I did what I always did. I reached for the thing that had worked before.
It took me two days of not sleeping to find it, and when I found it I was so relieved I nearly wept, because it was elegant and it was true to everything I believed and it was, I was certain, going to work — because it was the same move that had beaten Lucian, the same move that had held a nine-day siege, the same move I'd bled two books of my life to learn: don't let there be one. Distribute it.