And when she looked up, just for a moment, I saw it.
Relief.
Not joy. Not triumph. Just…release. The trembling, ragged kind that follows the end of something unbearable.
Tears spilled freely down her face, streaking ash and blood from her cheeks. And when Thorne looked up at her—
Gods, he looked at her like a man seeing salvation. Not worshipping a goddess—no. Worshippingher. Elira. The girl he broke. The woman who rose anyway.
I stepped forward, heart aching. So did Leo.
He chanced a look at me. I saw the same reverence in his eyes—relief, wonder, the ache of something lost and found.
“She’s back,” Leo whispered, his eyes shining.
We were being pulled in by her gravity, by love, by the truth that she was still standing, still here.
“I’m so sorry for everything,” Thorne whispered, tears falling like rain. “I’m so sorry.”
“I know,” Elira said softly. “I know.”
She tugged gently on Slade’s hand and he knelt beside her. Leo and I followed, folding into the circle around her. A family born in fire and ruin.
Then she leaned forward and pressed her forehead to Thorne’s.
His breath hitched. And slowly, trembling, he reached up.
And for one sacred heartbeat—he held her.
And together, we grieved.
Chapter 54
Elira
We watched the tower collapse from the other side of Duskfall.
Caelen and Lacey had called in a couple of favours and found us a house on one of the hills overlooking the town. We had evacuated the surrounding areas, and Maddie had done what she could to stabilise it, but the tower had to fall.
And with it, the reign of Vael Arrowheart.
In my heart there was a warmth that could never exist while he still lived. And now he was dead, it was like the world was alive again.
I could still see him crawling towards me as the flesh melted from his bones. I had never felt so calm.
He was dead.
Vael was dead. And I could breathe again.
Duskfall was free. And so was I.
I rose slowly from the bed, the sheets warm with shared heat.
My fingertips brushed Slade’s face—solid, warm, real. Gods, I’d thought I’d lost him. A lump caught in my throat.
Beside him, Phoenix and Leo were tangled in the covers, their breathing steady, untroubled. For a long moment, I just stood there and stared.
They were here.
