Sonsuz ran to Elzem, who lay on the ground, breathless. While ?etrefil stood waiting at her head, he grasped her arm and gently lifted her. Holding her face, he leaned his ear close. With one last hope, he checked whether she was breathing. He heard not even the faintest intake of air.

  Suddenly he rose to his feet in fury. Forcing back the tears that filled his eyes, he shouted toward Abbey,

  “Protecting her was your duty, Abbey!”

  Abbey hovered before him in shame. “Sonsuz, I fulfilled Elzem’s wish,” she said, lowering her gaze.

  “Did Elzem ask you to stand there and watch her die?” he snapped.

  “She said she could endure it because she didn’t want to put you in danger. I was thinking of you as well—” Abbey began, but Sonsuz cut her off.

  “You were obliged to think not only of me, but of Elzem too!” he continued, shouting.

  “Elzem is a strong hunter. She didn’t want help,” Abbey said; the guilt she felt was written plainly across her face.

  Sonsuz gathered all the Female Breakers before him. They hovered in front of him, waiting for the command that would come from Sonsuz.

  He looked angrier and more grief-stricken than ever before.

  “Now I ask you to make a very important decision. One of you will step out and ensure that Elzem lives. And the one who steps forward knows very well what must be done,” he said. He seemed utterly resolute.

  Kylie and the other Female Breakers looked at one another as if they had been struck.

  “Sonsuz, you cannot ask this of us! It’s impossible! Female Breakers function as a single army and can never be divided! That would mean denying our very nature!” Kylie said in shock.

  “I know perfectly well what your nature is, Kylie! A blue water—one, immortal, the breath of nature and of life itself! Never to be separated!” he said. Looking at Elzem’s wounded face lying on the ground, he added,

  “What keeps a living being alive has always been one single thing.”

  Then, glaring angrily into Kylie’s eyes, he said,

  “And that is the breath that gives even water its life!”

  Though Kylie understood Sonsuz’s determination, she believed the situation impossible. Turning to the other Female Breakers, she said,

  “Life is one and indivisible, Sonsuz.”

  This time Sonsuz spoke like a threat:

  “Either a part of you becomes Elzem’s breath today, or at the very place where Elzem’s breath stops, I will turn into a breathless, black hunter.”

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  Kylie immediately grasped what that meant and lowered her gaze in despair. Turning to the Female Breakers behind her who awaited her command, she drifted toward the centre of their circle. Standing in the middle of the wide ring, she addressed them:

  “This cannot be a decision that I alone make. I cannot decide something so great and so vital by myself. We set out on this path because we believed in Sonsuz. We set out because we trusted him. Now you must decide: will your faith in Sonsuz continue, or will you turn back?”

  Her face was now on the verge of tears as she turned to Abbey.

  Abbey immediately drifted to her side.

  Swallowing hard, Kylie said,

  “It is clear what Sonsuz asks of us, and whom he asks for. Do you approve of Abbey leaving us to stand beside Elzem? Do you approve that from this moment on Abbey will belong entirely at Elzem’s side?” she asked through tears.

  All the Female Breakers joined hands, nodding their approval as blue tears streamed from their eyes. The blue drops they released toward the sky returned as falling rain.

  Taking Abbey’s hand, Kylie asked,

  “Do you also approve of breaking away from us and becoming Elzem’s breath?”

  Abbey nodded with tear-filled eyes.

  Her voice trembling, Kylie continued,

  “Abbey, do you approve of becoming Elzem’s breath—of stopping her death and becoming one with her?”

  Abbey clutched Kylie’s hands tightly.

  “You are my only family,” she said, weeping. Then she turned toward Elzem.

  “And Elzem will now be the same for me—and for us,” she said, looking back into Kylie’s eyes.

  Tears flowing, Kylie cried out to the others,

  “From now on, Abbey is no longer ours—she is Elzem’s breath-partner! Let all who approve release her!”

  All the Female Breakers drew a deep breath, and a wave of blue wind caused Abbey to rise toward the sky.

  When Kylie’s burning breath met the cold, frost-droplet wave, a vast blue vapor enveloped Abbey.

  The Female Breakers bowed respectfully in the air and released their joined hands.

  A second later, Abbey shot downward at a wild speed. Landing beside ?etrefil and Elzem—who rested in Sonsuz’s arms—she pressed her face against Elzem’s. Opening her enormous eyes, she grasped Elzem’s hands and pulled her upward.

  Sonsuz slowly entrusted Elzem to Abbey.

  Abbey hovered gently with her. Elzem’s hands and arms swayed like leaves, yet she gave not the slightest response. She was silent and unhearing, as though consenting to her own death.

  Below, Sonsuz waited, breathing deeply with absolute faith that she would return.

  Though cautious, ?etrefil too waited patiently, like the other great cats, for Elzem’s return.

  Suddenly Abbey drew in a breath as if diving, transformed into blue vapor, and entered through Elzem’s mouth. Elzem, who seemed like a flickering light and a trembling heartbeat, opened her eyes like a flash of lightning. When she began to breathe wildly, the first cry of ecstatic joy came from Sonsuz. The pack roared in happiness, while the Female Breakers felt both sorrow and joy.

  Abbey slowly lowered Elzem to the ground, then emerged again from her mouth as blue vapor and returned to her former form.

  Sonsuz caught Elzem, and the moment her feet touched the ground, he embraced her with tear-filled eyes. It was such a tight embrace that Elzem nearly lost her breath again.

  Abbey protested,

  “Sonsuz, be gentler with her. Otherwise you’ll finish what the death hunters left undone.”

  As Elzem regained herself, she immediately understood that Abbey was the reason.

  Sonsuz looked at her with a smiling face—then suddenly froze in shock. With a bewildered expression, trying to understand, he turned to Abbey.

  Abbey said happily,

  “Besides sharing a breath with her, there is now blue Female Breaker blood within her red human blood. That is why her eyes reflect it.”

  When Elzem asked in astonishment what had happened, Sonsuz gazed at her eyes in admiration.

  “Your eyes are no longer black. They’re blue now—just like mine,” he said.

  Elzem felt happy hearing this, but Abbey quickly slipped between them and squeezed her face forward.

  “No! Blue like mine,” she declared.

  Elzem and Sonsuz laughed, while Kylie and ?etrefil’s faces held a faint trace of jealousy.

  As Elzem embraced Sonsuz, she listened not to her own heartbeat but to his. She was happy not because she had returned—but because she was with Sonsuz.

  That alone was worth everything.

  Even losing her breath again.