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GAHRYE

Reth stared at him like Gahrye had just smacked him over the head with a rock. "The-the Protectors—"

"The Protectors hold the voices at bay, but they can\'t stop them. Whoever walks you into the traverse will hold back their own power to allow this all to happen—there\'s that humility again.

"The Anima they\'re saving won\'t even be in the battle, won\'t even fight it. That\'s love in distance. And we… me and you, Reth, and Elia and Kalle… We\'ll give up everything, but keep loving, even in death. We\'ll love enough to give ourselves to the enemy so no one else ever has to, ever again."

Elia closed her mouth over a wail. Reth didn\'t turn away from him, but gathered her in again. "No," he croaked. "I won\'t allow it. There has to be another way."

But Gahrye shook his head sadly. "You think I haven\'t looked for it? You think I didn\'t think exactly the same thing, Reth?" he spat bitterly. "You think I wanted to come here and tell you this? No. I wanted to rage. I wanted to burn that fucking place down!" He shook his head, seeing his own pain reflected in Reth\'s eyes and it was too much. "But humility is the key. \'Pride, and the Anima will die.\' They don\'t have another way, Reth. Elia and Kalle have the purest hearts I know. They can love people without seeing their differences, without holding grudges. They keep loving even when other people don\'t. That\'s the purest love. And it\'s the only power in this world that can defeat the fucking evil of that place. The voices… they have to be taken into the light. And only our mates love enough to do that. They have to walk into that place that they fear, and those voices that they hate, and they have to hold onto the love they have for the people. Carry that with them. When they give themselves… it will bring the voices into their hearts, and the light will literally finish them. And… and once the voices are gone, their hold on the traverse is gone. The pathway will be closed. They\'ll be safe." He groaned. "Everyone else will be safe."

"To what cost?" Reth breathed.

"To the cost of OUR FUCKING LOVE, RETH!" Gahrye couldn\'t do it anymore. He couldn\'t take Reth\'s pain anymore because it was his own and he wasn\'t with his mate, he was here, giving them what they needed to make this happen, and missing these last precious hours with his own mate!

"Love hurts, Reth. Haven\'t you figured that out yet? Loving someone, really loving them, means opening yourself up to hurt again and again and again. Still coming back, still forgiving, still… loving! Don\'t you get that yet? They do! Our mates, they get that! And they keep coming back! That\'s all they have to do… that\'s it. They… they just have to love one more time."

*****

None of them spoke for… a longer time than Gahrye counted.

Elia and Reth clung to each other, whimpering, crying. Gahrye sat down too and let his head sink back against the tree behind him. He closed his eyes and thought of his mate, praying he would get time to be with her again before all of this came to pass.

But at some point, Elia began to calm, her tears slowing, her sniffs coming less and less often.

"How?" she asked faintly at some point.

Gahrye opened his eyes but stared up into the trees. "You need to pick a Protector. Someone you trust implicitly. They have to get you both inside and you safe until… until you\'re in the middle and they\'re all there. When the voices are picking at you. But then… then they have to… to stop the blood and let you go. Because in the end, you have to give yourself over to them," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "They\'ll keep you safe until you\'re in place. Then you\'ll make them safe for the rest of time."

Neither of them responded for a moment. But Gahrye knew he couldn\'t stop. If he stopped now he\'d never get it all out.

"I told Kalle I\'d let her choose that moment," he croaked. "I\'m her Protector, but we\'re going to keep a couple of others there, on that side, just in case. They\'ll… they\'ll take her if something happens to me." He swallowed hard. "Choose people you would trust with your life, Elia. They not only have to be strong in Protection, but in self-discipline. They have to be willing to follow your orders and not intervene when everything in them is crying against it. And… and they have to be willing to die. Because they might."

"Wait… what?"

"The traverse is going to close when the voices are taken. We don\'t know what\'s going to happen then. We know it\'s the power of the voices that keep the place alive. We know it\'s the power of the Protectors to get you through it. But what happens when the power of both disappear?"

"I\'ll just go in myself."

"No!" Gahrye and Reth both snapped at the same time.

Gahrye shook his head. "You can\'t."

"Why not? If I\'m giving over, why do I need them?"

"Because the prophecy says they\'re needed. And… because we\'ve been trying everything. You have to be certain, Elia… I tried. I really tried. I didn\'t want to be right about this. I have begged for a miracle. I\'ve been through so many times now. Testing the voices, trying to figure all of this out because I didn\'t want it to be true. But it\'s always the same… when we step into the traverse it attracts the voices. They don\'t come until you step in, have you ever noticed that? They aren\'t waiting for you. Where do they go? I don\'t know. But to get all of them there, to really meet their full power, you have to get to the darkest part where there\'s the least light. When you can\'t really see the light from either end except a pinprick… that\'s the place.

"If you walk into the Traverse already prepared to give up to them, you\'ll never make it that far. They can sense when your heart is weak. They\'ll take you, instead. It can\'t be that, Elia. You have to choose it. You have to."