“She’s really out,” Finn says.
“She earned it.” Kieran lowers himself onto one of the stone benches, close enough to reach her if she stirs. “She’s been running on nothing for weeks.”
“We all have.” Malrik is sitting across the fire, and gods, he looks wrecked. Whatever happened while Kieran and Kaia were in here hit him hard.
“But her especially.” Kieran’s gaze stays on her face. “The Gate. The shadows leaving. The God. She carried all of it.”
The words land heavy.
Because he’s right.
Bob. Patricia. Finnick. Linda. Steve. Carl. Gone. Passed through the Gate. Finally home.
I watched them go. Watched Kaia break apart saying goodbye. Watched Bob give her that final salute and walk into the light without looking back.
My chest still hurts.
“She loved them,” Aspen says. “Like family.”
“Theywerefamily. They’d been with her since before she was born.” Kieran’s voice is rough. “Bob served her mother for three hundred years. Patricia documented every major event in Valkyrie history. Linda helped raise Kaia when she was small.”
“You knew them,” Malrik says. Not a question.
“I knew all of them. I met them the few times I was lucky enough to travel with my father. Before.. everything.” He pauses. “And now they’re home.”
Walter pulses softly. Mouse’s tail twitches once.
Not all of them left.
“She still has Mouse,” Finn says. “And Walter. And us.”
“She has us.” Kieran’s arm rests on his knee, his body angled toward her even now. “She’ll always have us.”
The fire crackles. Silence stretches.
Then Finn, because he can’t help himself: “So. We should probably acknowledge the elephant in the room.”
“What elephant?” Darian asks.
“The fact that we all heard everything.”
Kieran goes very still.
“These walls aren’t exactly thick,” Finn continues, gesturing at the stone around us. “And she was… enthusiastic.”
“Finn,” Malrik warns.
“What? I’m not saying it’s bad. I’m saying we all know what happened. We felt it through the bond. We heard it through the stone and wood. Pretending otherwise is stupid.”
Kieran’s jaw works. “And your point?”
“My point is—” Finn spreads his hands. “Good for you, man. Seriously. Centuries of pining and you finally—”
“I did notpine.”
“You absolutely pined. You brooded and lurked and watched from doorways like a sad golden-eyed gargoyle.”
“Dragon. And I was protecting her.”
