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you.”
    “On the contrary. You have been doing it without me for some time now. You wondered why I stepped back so many times.” He smiled weakly. “I knew I wouldn’t be around forever.”
    Alcander threw the book across the room with a guttural yell.
    Lomay turned to look at him, his normally joyful eyes filled with unspoken feeling. “I have always loved you, Alcander. I should have told you before. But knowing you found the happiness I foresaw for you . . .” He glanced at Kiora. “It made the choice a little easier.”
    “Lomay.” Alcander choked and his chest hitched. He leaned forward on the table, the Book of Creators pressed beneath his palms. “I . . . I’m sorry.”
    Lomay smiled. “I know. I always knew.”
    His body was almost gone, his face misty under the swirling magic. “Lomay! Wait!” Kiora said, a stream of logic breaking through her despair. “We don’t know anything. Where are the rebel camps? The—”
    “It’s all on the table,” Lomay said, his voice weak and thin. “Good-bye.”
    His good-bye whispered through the room as golden magic washed away all that was left. The swirling mass then separated into two parts—one slipped out of the library doors to reinforce the barrier, and the other floated toward Kiora.
    “No,” she moaned, stepping backwards. She shook her head and tears poured down her cheeks. “I don’t want it.” The magic enveloped her, seeping in through her skin.
    Kiora fell to her knees as all that was left of Lomay melded with her magic. She dropped her head in defeat as the final golden wisps slid through her.
    Now there were two. Two who had sacrificed their lives to give her the tools needed to defeat Jasmine.
    What should have been grief simmered in her heart, but quickly morphed to something else. Her magical reserves rose and her fists clenched at the buzzing and burning beneath her skin. She thought she would explode.
    Stumbling to her feet, she wrenched the only thing that remained of Lomay off the floor. Screaming, she flung his cane across the room. It hit the wall, spun, and clattered across the tiles.
    “Kiora!” Emane yelled from behind her.
    “How dare he?” Magic sputtered like embers from her fingertips. “He tricked me! He didn’t even ask me if I wanted it. He made me kill him!” Emane put out his hand to touch her. Realizing the danger he was in, she spun on him. “Don’t touch me! You can’t touch me.” She gripped her head, turning one way and then the other, wanting—needing—to take her anger out on something. Without thinking, she held out her hands. Fire burst from her fingertips, igniting a chair. The flames rose up with a satisfying crackle and burst of heat. The release was marvelous. She whirled to light another.
    “Kiora!” Alcander ran up and wrapped his arms around her from behind, pinning her arms to the side.
    Emane frantically looked for anything to help combat the fire, but the room was full of books and paper and nothing else. He ripped off his shirt, using it to beat at the rapidly growing flames.
    “Let me go!” Kiora struggled against Alcander’s grasp, but he held on tighter. “Kiora, stop.”
    “No! He had no right, no right.”
    “Kiora, it was his life to give.” Alcander’s voice was strained.
    “He didn’t have the right to give it to me . I don’t want it. I don’t want it !”
    Emane stepped back from the smoldering chair. He glanced over to them before doing a double take, his eyes widening. “Alcander!”
    Alcander pulled Kiora to the ground. He rocked back and forth with her, cooing in her ear. “I miss him too.”
    Kiora clung to his arms, allowing herself to be rocked. She collapsed into sobs.
    “Alcander,” Kiora heard Emane say with concern as he took a cautious step forward. “Maybe you should let her go.”
    Alcander shook his head, his long hair tickling her cheek. “She’s regaining control.”
    Kiora sniffed and looked up through teary vision. Alcander’s face was