He’s given me his devotion. His protection. His heart.
But this — this physical surrender, scales and wings and ancient power pressing toward the snow — this is something else. Something I’ve never seen from him.
The bond between us floods with it. Not new devotion — that’s always been there.
Acknowledgment.
Of what I am. Of what I’ve become.
Complete and absolute.
My chest cracks open.
Around us, the others react — Torric’s sharp intake of breath, Aspen’s stillness going somehowstiller, Malrik’s shadows rippling with something that looks like shock. Even Darian’s light wavers.
A dragon doesn’t bow.
Kieran just did.
“I don’t understand,” I whisper. “I’m just—”
“You are the last.” The God’s voice cuts through my spiral. “The last true Valkyrie. The last who can guide them home.”
He looks past me, toward the army of shadows still pressed to the snow.
“Your line created the Gate. Built the bridge between life and death. And when Alekir destroyed your people, when he trapped their souls and broke the cycle…” His ancient eyes return to mine. “The Gate closed. The bridge collapsed. And they had nowhere to go.”
I turn back to face them.
My named shadows at the front — sisters who chose me.
And behind them, thousands upon thousands of Eds. Souls who just need to get through. Who’ve been stuck in cosmic limbo because the door was locked and nobody had the key.
Until now.
The tears spill over. I can’t stop them. Don’t try.
“This whole time,” I breathe. “They’ve been here this whole time.”
“Yes.”
The God moves to stand beside me.
“Your shadows knew.” He gestures toward where Walter hovers, pulsing brighter now — his violet light flaring twice like a heartbeat. Where Mouse presses against my leg, solid and warm. Where Bob holds the line, his sharp edges softening as I meet his form.
“They weren’t strategizing,” the God continues. “They were following the pull. The call of the Valkyrie soul they’re bound to. They gathered the lost becauseyoucalled to them — even when you didn’t know you were calling.”
Walter. Sweet, strange, cosmic Walter. Drifting through our journey, pulsing at objects, collecting fragments I didn’t understand.
He wasn’t just existing.
He was answering me.
Building this.
Because I needed it.
“Kaia.” The God’s voice softens. “Do not shrink from what you are.”
