Page 85 of The Unseelie War
“Just finish it.” Alex shut her eyes. “Just finish it and be done with this. I want to go home.”
Home. What a stupid, silly word. A word that had no meaning toher anymore. Nodding, she swallowed the rock in her throat and resumed chanting, tears streaming down her face as she spoke the final words of the ritual.
The worldsscreamedas they tore apart.
They separated with a sound that made her ears ring, three realities that had been pressed together in unnatural fusion finally finding their proper places in the cosmic order. The pain of it was indescribable—like having pieces of her soul ripped away and scattered to the winds.
But it was done.
It wasfinished.
When it was over, Ava found herself standing in a field of ordinary grass under an ordinary sky, clutching Book to her chest like a lifeline. Beside her, Serrik swayed, staggered, but somehow stayed standing, his golden eyes dim with exhaustion.
“Is it…done?” he asked quietly.
Ava looked around at the world that was once againsimplyEarth—no floating buildings, no singing trees, no impossible fusion of realities. In the distance, she could see the Boston skyline, solid and real and exactly where it was supposed to be.
“It's done,” she confirmed.
They stood together in the field, alone. The weight of what they had lost echoed in the silence—friends who had returned to dreams, lovers who had sacrificed themselves to save the worlds, the simple joy of a reality where anything was possible.
But they had each other. And perhaps, in the end, that was enough.
Serrik's hand found hers, solid and warm and real. “What happens now?”
Ava looked down at the golden bracelet around her wrist, at the tome in her other hand, at the spider she loved standing beside her in a world that was theirs to protect.
“Now? We…find our meaning and we stand guard to make sure their sacrifices meant something.”
Somewhere in the back of her mind—somewhere in a presence in her soul she couldn’t quitefeelbut justknew,between what was and what could be—the Web hummed with the presence of two lovers who had chosen eternity together over the destruction of everything they held dear.
It was not the ending any of them had wanted.
But it was the ending they had chosen.
And in the end, perhaps that was what made all the difference.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Alex materialized inside Tir n’Aill and heard the singing of the trees around her. The music of the world filled her in a way she had never experienced before. Like for the first time in her life, she could really notice every instrument of the orchestra.
She was an anchor point now.
Whatever thefuckthat meant.
Well, she knew what it meant. It meant she was going to die like this. But not physically. Just mentally. Slowly. Stitch by stitch. Drop by drop. Until she wasn’t herself anymore. Until she might as well be a rock. Or the fucking tree at the center of that god-forsaken Maze itself.
Her body ached in ways that went beyond physical pain. The roots had left their mark on her, dark lines threading under her skin like a roadmap. They’d heal. She had survived.
But she was utterly, devastatingly alone.
Izael was gone. Valroy had unmade him, erased him from existence with the casual cruelty of swatting a fly. Her husband—brilliant, sarcastic, insane Izael—had been reduced to nothing more than memory and regret.
Alex sank to her knees in the soft grass, her purple hair fallingaround her face like a curtain. She had saved three worlds, had helped separate the realities and restore order. She should feel victorious. Heroic. Instead, she felt hollow, like someone had reached inside her chest and carved out everything that mattered.
“Well!” a voice piped excitedly from behind her. “Nice of you tofinallyshow up! I guess this means we won?”
Alex didn't turn around. She couldn't bear to face Puck's manic grin, couldn't handle his chaotic energy when her own world had been reduced to ash and memory. “Go away," she said quietly. “I’m not in the mood.”
