Maybe it wasn’t emptiness. Maybe there was simply more room to be herself now that she wasn’t sharing her body with someone else’s essence. This was all her.
Because Atheia was gone.
And as Romie looked at Emory, her friend smiling at her through tears, Romie felt a wild rush of relief and hope. If her fate was severed from Atheia’s, it meant she wouldn’t have to sacrifice herself. Wouldn’t have to throw herself into the void. She would get tolive, and fight every day for Emory’s forgiveness. They could move past this, she was sure of it. She understood now that they couldn’t go back to those two girls they’d been before, because they had changed too much. Had gone through so much together. And perhaps that made their friendship stronger. The future could only make it stronger still.
Because they would get to live.
But then reality tore down her hope and her smile as she made sense of the tears in Emory’s eyes, of the resignation on her face.
Romiemight get to live. But Emory wouldn’t—because she had taken Atheia’s essence inside her.
I love you,Emory mouthed, her eyes full of apology.
Romie wanted to tear Atheia’s essence out of her friend with her bare hands and take it into herself again. She couldn’t let Emory sacrifice herself in her stead. She wanted to rage against whatever cruel destiny it was that they should each choose to sacrifice herself for the other. That this should be the moment where they finally understood each other’s motivations and all the hardships they’d gone through. That for a brief moment, Romie had let herself hope that they could save the worlds together and go homeand be friends again, laugh as they once did, forgive each other and accept all the parts of their selves they felt ashamed of. That they could grow from this experience, their friendship becoming stronger than ever, because they finally, fully understood each other. Fully accepted each other.
But it was too late.
It was too late.
68BAZ
BAZ COULDN’T BELIEVE HE WAShere again, watching helplessly as Emory was about to leave to horizons he could not follow her to. And he hated it. He wanted to keep her here, to beg her to stay. Last time, he hadn’t. Last time, he’d let her go because that was what was needed.
His resolve wasn’t so sturdy now.
Because this time, he knew there was no coming back for her.
But watching Romie and Emory break down in each other’s arms as they said goodbye, seeing Luce hug herself as she tried desperately not to fall apart, Baz knew he had to remain strong. He saw it on Emory’s face, how fraying her own resolve was. He had to be strong for her, for everyone else around him, for the worlds themselves.
But his strength was dwindling. Kai was holding him steady—as he always had, in more ways than one—but Baz’s magic was taking a toll on him. He wasn’t made to contain such chaos, to holdback the weight of a universe tearing at the seams. If he faltered even slightly, they would all perish.
He swallowed back his tears as Emory turned to him. They both knew there was no time for a proper goodbye. Both knew that if they were to embrace, to share words, both of their resolves might break. And yet Emory did so anyway. She pulled him in for a hug, and Baz couldn’t help but press his lips against the side of her head, inhaling the scent of her one last time.
“I don’t know if I can do this,” Emory whispered, so low he barely heard her.
Whether she meant saying goodbye or healing magic or stepping through the void, Baz didn’t know. It didn’t matter. What she sought from him was reassurance, and this much, he could give her.
“If I’ve learned anything from you, Emory Ainsleif, it’s that you can do anything you set your mind to. There has never been a darkness you couldn’t face or a door you couldn’t walk through or impossible odds you couldn’t overcome.”
Her arms tightened around him, her body spasming in a silent sob. “I’ll miss you so much.”
“Maybe this isn’t the end,” Baz whispered, needing this glimmer of hope to hold him steady, to give him the strength to let her go.
Emory smiled at him sadly, not believing his words, perhaps, but clinging to them anyway. She wiped at her eyes, looking at Kai. “Take care of him. Of all of them.”
“You have my word,” Kai said.
Emory drew back to stand next to Sidraeus. They looked at each other, a silent exchange passing between them. When Emory met Baz’s gaze again, the stormy seas of her eyes were quiet and sure.
“You can let go now,” she said.
With a breath, Baz did—and watched as that chaos wove infinity circles around Emory and Sidraeus, a vortex of death that only they could contain.
Wait,Baz wanted to say.Stay. But he knew that this time, it was impossible.
He may have broken fate, but this was still the only ending left.
69EMORY
