Only two grays left alive in the city. Right here, right now. And there wasn’t anything I could do to stop this.

It wasn’t supposed to end like this. Carly was supposed to get her soul back. And Stephen...Stephen was supposed to be one hundred percent evil so I didn’t care if he lived or died.

But I cared.

“Talk to me, Samantha.” Bishop dropped his dagger and kneeled in front of me, holding my face between his hands.

“I can feel it,” I managed. “The energy from the Hollow, it’s so dark. Even worse than I thought it would be, but I guess it makes sense.” I cried out as another wave of pain descended. I could feel the branching lines move up onto my face now like icy, cold fingers scraping over my skin.

Close—very close now. I’d chosen this and it was the right thing to do.

Still, I was so scared. My bravery only went so far.

“Damn it,” he growled. “Why did you do this? Why did you want to sacrifice yourself like this?”

I knew the answer to this one. It was a test I definitely wouldn’t fail.

It was something that occurred to me when Nathan was busy telling me how unnatural I was. How unwanted. How unloved.

That was exactly how I’d felt for ages, ever since my parents separated. My father barely emailed anymore, too busy over in England with his new girlfriend to spare more than a thought toward me. I hated him for that, feeling abandoned, just like I felt abandoned by my mother working so hard at her job that she was barely around. They made me feel like they’d never wanted me.

But I now knew they adopted me because they couldn’t have their own biological child. That meant they wanted me—me, in particular.

And my father didn’t stay in touch lately because the last time I spoke with him I told him I never wanted to see him again.

Funny how we forget that every story has two sides, even when one of those sides is our own.

My mother had never abandoned me, she’d just been trying to keep busy while nursing a broken heart. My father hadn’t abandoned me, either. He was giving me space until I got over my deep-seated feelings of betrayal about the choices he’d made to try to find his own happiness.

But they still loved me. They still wanted me. And they had from the very beginning.

I’d never realized how lucky I was.

Until now.

“Why, Samantha?” Bishop asked again. “Why sacrifice yourself?”

For family, for friendship, even for people I couldn’t stand the sight of. For movies about zombies, especially the really bad ones. For sunrises and sunsets. For the possibility of acing a test and going to my first-choice college and maybe becoming a writer or something equally awesome. For my mother’s ability to order Chinese food like a champ. For sandboxes, and swimming pools, and kissing frogs hoping they might turn into princes.

For real love—the kind that lasted forever.

“Because,” I whispered, “some things are worth dying for.”

He held on to me tightly as my life ebbed away. “I couldn’t agree more.”

Then he drew closer and pressed his lips against mine.

A last kiss. I thought that was a nice touch. To kiss the boy I loved before I died.

But I quickly realized it wasn’t that kind of a kiss.

I gripped the material of his shirt and forced my mouth away from his. “What are you doing?”

“I told you I still had the ability to heal—a little left. I’m using it to heal you.” Then he crushed his mouth against mine again.

I tried to stop him, to tear myself away, but he held me too tightly.

He couldn’t do this. To heal me while in his condition, burdened with a soul which dampened all of his celestial abilities—it would take every last bit of life energy he had left.

It would kill him.

And he knew it.

Tears slipped down my cheeks as he kept me locked in this bruisingly hard kiss, and I felt that healing energy move through me, burning away the parts that had been damaged from taking Nathan’s power away.

Then Bishop finally drew back, still holding my face between his hands, which continued to channel the healing into me. His eyes glowed bright blue before the light doused from them completely and he slumped forward against me.

He’d healed me. The dark and deadly energy I’d taken from Nathan was gone as if it had never been here. The pain was only a bad memory. Physically, I felt better than I had in ages.

And Bishop was dying in my arms.

Kraven loomed over us, his expression filled with every emotion I could name—fury, confusion, hate, anguish. All of it directed not at me, but at Bishop.

“This can’t happen,” he growled. “Not now. I won’t let it.”

“What can you do?” I choked out.

“The barrier’s what’s trapping him here. And there’s only two things left keeping that barrier in place.” He turned from us and I saw that he now had the dagger in his grip.

Carly and Stephen. He was going to kill them to complete the mission.

“Sam,” Bishop whispered. “Take this. Be normal again, I know it’s what you want.”

He yanked the chain from around his neck and handed me back the locket I’d given him only last night.

Then his eyes closed and he went still in my arms.

I stared at him, unblinking, squeezing the locket so tightly that it would hurt if I could feel anything other than cold shock.

Be normal again.

“You think it’s that easy?” My words trembled as I eased him down to the ground and stroked the dark hair back from his forehead. “Well, it’s not. I need you, Bishop. Please, don’t leave me. Not yet.”