Before Death seized me, I swore I could hear my mother's river lullaby over the roar of the demonic ambush. Then a blinding flash colored my eyelids orange, and I braced myself for the fiery pits of hell.

The world shook violently beneath me, and for a brief moment, I wondered if the earth's crust had split open under my knees—if perhaps the underworld wanted my soul so badly, it had opened its jaws to consume me itself. Then a chorus of terrible screams drowned out my favorite symphony, and I feared my peers had met their horrific end.

But as the screeching grew angrier, hoarser, and several octaves deeper, I realized the sounds weren't human at all. It was the demons who were shrieking—shrieking as if something were tearing them limb from limb, heart from breast, soul from flesh.

As their monstrous wails raked against my eardrums, the pain in my bones suddenly faded, and when I found the courage to open my eyes again, the phantom assault dispersed like ash in a windstorm.

Dazed, I watched the light of the portal flinch and sputter like an injured animal, its passengers howling as it died.

Belated understanding struck, and my heart skipped a beat.

Died.

We'd done it. We'd severed the tether—we'd switched off the portal.

Godric had lost.

Fudge, still standing over my body, twisted to look at me one last time, almost like he was staring back at me in joyous disbelief. Then he vanished into thin air with that affectionate, dimpled smile on his face—or so I imagined.

My gaze roamed the battlefield. The Pans, old and new, had collapsed, writhing on the ground like beached sea creatures. Men and women stood around them in wary huddles, watching the dark smoke coil out of their chests and travel in wispy arcs toward the portal.

Leaving.

The demons were making their exit at last—a decade-long blight finally extinguished.

My focus swiveled to the sky beyond, cautiously hopeful, and the sight that greeted me stole the breath in my throat.

The gray haze had already begun to dissipate, the canvas of nothingness finally disintegrating, and a sliver of sunshine carved through the clouds like a divine reaping hook.

I squinted, the corner of my mouth quirking upwards at the saturation.

Is that...a streak of blue?

"Alex!"                                                    

My chest loosened, and I turned my gaze south.

Will.

I hoisted myself to my feet, the pain much worse now that I wasn't riding on adrenaline, and I stumbled around the blinking portal toward the edge of the basement. Will clutched at a pillar, barely able to stand, and Valerie halted a few feet behind him, shaking her head at what I assumed to be a pitiful rescue attempt.

I met Will in a sloppy collision, and I clasped his armor to keep him from crashing upon his splint. As his arms enveloped me, he dropped his head to the crook of my neck and cursed repeatedly into my pauldron.

"I'm okay," I whispered, not sure if I was saying it for his benefit or mine.

He squeezed me tightly in response, and I ran my gloved hand through his dusty hair, reeling at the fact that I was still alive to do so.

Valerie smiled at me as if she could read my mind, shrugging off her quiver with a heavy sigh. Meanwhile, a weary Mason slumped onto the stairwell beside Tori, who wrapped his arm around the blond in an oddly intimate manner—a manner that suggested a major development in their relationship since leaving Havenbrooke.

I arched a suggestive eyebrow at Mason, but he just rolled his eyes.

Eagan and Lucy appeared in the doorway then, the latter more animated than I'd ever seen her. Hand in hand, the heroes stared in awe at the portal's demise, and after a lengthy embrace, Will and I parted to do the same.

Pans continued to shed their demonic properties, but it appeared that the spirits had also begun their voyage home. Like Fudge, the Styxes of the world had accomplished what they'd set out to do, and they'd traded their nature-made bodies for the netherworld. A few of them held out as long as they could, eager to spend another minute among the living, but the portal's tug was not to be ignored by any soul—human or otherwise.

Cinder was no exception. She lay on the battlefield as white smoke rose from her unmoving body, while other animals had succumbed to the same fate and scampered off, free of their parasitic relationship.

And if the spirits are leaving...

As soon as the thought occurred to me, a wave of fatigue hit me from all sides.

My knees gave out, and Will caught me just before I cracked my skull on a piece of rebar. We slid to the ground together, my head finding his lap as icy exhaustion burrowed into my bones.

"...Alex?" he rasped.            

I shot him a weak, reassuring smile, but he must have read the fear in my eyes because he immediately called for Torian.

As I lay there, feeling entirely disconnected from my body, my gaze swept over my people again, concerned that we'd missed one of Godric's contingency plans. But what I saw across the field had me crying for an entirely different reason.

Everywhere I looked, the possessed were sitting upright and clambering to their feet—coughing, crying, and attempting to speak. From this distance, I couldn't tell if their black veins had receded or if the white film in their eyes had vanished, but I knew the demons were gone by the joyous reactions they evoked.

Soldiers shouted their comrades' names in disbelief, quickly followed by choked sobs and tearful cheers. Others frantically searched the field for their loved ones, sawing through nets and vigorously untying captives.

Every interaction I observed led to a sequence of wet faces, ginger touches, and emotional embraces. I even spotted a passionate kiss or two, and I knew all too well the relief they must have felt seeing clarity in their lover's eyes.

The reunions filled my heart with a gratifying sense of achievement and jubilance, and for once, I was free from my guilt and sorrow. Everything I'd endured and sacrificed had led to this. All of the suffering I'd dealt had served a purpose.

In the end, it was all worth it.

Red cloaks, federates, and Rheans stood together as one people, laughing incredulously as they wiped the ash and tears from their faces. Bonded by battle. Saved by their enemies. Reconnected with the Pans they'd spared—and the friends they never expected to see again.

I blinked the water out of my eyes.

We'd really...won.

It was strange, how simple that resolution sounded: we won, the end, all is well.  It felt too easy. Too perfect.

And then I realized what was happening—and why I felt so cold inside.

Like every other host, the foreign energy inside me was trying to cross the bridge. My second spirit had been summoned home, and she was leaving me behind. But the apprehension beneath my skin told me I'd been wrong about one crucial, devastating fact. 

It wasn't the Mad Commander who'd merged with my soul when I was six. It wasn't Trevor's hand-selected spirit who'd knocked me into a well.

It was me.

I was the spirit.

And I had, intentionally or not, possessed this body the day I fell back to earth. My consciousness had overwritten the one destined for this human—the goals she'd had, the life she'd lived—and I'd lost my old memories in the process.

All but a few traumatic snippets that reappeared in my nightmares.

I'd convinced myself I was Alex Kingsley of Belgate, daughter to Max and Emilia Kingsley, sister to the Captain of the Interior Company. And when I'd discovered the spirits living among us, I'd jumped to the conclusion that I shared the same skin as my co-pilot, Laurel Murphy.

The deduction had filled the gaps of my jigsaw puzzle, so I'd never questioned it. But I'd been looking at the nature of my existence upside down, and now my soul was scrambling for purchase.

This entire time, I'd been the possessor, not the possessed.

I felt like laughing.  Despite how terrifying it was to be losing my grip on an earthbound life, it was all I could do. After everything—all the fighting, all the struggle, all the pain—this was how it ended.

This was my closing act, and I couldn't sift through words fast enough to think of anything poetic. I couldn't think much of anything, really. My brain was tired, and my eyelids were so...heavy. I just wanted to close them and fall away into the brilliant blue patches above.

"Hey, hey...you're okay," Will muttered as my head lolled to the side. He shook me lightly, trying to keep me awake.  "Don't close your eyes."

He knew what was happening to me, and perhaps he'd always known it might come to this. Perhaps he'd seen my ending ages ago, and he'd chosen to love me anyway.

Torian crouched next to us—the others watching intently behind him—but Will and I both knew there was nothing the medic could do. This was beyond his control.

As if he could sense my departure, Richard trotted over to join us too, his armor clinking as he lay down beside me. His knowing eyes instilled a calmness in me that I desperately needed, and I passed him an easy grin.

Good dog.

"Alex," Will pressed, and I met those panicked eyes once more. It took all my strength and concentration, but I slowly, languidly lifted my hand to his face.

My fingers brushed his grime-speckled nose, and then I smoothed out the creases in his forehead, smiling slightly.

Better.

He clasped his rough and calloused fingers over mine, bringing them down to his cheek.  "Stop," he whispered.  His voice sounded like a billion shards of glass striking the earth—a whole world shattering before my very eyes. "You're not finished here.  You hate unfinished stories, so just...stop."

I forced myself to speak, if just to ease his pain.

"Will," I sighed, and he closed his eyes, savoring the sound of his name on my lips. "We both know I don't belong here. I never did."

He shook his head at my resigned tone, and a tear dripped from his chin to mine. 

"We won. We saved our people. I even...got to see the sky."  I pressed my lips together to keep the sob in. "It's okay."

"It's not." There was a look in his eyes that revealed just how much he was losing, just how many of his future opportunities were slipping away, and it tore up my insides. "You can't leave me...not yet."

The plea burned my eyes, and I finally understood the riddle he'd said to me all those months ago.

With great difficulty, I slid our linked hands down his face, past his collarbone, and over his bleeding heart. "I'll never leave you," I said firmly, "but I have to go."

He gazed back at me so deeply, so tenderly, I was sure he was speaking straight to my soul. And in those dark gray eyes, I saw the ferocity of his love—as well as pained, begrudging acceptance.

"In another life," he vowed, squeezing my hand.

My heart curled in on itself. "...In another life."

Our goodbye sliced through the mortal threads pinning me down, and my gaze drifted from my friends' tear-streaked faces to the clouds above, bright and stunning and achingly familiar. Sunlight pierced their outer edges, shining down upon us in rays of celestial gold.

The sky was so vast overhead, so pleasant—like a domain calling me home—and the beauty killed the last of my resistance.

I let out a heavy breath, giving in to the exhaustion.

I was beginning a new adventure, and as though I'd come full circle to that capricious, naïve, and obstinate girl eight months ago, I wasn't afraid.

****************************************************

...Happy holidays! T_T

(It's not over yet <3)