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was no evidence of an eclipse anymore. As usual, she had lost track of time when using her powers and she assumed Tristan had kept them away from her. When she turned, Tristan and Diana had hold of each other’s necks and were squeezing, racing to see who would be decapitated first.

Kira started forward to help Tristan but tripped over the body she hadn’t noticed at her feet. Jerome lay still, with a gaping hole in his chest, next to the crushed remains of his heart. Kira stifled a scream and jumped over him to escape the gruesome sight.

Diana squeezed free of Tristan, realizing he would have killed her first, and Kira used the open opportunity to shoot a blaze right at Diana’s heart, crushing her against a tree, not letting her escape. Kira wasn’t sure if enough time had passed. She feared that Diana’s immunity hadn’t waned, but Kira’s emotions put extra force behind the punch, and Diana had nowhere left to run. The fight was over, but Kira was not playing nice this time. Diana was evil, pure and simple, and evil needed to be destroyed. Kira stepped closer, slowly, until her palm laid flat against Diana’s chest, killing her all the faster.

"You don’t want to kill me, Kira." Diana forced the words out, struggling to make a sound.

"Why not? You tried to kill me. You tried to turn my boyfriend against me. You might have killed my best friend. Give me one good reason." Kira leaned in with each word, staring into Diana’s clear blue eyes, letting her meaning sink in.

"Your mother is alive, and I know where she is."

Kira jumped back, too shocked to maintain her control, and in that split second, Diana disappeared.

"No!" Kira screamed, trying to run after her. Tristan grabbed her around the waist, picking her up off the ground.

"It’s useless. Don’t hurt yourself. Diana has the gift of speed, even I couldn’t catch her."

"But, my mother?" Kira let Tristan hug her close to him.

She had given up on her parents ever since she learned of their existence, but now Kira felt the loss all over again. She imagined the woman in her vision, with long golden hair that almost sparkled in the sun, and she wanted nothing more than to know her. She still wore the locket and ring around her neck, and even now its weight seemed heavier, seemed to weigh her down, until Kira broke free of Tristan’s hold and reached into her shirt to bring it out. She opened the picture, the sole image of her real family, and felt like she had been punched in the gut. That was the most horrendous trick Diana had played, because now Kira would never stop wondering.

"Come on." Tristan lifted Kira up as if she weighed nothing and started walking through the trees back toward her house.

"Tristan?" she asked, trying to push thoughts of her mother to the back of her mind. He looked down at her, waiting for the question she had prompted. Hoping it wouldn’t hurt him, she said, "That was all an act, right?"

He stopped walking, set her down, and cupped her face in both of his hands. Staring into her eyes, he said, "I swear it was. I hated every second of it, I promise. Never, ever doubt that. For thirty years, I did evil things under Aldrich’s control. All I did there was show you a part of my past that I never wanted to let resurface." Tristan wiped her cheeks clean of the salty tears she had let streak down and kissed her softly. "I love you. If I had lost you, I don’t know what I would have done."

"I love you, too." Kira reached her arms up around his neck as he picked her up again. They both knew she could walk, but it was much more comfortable this way, she thought as she played with the short hairs at the base of his neck.

When they emerged from the forest into the freshly cut but now blood covered grass of her backyard, Kira told Tristan to let her go. She surveyed the damage, wondering how she would clean it up, when she noticed the body, Luke’s body, slumped under the porch where he had fallen from Diana’s throw. She screamed and threw her hands up to cover the sound as it escaped her mouth.

Instantly, Kira darted forward, dropping to her knees beside him, leaning her ear down to listen for a heartbeat.

"Tristan, on my god, Tristan! Is he dead? I can’t hear his heart. I can’t hear his heart." Kira was yelling, but she couldn’t stop. Tristan forcibly moved her to the side, leaning down, listening.

"I forgot about him," Kira said, hardly understanding herself.

How had she forgotten about Luke? Her guardian, her best friend, her protector for all of these months? Kira couldn’t breathe. She tried to suck in a breath, but she was hyperventilating from the shock. His eyes were closed, and the normally healthy tanned glow of his skin had been replaced by the ash gray now covering his body. She cradled his face in her hands. His body felt warm, but cool compared to the normal heat of a conduit’s skin. She pushed open one of his eyelids, but his pupil had rolled back into his skull.

"Tristan!" she yelled again, and he sat up, shaking his head.

"He’s not dead yet, but Kira, it’ll happen any moment. His heart stopped. I don’t know for how long."

"No!" Kira wailed, and then repeated the word over and over again, cradling Luke in her arms. He couldn’t be dead. It wasn’t possible.

Kira thought of how he jumped on Diana, risking everything to try and help her. She wasn’t worth it, she realized, and she hugged him to her, letting tears fall freely.

Without even meaning to, her whole body began to glow, not just her hands, and Kira encased herself and Luke in her power. Tristan was catapulted away, thrown onto the other side of the yard and Kira kept her eyes closed, chanting, "No, no, no, no," as if it were a prayer.

Her power seeped out and melted into Luke’s body. She was draining everything she had into his corpse, her very own life force.

"Kira!" she heard Tristan shout, distantly. "Kira! You’re killing yourself. Stop!"

Hands grabbed at her, but she resisted, not allowing anything to move her from Luke. She kept her eyes closed, swaying back and forth, using all of the power she possessed.

Time passed without her realizing and before Kira even had the chance to let her power go, she was long gone. Her body fell back, and hit the ground next to Luke’s—burned out, limp and lifeless.

 

 

Epilogue

 

Kira’s eyes fluttered open, stinging from the unfamiliar sensation of light, and everything was blurry. Slowly, the blobs of color sharpened, becoming more defined, and Kira recognized her mother’s face. Her lips were moving. Kira tried to force her ears to register the sound. She felt as though she was underwater, that a barrier was catching the sound waves, until it finally broke.

"Kira, oh Kira, my baby." Her mother was crying, holding her by the shoulder and searching for recognition in Kira’s eyes.

"Mom? What happened? Where am I?" Kira looked around at the sterile walls, the get well balloons in the corner, the beeping and blinking machines with tubes sticking into her arms, at her hospital gown, and started to remember. She sat upright. "Where’s Luke? Is he all right? And Tristan?"

"Calm down, honey. Everything is fine." Her mother hugged Kira close and ran her fingers through Kira’s curly and probably knotty hair.

Images from that afternoon flashed through Kira’s brain at a mile a minute—Luke running at Diana, Tristan drinking her blood, Diana laughing in her face, Jerome’s body mutilated on the ground, John burning to ash, Tristan whispering that he loved her, and Luke’s crumpled body on the ground.

It was all too much. She felt dizzy and leaned back against the pillows while her mother called in the doctors and sent for her father and sister. The rest of her morning and afternoon was spent being pushed from room to room in a wheelchair and performing different tasks or enduring different procedures to make sure her neural functioning was completely normal. Chloe sat on her lap, enjoying the ride and making fun of the silly outfits and robes the doctors were wearing. When the procedures were finished, Kira forced her family to leave her side to go eat dinner, not allowing them to settle for hospital food. She asked them to bring back leftovers and let a nurse take over her care.

When the nurse finally rolled Kira back to her room, she had a visitor waiting. Tristan. Kira tried to stand to hug him, but he ran to her side almost before she had the chance to move. His arms encircled her, pulling her up to a standing position. His lips kissed her neck sweetly while he smelled her hair. His mouth widened into a smile and she leaned back, staring into his soulful blue eyes that were searching hers for recognition and love. Kira grabbed his face, pulling him in for a kiss.

The nurse left in a hurry, with a little cough and an "excuse me," making Kira laugh against Tristan’s lips. She let her fingers sift through his silky black hair, and they pressed their foreheads together, sitting in the most comfortable silence she had ever experienced. They loved each other and it was obvious even without words.

"Sorry to break up the moment—"

"Luke!" Kira had turned around, reaching her arms out for a hug before he had the chance to finish. He gripped her around the waist, lifting her up off the ground before setting her down and helping her back onto her hospital bed. Tristan sat beside her, grabbing her left hand, and Luke leaned on the mattress to her right.

Kira looked from one boy to the other—her two loves—one friendly and one romantic, but both meaning the world to her.

"So…what happened?" Kira looked over at Luke. "The last thing I remember is trying to heal you. I thought you’d died." She had to grin now, happy beyond belief that he was all right.

"You healed me, maybe even brought me back to life. But, you almost killed yourself." He looked down at her, concern clouding his features. "And when I sat up, Tristan was leaning over you, shouting your name, but you weren’t responding. We rushed you to the hospital and you’ve been in a coma ever since."

"How long?" Kira looked from one boy to the other.

"About three months," Tristan said and squeezed her hand in comfort.

Kira's body slackened in the cushions as she thought about that. It felt like she had been asleep for a while, like taking a really long nap, but three months? That was a long time.

"Are you guys friends yet?" she questioned, hoping three months of worrying about her might have done the trick. Luke and Tristan stared across her bed, sizing one another up, and finally Tristan replied, turning to Kira.

"I think we’ve come to an understanding."

Kira smiled. It was something. She asked about everything she had missed, about Emma and the boys, about school in general, and about her family. Tristan and Luke told her stories, all three of them smiling and laughing together, and a warm glow started inside of her, not from power, but from pure happiness.

After a while, a doctor told them visiting hours were almost over for non-family members, and Kira knew her own family would be back from dinner soon.

"Before I go," Luke said, poking his head through the door he had just vacated. "I just wanted to let you know that the council semi-forgave us, but they want you to visit Sonnyville with me…immediately. Okay, bye."

Luke jumped out before Kira could even mutter a protest. Coward, she thought. He knew she had no interest in the council, but she guessed seeing the conduit society could be interesting.

"What do you think?" she asked Tristan, liking how he rubbed her palm with his thumb while they held hands.

"It’s probably inevitable," he sighed. If she went to the conduit society, he would not be able to see her or visit her for a long time.

"Well, there’s still plenty of time to figure it out." Kira pulled on his arm so he would lie down next to her. Seeing Luke had been great, but having some intimate moments with Tristan out of Luke’s watchful eye was amazing.

Tristan's fingers trail down her arm, dancing light circles on her soft skin, tickling her a little. Kira hugged her arm around his waist, turning to