It is done, he says into my mind.They are home.
I look at the Gate.
Still glowing. Still humming. But different now. Lighter, somehow. Like a weight has been lifted.
Bob. Patricia. Finnick. Carl. Steve. Linda.
Gone.
After centuries of waiting, of protecting, of serving — they’re finally home.
And I’m the one who got to send them there.
I collapse.
My knees hit the snow and I’m falling forward, and there are arms around me.
They hold me while I break.
Finn is crying too. I can feel his tears on my shoulder, his chaos magic sparking with grief. Malrik’s arms are shaking. Torric’s fire keeps flaring and banking like he can’t control it. Aspen’s frost is spreading across the snow around us. Darian’s light flickers like a candle in wind. Kieran’s composure has cracked — I can feel it through the bond, the grief he’s trying to hide and failing.
We’re all breaking.
All of us.
Together.
“You honored them well, Valkyrie.”
The God’s voice is soft. Distant.
I can’t respond. Can barely breathe.
But Mouse presses against my side, warm and solid and here.
Walter pulses above me, violet and bright and staying.
And somewhere underneath the grief, underneath the loss—
Peace.
They’re home.
I’m so lucky to have been the one to give them that.
Chapter 6
Aspen
It’s too quiet.
The kind of quiet that comes after something massive has passed through and left emptiness in its wake.
No shuffling Eds. No shadow army stretching to the horizon. Just wind and snow and the Gate humming soft behind us, and the seven of us tangled together in the aftermath.
Kaia is on her knees in the snow, wings drooping, feathers trailing in the white. Still crying, but quieter now — the exhausted kind of tears that come when you’ve already broken and there’s nothing left to shatter.
I’m behind her, one hand on her neck, feeling her pulse race beneath my fingers. Finn is pressed against her left side, face buried in her shoulder, Malrik’s arms wrapped around both of them. Torric is at her back, fire banked so low I can barely feel his heat. Darian hovers at the edge, light flickering, one hand half-raised like he wants to reach for her but isn’t sure he’s allowed. Kieran kneels a few feet away — close, but not touching. Not yet.
