And she couldn't do that.
It would have been easy. To take herself out. To stay there with them in a field of flowers and a bubble of safety where she couldn't be hurt again. Where she wouldn't have to worry about Man on their shores or fear what could happen to her people. She could let it go. Surrender to the void and let herself free of the pain.
But she wasn't finished.
"Come home," she heard someone say.
Home.
And what home meant to her.
Her eyes closed, and she thought of her brother, of Nadir, of Lex and Bala. The walls of her castle were not what she saw behind them. No. Magnice would never be her home again. What she felt was sunlight, the forest, the reef. The image of her hugging them all. She imagined her brother spinning her off the ground. Nadir picking her up onto his waist, kissing her, and saying their words. Of Lex giving her hair a ruffle, and Bala grinning at her.
"3916!” she heard a distant male voice say—no,scream. As though that number meant life or death. Desperation in the tone, it was an echo on the wind. She didn't know the number. But it made her chest swell as if she did. Full of pride and needing. An unstoppable force.
She wondered if it was a connection she had not become aware of yet.
She opened her eyes, and she watched as the tear stretched down Aydra's reddened face, but her sister nodded, and Nyssa knew she felt it too. Draven's hand clenched Aydra's tighter as Aydra visibly wavered.
Nyssa held up her hand, stretching her fingers wide, and Aydra did the same. As her fist closed, Nyssa imagined her hand sinking against her sister’s—their hands entwining—and Nyssa forced her knees upright so they didn't buckle.
A promise that they would be there.
"Come home, Princess," she heard someone say.
Voices echoed around her. She could hear Nadir. She could hear Lex. They shouted her name and begged her to come home. Nyssa thought everything that was home to her again. Her friends. Her brother. Nadir. She thought of the way they'd all ended things, with arguments and promises.
But they were still home.
Because it would never be all good things. It would be ups and downs. It would be promises they didn't want to make but would keep anyway. It would be grief and pain. But everything the war threw at her was worth it.
And she would keep fighting for the two standing in front of her.
"Take me home," Nyssa whispered.
Cold wind surrounded her.
The ground vanished.
Nyssa shrieked and grappled to the rocky ledge that appeared. The tips of her fingers barely caught it, but she hung on. She hung on as she held onto the image of home. Of finishing the job and being back with the people she loved.
Her feet swung. She tried to latch her toes into the rocks, but there were no rocks to latch onto. It was just her fingers on that edge.
That final edge.
"You're almost home," someone told her.
The noise of water rushing sounded, and she looked down. Water beneath her feet—
A wind on the sea.
You are the night.
And I am the trees.
"Take my hand, Princess," someone whispered.
And Nyssa did. She took that chance. She swung her arm up, not knowing if she would grab onto anything—
