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"I've been waiting for you a long time, Alina," he said. "You and I are going to change the world."
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I stirred, rolling over slightly and reaching my hand out for Mal, his bedroll set up to mine. I expected to feel warmth, the butterflies I always get when I touch him, the comforting feeling of home that accompanies him.
But my fingers miss where his shoulder should be, instead continuing down to make contact with soft silk, a luxurious mattress, and my eyes shoot open. I'm not with Mal at all, not in the forest searching for the stag, our bodies pressed together, both for warmth and for want.
I sit up suddenly, a sinking feeling plummeting through me, as if reality has caused me to fall headfirst into a ravine, and look around me.
I'm back in my room in the Little Palace, and at once, memories of the events that caused me to end up here hit me.
I hear the townspeople's cries as they frantically try to run from the Fold, my power useless against the restraint the Darkling placed on me, the collar he created to keep me, to use my strength for his own greedy desires.
My anger is overwhelming; I turn to the Darkling, a desperate plea in my eyes, but he only smiles in satisfaction.
I fight desperately for my power, grasping for the light, only to feel it slip away from my finger every time I reach for it, smothered by his darkness.
"No!" I cry as I watch a small boy stumble in his flight, desperately trying to outrun the Unsea. He reminds me of Mal as a child, small but scrappy, persistent, and in that moment, I decide.
I won't let him control me like this any more.
A vision of the stag comes to my mind, and I realize. All this time, it hasn't been haunting me, but showing me how powerful mercy was. I saved the stag's life, the power of its life belonged as much to me as to the Darkling.
I push off his invisible hand, constricting the ball of light within me, and unleash it, forming a protective dome around the townspeople, allowing them to continue to run as the Fold swallows up Novokribirsk.
"How are you doing this?" the Darkling shouts, trying to reach out to me, stop me, but I hold him and his shadows back with a burst of light, overwhelming him and trapping him in place.
Then I hear a cry, one that makes me stop in my tracks.
"Alina, don't," Mal says, and I turn to see him struggling, Ivan crushing his heart while smiling, having exploited my weakness.
