We lost the east tower.

Astraea stayed behind to hold it.

I tried to stop her. She just smiled, the same frostbitten, proud look she always wore before something reckless.

"Tell Seraphina," she said, "that she was right about me."

"Astraea—"

She pressed her blade to my palm, a final shard of her magic transferring through skin.

"You’re not just our Architect anymore," she whispered. "You’re our world."

Then she shut the door.

The tower fell by midnight.

But the enemy never made it past the rubble.