Page 281 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
“Only by seven and a half minutes.”
Kase merely laughed.
Hallie watched her parents and Jack a moment longer before facing where Ben waited at the Nether Gate’s opening, his hand still glowing. She and Kase walked over.
Kase asked, “Do you know what happens to the Essence powers still in the guardian swords?”
Skibs had Kainadr’s shadow sword in a sheath hanging off his belt. Xera’s soul sword held the Gate open. Ben shook his head. “Dunno, but since we need to return the guardians to their respective Gates, I guess we’ll find out? Let’s just hope it doesn’t cause the world to collapse or anything.”
“Something for me to research when I go back to University in the autumn,” Hallie said.
Kase smiled. “You’re returning?”
Hallie nodded. “Yes. Only a semester and a half left before I can graduate, and I needed a few extra topics to add to my graduate thesis.”
“I’m proud of you,” Kase said, putting an arm around her shoulders and squeezing.
Ben rolled his eyes. “Listen, I put up with you both making eyes at each other all night last night, what with the near-death experiences and all. Please don’t make me suffer the entire way back to the surface.”
Kase laughed, but he didn’t take his arm back. After another minute or two, her parents joined them. It was time.
First her parents went through, both looking over their shoulders at Jack one last time, Ben holding the Gate open with the guardian sword. Then it was Hallie and Kase’s turn.
“Thank you. For getting me the letter,” Kase said quietly.
She looked up at him, the golden afternoon sunlight illuminating his handsome features. “You’re welcome. We’ll see her again someday. And Zeke.”
His jaw was firm, and teeth clenched. She rubbed his arm. “What did it say?”
He looked down at her, sliding his fingers into hers. “I forgive you.”
Hallie squeezed his hand tighter, tears burning in her eyes. Kase blinked rapidly before putting on a small smile.
“I promised I’d get you home.”
Then led her through the Nether Gate, and neither of them looked back.
Epilogue
LE MORTE D’ARTHUR
Ten Years Later
Jove
IN THE DECADE SINCE THE Gates War, the city of Kyvena had changed little. After months of repair, much of the city was back to its normal functionality, but it had taken years to dull the scars left behind in the minds of the citizens.
The leading scholars estimated nearly five thousand people were lost over the course of the war that had only lasted a few months, though some argued the Great War had never ended that day nearly twenty-five years ago when Ezekiel Fairchild had been executed, though all agreed that all conflict finally resolved on July 20, 4501, known as Gates Armistice Day, when Jove—reinstated as High Guardsman—the City Governors, and King Asa aven d’Correa signed the ArmisticeTreaty after a few months of negotiations. That was also the day Hallie Walker, now Shackley, restored electricity to Kyvena with the help of Felyra and Saldr.
The King himself financed the rebuilding of the city with the coffers General Marcos Correa had stockpiled in Sol Adrid. That was before Ben Reiss—an entirely separate man, of course—had been exiled for his war crimes.
Jove and the remaining Council members from across the country met and decided it best to let him live, as creating a power vacuum with their neighbor was hardly in their best interest. Thanks to the evidence presented by Saldr, Felyra, and the other Yalvs, it was proven Ben had not been in his right mind when attacking both Myrrai and Kyvena, courtesy of the malevolent power he wielded.
Didn’t erase his crimes, but it allowed a more lenient sentence.
It’d taken Jove ten years to be able to walk the streets on Gates Armistice Day. It would take him a few more to make a speech on it. They asked him every year, but he’d always passed that duty to Saldr or Anderson Enright—healed once Hallie Walker and King Asa had forged the third Gate and who had most recently been elected Stradat. They had always been better with people, and Jove had no words that could describe what he’d felt that fateful day or in the ones that followed. He’d healed from them physically, but the emotional scars ran deep.
Clara, his sons, and their little one on the way were what got him through and kept him pushing forward trying to make Jayde the best it could possibly be while still respecting its shortcomings. With them and the nation depending on him, he hadn’t had a drop of alcohol since the night the city fell.
