I’m afraid to pull back and look at them.

Dead leaves cling to their clothes, and violent bruises cover their skin.

“Are you okay?” It’s such a horrible question, and I should know better than to ask it.

“Yes,” Willow says brightly at the same moment Nadine says, “No.”

Nadine shakes her head at Willow’s obvious lie. “But we will be,” she adds. “All of us.” Nadine looks over her shoulder at a girl with hollow eyes that dart around. She must be Samantha.

And that’s what I need to hear. We’ll be fine. Eventually. Eventually is what matters.

Diantha and Reina smother a small blond girl between them. Aristelle and Xander watch with tired faces, like they’ve been trying to be strong for a long, long time, and now they’re done.

Roman makes a small, wounded sound, and I jerk toward him, my leftover adrenaline kicking in, but he’s fine. He’s just staring at the young girl walking toward us. Her tangle of brown hair falls all the way past her hips. She blinks like she can’t quite believe what she’s seeing, and then Roman has her in his arms, pressed into his chest, but it looks like she’s holding him upright, not the other way around, like he’s finally given himself permission to stop being strong. I wonder who he’ll be without his grief.

I wonder who I’ll be without my revenge.

Soft crying pulls my attention. An older man leans over Julia, holding one of her hands gently between his. I step over to him.

“Edgar?”

He looks up, squinting at me for a second.

“I know you. Cassia’s daughter.” He glances over his shoulder at Lucius’s body. “You?”

I nod.

“I’m sorry you had to do that. I’m sorry none of us tried sooner.” He sighs as he looks down at Julia. “It’s not that we didn’t consider it. You’d think it would get easier to die the longer you’ve lived, but it gets harder. You’ve had too much time to think about what comes next.”

“I’m sorry I had to take that from you.”

“It was time. It’s been time for way too long.” He pats Julia’s hand.

“She died saving me.”

His genuine smile at that surprises me.

“I’m proud of her.” He lets go of her and rises to his feet, staring out at the forest beyond with a blank expression.

“Are you going to be okay?”

His lips quirk a little, and he snaps his fingers, and a quarter appears in them. I feel the tiniest hum of his magic—pure and faint, the way it should be.

“The world still needs a little bit of wonder, I think. I’d like to give it that.” He nods at me before turning back to Julia.

Aristelle comes up beside me and grabs my elbow.