The elation Jackie had felt over being able to breathe and move and live again was gone the second Kol-Eresh stepped into the room.

The harbinger looked terrible. His normally bright eyes were tired and blood was trickling down his face. The armor he was wearing was in tatters, which should have been impossible for metal. The sword in his hands was gripped loosely like he barely had the strength to hold it up.

In that moment, Jackie became very sharply aware of the Eternal's presence in the room.

She had no doubt she'd missed much while she'd teetered on the brink of dying, but Jackie remembered that much. The Eternal who stood three feet from her was the oldest and most powerful of them all.

And he clearly hated Kol-Eresh's guts.

Jackie suspected that she reminded the Eternal of someone, no doubt his own fated. If the other Eternals had been Jhaon's sons, they had to come from a mother. She shuddered, thinking whether the female had been the first victim of the heinous experiments the bastards had done to make the women give birth to daughters again.

"You won," Jhaon said, his voice darker than usual. "Interesting. I didn't think you would."

"I know," Kol-Eresh replied, his eyes never leaving Jackie. "How are you feeling, Jackie? Did he do what he promised?"

"Yes," she said.

Jackie wanted to run to him. She wanted to throw herself in his arms and never let go. She wanted to run and dance and scream out of sheer joy and relief, but she couldn't. There was still one obstacle to go and this time, it wasn't her that was the one in immediate danger.

"Good," Kol-Eresh said, his tone suggesting that he felt the same.

The tension in the room was so thick Jackie could have cut it with a knife.

She had no idea what Jhaon had done. The Eternal had moved around in the room absentmindedly, like coming up with the cure wasn't a big deal to him. She was beginning to suspect that it had been real after all, or that the Eternal had simply known all along how to make one.

He certainly didn't seem to have tried very hard.

The needle he'd used to ingest it into her bloodstream was still lying on the table beside the bed she was sitting on. Next to it was another, filled with a yellowish concoction that reminded Jackie of something.

She was almost positive that it was the serum itself.

Was it a safety measure of some kind? Would he give it to her again if Kol-Eresh proved more powerful than Jhaon had given him credit for?

Jackie had to resist the urge to run hard.

"What now, then?" the Eternal asked, moving away from the table. "You have proved something today and I think it's going to be very useful to me.

"To tell you the truth, I think it will be easier from here on out. The others were getting on my nerves with their arrogance. I tried to teach them some hard truths, but apparently I forgot to tell them not to take anything too seriously. Time has a funny way of turning beliefs into dogmas and there you have it."

The Eternal drew his sword.

"Unfortunately, you will not be able to enjoy this victory for long," Jhaon said. "I can't let this fortress be discovered. There are others, of course, but I would rather not relocate. I can start the experiments again."

His eyes drifted to Jackie.

"I'm thinking I need to find myself a new project first," Jhaon said, his voice growing deeper and Jackie caught a hint of lust. "The fated bonds are just one more thing keeping our species back. Needing to wait until the right female shows up is incredibly wasteful.

"I will see what I can do to change that. If any female could be impregnated, the raids could be much more fruitful."

He turned back to Kol-Eresh.

"Your fated will help me with that," Jhaon said with relish. "She's proven she's tough enough. To have the diadon and survive the serum... She is a fitting mate for me."

No. Not yours.

Jackie's eyes flickered to the needle.

The Eternal charged and Kol-Eresh met him in the middle, their swords clashing together. Jackie grabbed the needle from the table.

She had no idea how she was going to do it, but she had to help. Kol-Eresh had done all the battling for her and now it was her turn to do something.

If Forack was right, if the diadon magnified the effects of the serum – what would it do to an Eternal?

The only problem was that Jhaon was armored and more than a head taller than her.

Kol-Eresh saw her, and the needle in her hand.

"Get him down!" Jackie yelled, jumping off the table and backing away.

Her legs were still weak, but not numb enough for her to fall. She gripped the table, moving to keep a distance between her and the fighters.

The fighters were destroying the lab. The blades in their hands were too big and the room too narrow to take any precautions. Valuable knowledge was being lost, but they stood to lose everything, all over again.

The Eternal had seen their plan too, but Kol-Eresh wasn't letting him out of the duel between them.

Jackie waited, her heart beating so fast it was hard to think straight.

She didn't even know if it would help, but they had to try everything. Kol-Eresh was exhausted from the battle and as powerful as he was, even he couldn't last forever.

Then it happened. The harbinger charged Jhaon with a furious war cry, throwing them both to the floor.

Jackie dashed closer and buried the needle in the Eternal's neck. She jumped out of his reach at once, fleeing to the corner of the room as Jhaon thrashed on the floor.

Kol-Eresh was on his feet in a second and they both stared at the Eternal battling two of his own inventions. His eyes turned purple so fast it only took one blink. There was no way to tell if he felt the cold, but he was suddenly moving slower.

The harbinger let his opponent stand to his feet.

Even like that, mortally wounded, Jhaon was a formidable enemy. The sword in his hand was shaking a little, but when he struck, the blows obliterated the precious equipment of the lab.

Kol-Eresh backed away, letting his enemy get the rage out of his system before he attacked.

Jackie had no idea where he was still drawing power, but Kol-Eresh's sword cleaved through the Eternal's chest, dropping him to the floor in pieces like he'd promised.

It was a macabre sight, but Jackie had nothing else in mind but the freedom they'd just won. For themselves, for the women on Luminos, even for Nayanors.

She ran to him, kissing him wildly until her lips hurt and her breath was gone again. Kol-Eresh held her in his embrace like he never planned to let go of her, but eventually the smell of blood made Jackie pull back.

"We can continue this after a bath," she promised with a smile.

Kol-Eresh answered with a tired, broken laugh.

"And a trip to Forack," he added. "He needs to make sure we are both fine."

Jackie nodded.

"Of course," she said. "But I feel good. I feel... I feel like this is over at last."

Kol-Eresh said nothing to that, bringing her in for another deep kiss as they stood there, wrapped in each other's arms in the destroyed lair of the Eternals.

Jackie looked around in the lab, smiling softly.

"Forack will have a field day with this," she said.

"What do you mean?" Kol-Eresh asked.

"All this," Jackie said. "He and the other healers can come and see what they can make of all this. I mean, the most brilliant minds of Nayanors, even if they were crazy and insane... this is a fortune lying on the floor here.

"And the Abominations. Imagine what they could be used for. There are so many things here, not to mention this is a fortress. Another refuge for your people, even if it is a small one."

The harbinger nodded, looking at her with a tired grin.

"I hadn't even thought of all that yet," he admitted.

Jackie smiled.

"I can't stop thinking of everything," she said. "Now that I'm alive again, I don't want to waste another second. I want to do everything."