The burning of hope had cost more than Selena anticipated. She had thought that sacrificing that part of herself would be like removing a diseased limb painful but ultimately survivable, leaving her diminished but functional. Instead, it was as if she had burned away a load-bearing pillar in the architecture of her soul. Without hope to support the structure of her determination, everything else began to collapse inward.
Her flames, which had burned with such defiant intensity throughout every trial and transformation, began to gutter like candles in wind. The bone-light that leaked from her cracks dimmed, no longer spilling forth with the vibrant energy that had sustained her but seeping out slowly, reluctantly, as if even her own essence was questioning whether continued existence was worth the effort.
"Selena?" Dante's voice seemed to come from very far away, though he stood only inches from her. "What's happening to you?"