Hands bound behind his back with burning chains, the six members of The Dusk marched Lewis, Olivia, Cassandra, and Russell through the tower. He lost count of how many flights of stairs they climbed, but no matter how far they went, they never saw a single person. No one was there to save him this time. This time they weren't just going to kill him; they were going to destroy him, his body, his soul, and every single memory of him.

Lewis' mind turned to Emily. What would happen to her when he was gone? Would she feel an empty space when all her memories of him disappeared? He wished that he could see her one last time if this was going to be the end as they reached the top of the final staircase. There was nothing on this floor except for a single, large wooden door.

Momentarily letting go of his arm, Veronica moved forward, opening the door. A wave of cold air flowed over him as he was dragged through the door and out onto the top of the tower. Straight ahead of them was the long stone bridge that connected the top of the tower to the side of the volcano. On the other side, he could see a faint glow where the bridge disappeared inside the volcano.

'You should feel privileged,' Veronica said as she led them out onto the bridge. It was narrow, just wide enough for two people to walk side by side without falling over the open edges. 'Very few people have ever seen The Fires of Creation.'

For the first time since he had heard about The Dawn, Lewis didn't have any response. Ignoring her, he let his thoughts wander away from the tower. What would happen to Arthur and Thomas when the throne fell to Anthony after Lewis' death? It would be as if there had never been another heir to the throne.

Then there was Robyn. Robyn, who had become so distant ever since he had first left Tristan in Frost, He had become used to her disappearing for a few days, normally to look after her brother, but he had barely seen her since he had returned to Tristan. All the things he was going to miss began to flow through his mind as Veronica led him off of the windy bridge and into the mouth of the cave, the heat from the volcano pushing back the cold night air.

'I'm so sorry,' Olivia muttered as she appeared at his side.

'Why? There isn't anything you could have done,' he said, offering her a weak smile.

'The day I met you in the forest, I could have told you to get away. I could have gotten away,' she sighed, defeated. He had seen many sides of her on their journey north, everything from fear to joy and excitement when she had been included by the Cimant people. Never had he seen her look so hopeless.

'You had no way of knowing what would happen,' he said as reassuringly as he could manage.

'Still, I just wish there was something I could have done,' she said. 'It isn't just me; Russell and Cassandra got caught up in this as well when they didn't need to. You as well.'

'Welcome to the birthplace of every precursor that has ever lived and will ever live,' Veronica said, holding out her arms to the ledge that jutted out towards the centre of the volcano. Far below them, he could hear the lava bubbling, waiting for them. 'You will kneel before your creator.'

Veronica didn't even wait for the four of them to move. Instead, the chains around his wrists burned red hot, the pain forcing him to drop to his knees. On his left, Cassandra let out a piercing scream. Unlike the three of them, she wasn't used to the pain.

'Why can't you just let her go?' Lewis asked, looking in Ellen's direction. 'She isn't involved in any of this; she's innocent.'

'You should have thought about that when you brought her with you,' she said. 'There were plenty of opportunities for her to turn around.'

'And let her go back to those spectres? They probably destroyed the village,' he said.

'No, they didn't,' Olivia said from his other side.

'What?' he asked in disbelief. Did she know something about them all along?

'I didn't know, not until I saw the book,' she said quickly. 'The spectres were a product of a dark power. She created them. They would have vanished as soon as we left. That is why we never saw them, as long as we did what she said and kept moving north.'

'You created them?' Lewis demanded, turning to Ellen. Silently, she nodded, her face emotionless. 'You're nothing but a sick, sadistic murderer,' he shouted.

In a flash, she was standing over him, a chain held in her hands. With one fluid movement, she wrapped it around his neck, the metal burning deeper than anything ever had. Her eyes were dark with rage, so intent on him that she seemed oblivious to the chain turning the skin on her own hands raw.

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'Ellen, control yourself!' Veronica snapped, pulling her away.

'You heard him. He deserves to die! This is what you signed me up for. Week after week of this! Ellen shouted, wrenching her arm out of Veronica's grip.

'He must enter the fire alive, or it won't work,' Veronica said.

'What does it matter? We have enough to take over the tower,' said Ellen angrily.

'His soul must be destroyed. If someone else finds the orb before us, then they could bring him back,' Veronica said. Orb? What were they talking about? It sounded as though they could bring people back to life.

'No one has seen the orb in living memory,' Ellen said.

'It is out there, and we will find it,' said Veronica. Walking over to Lewis and Olivia, she grabbed them both by the scruff of the neck, dragging them to their feet. 'You two are first.'

No matter how much the two of them struggled, they couldn't break free from her grip. He was so focused on trying to get free that he barely registered the pain from the chains, which burned his skin constantly. As she pulled them down the bridge that led to the centre of the volcano, he saw the lava bubbling hungrily a hundred or so feet beneath them.

This was it, he realized—the end. There was no Edmund waiting in the shadows with the Amulet of Kings and an escape plan this time. There was no Thomas to heal the wound from George's arrow. Emily wasn't there with a cure for the poison. He was alone this time.

'Will the bond break?' he asked, glancing at Olivia. She hesitated. 'Please, I need to know.'

'Yes. At the end,' she whispered, tears in her eyes.

He realised that was all he needed to hear as they reached the end of the bridge.

He had never even contemplated death before. There were so many times when he could have and probably should have died, but it never crossed his mind. Somewhere, there had been an escape, a plan. Now there was nothing. One more step was all that stood between him and The Fires of Creation, the end of his life, and every memory of him. If only Emily would be able to remember him and know what happened at the end. As it was, she would forget everything—all their adventures, all the nights they had spent at Fir Lodge after the long Sky Fire days.

Closing his eyes, he tried to picture Emily's face one last time. If she wouldn't be able to remember him, then he wanted to remember her for every second that he had left. One more step was all he had left. One more step, and she would be freed from the bond she didn't even know existed and would never know existed between her and Ellen.

One more step.

As he lifted his foot, she thought about her. In the end, this was the only way to save her: to sacrifice himself. The chains on his wrists burned white hot. Veronica tried to force him to fall, but he resisted. If he was about to die, it would be on his own terms, not because she was forcing him over the edge.

In that short moment that his right foot was in the air, Emily's face flashed in front of his eyes, and he felt something burning. It wasn't the chains, though. This was different. It was inside him, in his veins. A cold breeze blew on the back of his neck. In that moment, many things happened all at once.

Expecting to find nothing but air when his foot came down, his eyes shot open when he felt something solid beneath it. With a deafening bang, the chains binding his hands behind his back exploded, the sound echoing around them. Then there was the almighty gust of wind blowing through the cave and into the volcano as he turned to look back.

The wind ripped past him, his hair and cloak fanning out behind him. Lying on the floor in front of him were the broken chains, melted and warped. Stood only a couple of paces away were Olivia and Veronica, a look of pure terror on the latter’s face.

As the wind swirled around, growing stronger with every passing second, he saw the chains binding Olivia's wrists break. The sound of two further bangs told him that Russell and Cassandra were free as well. No matter how strong the wind got, it didn't sway him in the slightest. Closer to the cave entrance, Ellen and the other members of The Dusk were having trouble keeping their feet.

With one echoing howl, the wind dragged them, their black cloaks billowing behind them as they were lifted off their feet and hurled over the edge into the lava below. One moment Veronica was standing in front of him, and then she too was airborne, her shoulder smashing against his before she disappeared over the edge, falling out of sight.

Then, as quickly as it had come, the wind stopped. The only evidence that anything had happened was the three windswept people standing before him. 'You did it. You broke the bond,' Olivia whispered. One moment she was standing in front of him; the next, his surroundings were blocked out in a mass of mousy blonde hair as she threw her arms around him.

'The bond is gone?' he asked. If the bond was gone, did that mean that Emily was still alive despite Ellen being somewhere in the lava a hundred feet below them?

'For certain. Even I felt it break, and that is saying something,' she said as she pulled away, a brilliant smile on her face, one like he had never seen before. Behind her, Russell looked on knowingly; he understood what had happened. However, Cassandra looked somewhere between bemused and terrified.

In that one moment, everything seemed perfectly silent, and then there was an ominous rumble from somewhere far above them. With a deafening crack that echoed around them, a huge chunk of rock fell from above, barely missing the bridge that he and Olivia were standing on and disappearing into the lavatory below.

'We need to go; the volcano is collapsing!' Olivia shouted, dragging him back towards the cave. As they passed the other two, she grabbed hold of Russell’s arm, leaving Lewis to grab Cassandra's by the hand. He hadn’t been a moment too soon, pulling her aside as a chunk of rock landed where she had been standing a split second ago.

After being a single step away from the end of his life, he felt the adrenaline mixing with the intense burning that seemed to be inside his veins. They had only just gotten inside the cave when the ground beneath them shook, an enormous boulder falling across the entrance, preventing them from going back inside the volcano, not that he could ever imagine a reason for going back.