The full chapter title is 'The Isle of Tears: The Black Swan's Last Stand', but it wouldn't let me put in the whole thing.

Stop. Before you read this chapter, go find a tissue box. Now. You will need it.

The ransom note was taunting him. It had barely been forty-eight hours since they'd received it, but the impeccable handwriting was glaring at him from the page next to a temporary leaping crystal.

Nothing had come from any of the desperate searches, either on foot or in the air. The Neverseen had disappeared completely. All of their facilities and hideouts in and around the Lost Cities were completely abandoned. There was no hope left, despite what others may say.

He slid the whetstone along the edge of his sword. The rasp brought back many painful memories of war. Sitting in a thin canvas tent in a camp, not knowing if he would see another day. Next to him, Tam was sorting out the small weapons he hid in various small pockets. It was always unnerving the amount of small, sharp objects he could hide in his clothes. So far, there were as many as forty small knives, throwing stars, and tiny pinprick daggers laid out in neat squares on the floor. Tam had a small whetstone in his hand and was carefully sharpening each one.

"Is Alvar bringing the guns and ammo?"

"I think so." Tam laid another sharpened throwing star in the neat square. "If I remember correctly, he's bringing blanks instead of actual bullets. Should be here around sunrise."

"Thank you. I still want to talk to him."

"Understood. Is your knee feeling okay?" Tam stood and began returning the small weapons to their pockets

"A little. I took some painkillers and stuff for stiff joints, so I should be fine if we get tied down in a strung-out battle." Fitz decided he wasn't getting anywhere with sharpening his sword and sheathed it. "I'll go see if he's here."

The elven halls were quiet and tense. Despite efforts to keep most of it under wraps, many of the palace's population still knew what was going on and were trying not to disturb them as they prepared.

Alvar was waiting out in the courtyard. He hadn't bothered changing into elvin clothes, instead wearing the simple jeans and button-down that most of his family seemed to prefer. To Fitz's surprise, he didn't see a gun at Alvar's hip, but he'd learned from Sophie years ago that didn't mean he wasn't carrying one.

"Fitz."

"Alvar." He managed to keep his tone polite and both of them kept it to a firm handshake.

"I brought the guns. I thought it was weird they asked for Glock 18s instead of 19s, but I got them what they asked for. There's blanks instead of real bullets, so they shouldn't be able to use them."

"Thank you. Really."

Alvar gave him a wan smile. "I think I have a while to go before I've fully made up for everything. But I'm glad you're not as angry as before."

"If we rescue my daughter and bring her home safe, I might even forgive you."

"I'll wait for that. Thank you for giving me a chance."

Fitz sighed. "It's what Sophie would have wanted me to do."

"I'd love to stay and talk, but I've got to go. Bianca has a piano recital that I cannot miss." His brother gave him an informal salute and leaped away. Fitz slung the bag over his shoulder and sighed. He remembered Destiny's last prediction, two and a half years ago. Now he knew she'd been seeing Alvar and his wife and a metaphor for the struggle his brother had been facing.

A few drops fell on his head and then it began raining in earnest. He grumbled, hefting the bag higher on his back and hurrying inside.

"Fitz."

"Dex."

"We're ready to move out if you are." His brother-in-law fell in step with him. "Although I have a bad feeling about this whole arrangement. Has Amy contacted you at all about Jolie being missing?"

"No. She didn't tell me where they moved for safety reasons so I haven't been able to contact her. I don't remember if she had an Imparter or not. If she did, she probably got rid of it in case it was being tracked. So we've got no way of contacting her."

"Great. Well, we'll be going in a strong as we can be at the moment. Some other members of the Black Swan are wanting to join us. The Collective will be there, minus my mother. So we can count them in. Have you heard anything from Oralie in the past two years?"

Fitz shook his head. "From what we've seen, we should count the Council as against us. Right now, we should count out anyone from the Lost Cities who's not a trusted relative or Black Swan."

Biana brushed against his mind, asking, Do you know where Linh's trident covers are? She can't find them anywhere.

Well, since she'll be stabbing things soon, I don't see why she'd need them.

With the high amount of moisture in the air, she's worried about rust.

I see. I don't know where they are. Sorry.

"You listening?"

"Linh's looking for the covers for her trident's tines. She doesn't want it to rust."

"I see. We'll be moving out as soon as everyone is ready to go."

Fit nodded and went to his room. His sword and sheath lay next to each other on his bed. The blade had been cleaned, polished, and sharpened, glistening in the new sunlight. There was a pang in his heart when he did not see a second sword next to his, or hear soft footsteps coming up behind him in an attempt to jumpscare him.

He was really sure what he expected to see though, if he were honest with himself.

Fitz sheathed his sword and fastened it onto his belt. Everyone else was gathered in the courtyard, once again wearing weapons and armour.

"No one's wearing the, oh boy, I don't know what they're called, the face mask things that cover the nose and mouth?"

Everyone shook their heads. "We didn't feel it necessary, since they were meant to preserve our identities and the Neverseen already know who we are." Dex said.

"I'm wearing mine though." Marella pulled it up over her nose. Her voice was slightly muffled through it. "I don't want to smoke myself out."

Dex lifted the crystal and leapt all of them to an island.

It was, objectively, a very beautiful destination. It had stone paths that wound up from the shore to the peak. Along it were set stone statues in great detail, all of them of people. Fitz thought it was a sad thing such a lovely island was in the Neverseen's hands.

Then he took a closer look at the statues as they walked toward the peak.

They began to itch at him, telling him he'd seen these people before. Dex stopped and pointed to the runes at the base of one statue. "Does anyone else see that?"

"It says…Councillor Oralie." Tam knelt next to the large marble box the statue stood on. "And that's a statue of her. What is this?"

"A memorial I would think." Biana examined some of the surrounding statues. "These are all people close to us or us. Some sort of tribute to the Black Swan. That one there is Elwin."

"This is no tribute." Dex whispered, glancing around as his irises spun gold and pupils shrunk to slits. "It's a tomb."

Something at the back of Fitz's mind screamed, GET DOWN!

He dropped flat on his stomach and everyone else followed suit in a fraction of a second. An arrow whistled overhead and stuck in a tree. A heavy, sickly green gas flooded out from the tip of the arrows, settling around them. Fitz saw Marella surround herself in flame, attempting to purify the air around her.

Biana made a horrible choked scream, clutching at her throat. Black veins spread down her neck and over the rest of her body. Fitz felt his body filter out the toxin, and watched as all of his friends succumbed to the keyenlaks, one by one. Dex and Biana were first to fall, given their bodies higher sensitivities to arcane poisons. Then Tam, shadows around him disappearing. Keefe and Linh fell together in each other's arms. Marella was nowhere to be seen, but she was probably dying as well.

And Fitz could do nothing but watch. Watch as everyone he knew and loved died. The entire island was now tainted which meant as soon as the other Black Swan members leapt here, they would die. His daughter was probably also on the island somewhere, slowly choking and wondering why he hadn't come to save her.

"How…unprecedented." A snake-like voice slid out of the trees around the statues. "The rumours are true." A cloaked figure walked up to him. "Though one can never be too careful."

The man bent down and snapped Dex's neck between his palms. "You are immune to keyenlaks. The only one. By" Snap. "pure" Snap. "genetic" Snap. "chance." Snap.

"Whoever you are, you're insane."

"You can call me the slayer of the Dragon Prince. Or Shadeslayer if you prefer. Although, it seems you need more conventional methods." The Neverseen drew a dagger from inside his cloak. "Goodbye Fitz Vacker."

The Knife pierced his heart with a burning pain. In his last few seconds, he choked out, "You never had my daughter, did you?"

"No. Sometimes phantom bait is better than real."

The pain vanished, replaced by the feel of his wife's mind as he left the world of the living.

Reviewers get teasers for the next chapter! (Let me know if you don't want one.) Feel feel to break my inbox and tell me what a cruel author I am. Just wait until chapter 23, my lovelies. Chapter twenty-three. To the people in the future, don't skip to that chapter. The ones in between are important.

Shine brightly!

Ruby