. "I gave you that option as a complete last resort!"
"It was a last resort. I wouldn't have been able to keep information away from the Silents. They would have ripped through my mind."

"And I would have been named the biggest fool for ever suggesting it in the first part," Chryseis mumbled before tearing away. Nilsa thought it may have been a trick of the light when she caught glistening wetness in the goddess' eyes.

Caspian pointed the sharp sword in his hand towards Chryseis, fury in his violet irises. "You took her away that night," he stated, and most of the room seemed awfully confused as to what he was hinting at. "You did it to tell her to kill herself?"

Chryseis took multiple steps forward until she placed her stomach right at the tip of his blade. "Nobody is more angry at me than myself. Stab me a hundred times with your sword, I wouldn't blame you." Caspian seemed to be considering the idea.

Rieka raised two careful hands. "We don't know how much of that poison is still running through her veins, Caspian! You stab her and it may end fatal."
Neither Caspian nor Chryseis looked like they cared about Rieka's comment.

"Nobody is going to stab anybody until we are out on the battlefield," Gideon yelled, his voice more demanding and urgent than Nilsa had ever heard it. "If Chryseis is to receive punishment for such an idiotic act than it will be decided once Velpavane is defeated. We need all nine of us to be at full force. I would think after one of us was a second away from death, you'd be hesitant to end another life!"

"And who's fault is that?" Caspian faught.

"Nobody's!" Nilsa found herself replying. "She didn't grab the dagger, I did! Today wasn't part of her plan, this was all me!"

Caspian stared blankly at her before he nodded and moved the sword away from his sister, but didn't hesitate to roughly brush Chryseis' shoulder with his as he walked away.

Czarin looked less than pleased as she twirled a matching dagger in her hand. "Now can we all throw daggers at Nilsa's head for being so stupid?"

Nilsa managed to laugh as a single tear fell down her cheek. "Preferably after all this is over."