Riven couldn’t feel his leg anymore.

  At least — not properly.

  There was pain, screaming, blinding pain, but it felt detached from him now, like it belonged to someone else and he was just borrowing it. His hands were in the dirt, fingers digging uselessly into cold soil slick with blood that might have been his or might not.

  He tried to breathe.

  It came out wrong.

  Too fast. Too shallow. Every breath scraped like glass.

  So this is it, his mind whispered, thin and panicked. I’m going to die here. I’m going to die in the dirt.

  The thought hit harder than the pain.

  “I don’t—” he choked, lips trembling. “I don’t wanna—”

  He bit it off, teeth clacking together.

  Don’t say it. Don’t say it out loud.

  He forced his head up.

  Kael was still running.

  Still running.

  Riven felt something crack open in his chest — not pressure, not power — grief, sharp and ugly and immediate.

  At least he’ll make it.

  That thought came unbidden, and it hurt worse than the bullet.

  Kael was fast. Always had been. Head down, legs pumping, eyes locked on the trees like they were the only thing left in the world. The forest was right there. So close it felt cruel.

  Riven sucked in a breath that burned.

  Good, he thought wildly. Go. Don’t look back. Just go.

  Then Kael turned.

  “No—!” Riven screamed, the sound ripping out of him raw. “KAEL—NO—RUN!”

  Kael didn’t slow.

  Didn’t hesitate.

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  He changed direction like it was the most obvious thing in the world and sprinted straight at him.

  Riven’s heart seized.

  “You idiot,” he sobbed. “You fucking idiot—”

  He tried to push himself up.

  Agony detonated through his leg and he screamed, the sound tearing his throat apart as his body betrayed him and collapsed again.

  He could make it, Riven thought desperately. He could still make it. Why is he coming back—

  Then he felt it.

  The air shifted.

  Not like before. Not like his own Awakening — sharp and violent and inward.

  This was… wider.

  It rolled outward from Kael in a silent wave, like the world itself had taken a breath and forgotten to let it go.

  Riven’s eyes widened.

  “Kael…?” he whispered.

  The little things — the invisible death — the dots that had been tearing through them, punching holes through kids like they weren’t even real—

  They slowed.

  Riven saw it.

  Actually saw it.

  Not with his eyes, not fully — but he felt the moment they lost momentum, felt something grab them mid-flight and drag.

  They fell.

  Metal thudded into dirt.

  Harmless.

  Hope slammed into Riven so hard it made him dizzy.

  He laughed — a broken, hysterical sound that turned into a sob halfway through.

  “You—” he gasped. “You did it. You did it, Kael—”

  He forced himself upright.

  His leg screamed. His vision went white. He almost blacked out — but he stayed standing, shaking, swaying, teeth clenched so hard his jaw popped.

  “I can still—” he muttered, half-crazed. “I can still move. I can—”

  Kael was right there now.

  Three steps.

  Two.

  Riven took one limping step forward, arm lifting instinctively, reaching—

  Time slowed.

  Not the good way.

  Not the stretched, focused calm of power.

  This was wrong.

  Kael’s face changed.

  The color drained from it so fast it was terrifying — like something had sucked the blood straight out of him. His eyes widened, not with pain, not with effort—

  —but recognition.

  Fear.

  Pure, naked fear.

  Riven felt it then.

  Something else.

  Not from Kael.

  From behind him.

  No — through him.

  A pressure that wasn’t pressure, a sound that wasn’t sound — like the sky itself tearing.

  Riven stopped.

  For just a second.

  He looked at Kael.

  And he smiled.

  A small one. Crooked. Tired.

  “Hey,” he breathed. “Guess you really couldn’t just—”

  BOOM.

  It wasn’t an explosion.

  It was a break.

  Like the world had hit a wall at full speed and shattered straight through it.

  Something hit him.

  Not like a bullet.

  This was bigger. Faster. Heavier.

  He saw it before he felt it — a long, brutal shape ripping out of the air in front of him, thick as a tree trunk, moving so fast it blurred, the ground screaming as it tore past—

  Then it punched through him.

  Riven lurched forward as blood bloomed across his chest, hot and sudden, spraying out in a violent arc.

  The pain arrived a heartbeat later.

  White.

  Total.

  Then—nothing.

  The cold came fast.

  Too fast.

  His legs buckled.

  His mouth opened, filling with blood.

  He looked at Kael.

  Kael was screaming.

  Riven couldn’t hear it.

  Kael staggered like he’d been struck, like lightning had gone through him, his knees buckling as he reached out, mouth open around Riven’s name.

  “Ka—” Riven tried.

  Blood spilled down his chin.

  “Ka—Ka—Kael?”

  His vision dimmed.

  The last thing he saw was Kael collapsing forward, eyes locked on him in absolute horror, as the massive spear of force raced away into the distance, tearing the world apart behind it.

  Then Riven fell.

  Face-first.

  And felt nothing at all.