And being what I am means I don’t outsource the things that matter.
I stand.
The Throne lets me go without protest, which is new. In the beginning it used to cling like it feared I’d walk away and leaveit empty. Now it understands: I leave because I choose to, and I return because I want to.
I step down the dais. The realm shifts to accommodate me—floor smoothing, distance aligning.
Tabitha watches me, eyes unreadable. “If you involve yourself directly on Earth, you will attract attention.”
“I’m already attention,” I reply.
“You are also a destabilising factor.”
I smile. “Then I’ll destabilise the right people.”
Voren’s hand closes around my wrist, cold and careful. “If you go, I go.”
Dastian falls into step on my other side. “If you go, I go. Also, I’m bringing snacks. I like mortal snacks.”
Dreven’s presence slides to my back, shadows brushing my shoulders like a cloak. He doesn’t speak. He doesn’t need to. The promise is there.
I look at Tabitha. “You’re coming too.”
Her brow lifts. “Excuse me?”
“You wanted to be useful. You wanted to keep order. You wanted to survive.” I tilt my head. “Now you get to help protect the slayer one last time.”
Tabitha’s jaw tightens. “Fun.”
Silence stretches as I stare at her.
Then she nods once, sharp and reluctant. “Very well.”
I turn, and the realm answers.
Not with a door. With a fold.
The air in front of us creases as if someone pinched fabric, and a thin seam opens—not the jagged fissure from before, not a wound. A controlled threshold.
My threshold.
I glance back once, taking in the chamber: the pillars, the obsidian, the place that used to feel like a trap and now feels like a crown that actually fits.
Then I step through.
The cemetery in Belfast looks much like every other one.
The transition doesn’t make me nauseous anymore. It doesn’t tear at my soul like a bad decision. It’s smooth, like stepping from one room to another.
“Don’t wake the neighbourhood,” I murmur.
Dastian’s grin flashes in the gloom. “I make no promises.”
I shoot him a look, and he mimes zipping his mouth shut.
Tabitha pauses at the edge of the path, eyes narrowing. “You’ve changed the threshold.”
“Yes,” I reply. “The Order can’t pull me through their nets anymore.”
