Tess raced through the Mirror Walls. Its luminescent kuar murals sped by her. They depicted Fenrir's victories over the other Dwellers of Par-12 and the eternal protection that he provided for Heart. She knew that now. Fenrir had released that new bit of information in her mind. There was no need for her to glance at them, nor was there any time. Her headache was growing worse by the second. Any moment now, the rest of Fenrir's Blessed guard would be on her.

Tess...Tess...My name is Tess!

Pain lanced through her skull, but she didn't dare allow herself to forget her name. Not again. She fell to her knees, gasping. Off in the distance, through the blazing glow of kuar, she could make out the opening to the peninsula that made up Fenrir's Throne Room. Vague figures were gathering there, but they swam in her vision. The pain in her head was blinding. She couldn't wait any longer.

Tess raised Connor's lighter with a shaking hand and tried flicking it on. But her thumb wouldn't cooperate. Its joints were suddenly too stiff to work. She could barely even get it to slip against the flint wheel. Again, and again she tried. The pain in her head kept growing. She couldn't see anymore. There was just a staticky fuzz where her sight had once been. And yet she knew that even more of the Blessed were still gathering up ahead. She could feel herself fading...again...

With a frustrated yell, Tess slammed the lighter against the Mirror Wall and dragged it down. There was a spark, a sudden whoosh, and a wave of heat. Briefly, Tess's vision snapped back and was met with dancing blue flames. The kuar murals along the wall had caught fire.

A scream of rage filled her mind. She gasped, and then fell to the ground, curling up into a tight little ball as footsteps of Fenrir's Blessed thundered towards her to put out the flames. She didn't want that. She wanted this whole nightmare to stop. She wanted to be Tess again. She wanted Rourke to be free. He'd just been a kid when he made that deal, such a long, long time ago.

A hand grabbed her shoulder and rolled her over. Connor's face appeared close to hers. The growing flames on the wall cast strange shadows against his face. He had a crooked nose, she realized. And his long,ruddy brown hair was plastered all over his face. There was smoke too, and he was coughing.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked through gritted teeth. His arm hung at a funny angle at his side. Tess nodded down the hall to where the Fenrir's Blessed had gathered. They were advancing slower than she'd expected, and their faces were no longer blurred in the firelight that had started to overtake the hall. They were terrifying – stricken with the bloodrot that her parents had warned her about when she was a child. Connor stared at them too, swearing quietly under his breath.

By now, her headache was beginning to lift. The Blessed inched closer, but some had paused to wipe kuar off the unburned walls to prevent the fire from reaching the Throne Room. Redirecting them must have distracted Fenrir. Good. It would give her just enough time to act.

Tess rolled to her knees, grabbing for the Anai knife. Again though, she couldn't get her hands to work right. The joints kept locking up, just like her thumb from earlier. Her fingers kept sliding over the hilt. Sweat trickled down her forehead. The kuar flames were still growing, and so was the heat. With a frustrated growl, she ripped off her remaining sleeve and tried binding her hand to the blade, but that effort was just as useless. She turned to where Connor crouched. He was coughing and holding his damaged shoulder. He frowned, and his eyes kept flicking between her and the Blessed. Why hadn't he left her yet? Why hadn't he run?

"Help me!" she begged him.

Connor didn't move, but his frown deepened as he assessed the Anai knife and the tattered sleeve wrapped loosely around Tess's hand.

"Please, just help me with this," she said, crawling over to him. "Help me tie this and then leave!"

Slowly, Connor raised his eyes to meet Tess's. He knew exactly what she was planning to do. He had to. It was obvious.

But he shook his head.

Tess felt a moment of cold disbelief, and then anger. He wouldn't help her? Not even after she'd spared his life? Twice? Something snapped inside of her.

"I can't," he said. "I'm sorry. Heart needs – "

Tess punched him in the face, and he fell to the ground. She was furious. She grabbed the Anai knife on her own. Something had clicked in her head. Her hands worked again. She was free. She lifted the blade and stared at her frightening new reflection in it. Hot, blue flames flickered in the background. Tess looked up ahead to where the Blessed were still attempting to wipe kuar from the walls and smiled grimly. She bent down and collected her torn sleeve from where it lay on the ground, wrapping it around the Anai blade so that no more light reflected against the metal. Then, she set it alight against the burning Mirror Wall.

The kuar-soaked sleeve caught fire in barely a moment, and then Tess was sprinting faster than humanly possible. The Blessed at the far end of the Mirror Walls reached for her, but they were old and grey and decaying. Rotten skin dangled from their bones. No wonder Fenrir had wanted her to dispose of Connor and Bastet on her own. She cut through them with ease, severing limbs and black-eyed heads. Then, she was on the peninsula, darting between crumbling benches. The flame on her blade burned her eyes and her hand, but she kept moving. Rourke was just up ahead. He watched her intently, holding back Fenrir from devouring her mind.

Please, he begged her, Don't falter.

He was small, like the boy he'd once been, but youth had left him an age ago. White locks of hair dusted his scalp and stretched past his feet. Grey skin stretched across his face and bones. He looked skeletal. Tess leapt up the dais with her flaming Anai knife. Her arm was burned, and the edge of her blouse had caught fire, but she was past the point of caring. She plunged the knife into Rourke's chest. Its flames licked hungrily across his skin, and he bowed his head with a little smile.

Thank you, whispered his final thought. And then came Fenrir's white-hot rage as Rourke's body crumbled. The flames at the edge of Tess's blouse engulfed her, and she fell to her knees with a strangled sob.