She had a choice that was not under Set’s influence or control, and now she had chosen. She let her body die, and, with it, Set.

Danny had known no death but Pat’s, and when she went to Duat, only he accompanied her. But Danny was not surprised that Duat sent a pret to greet Hermia. Not Thoth, the one they had thought of as This One. Yet the one who met her and traveled with her, he seemed to Danny to have the same kind of vividness and brightness that This One had possessed. Hermia responded as if she knew him at once, and for all Danny knew, they had known each other from some time before her birth. But now she was gone.

And so was Set. He, too, was accompanied on his journey by a bright pret, a ka sent from Duat. Yet it was clear that Set shrank from the one who greeted him. It seemed more like a prisoner being guarded than an honored traveler being welcomed home.

However they traveled, and whoever their companions were, Danny knew that the voyage would take only moments, and from Duat there would be no return. After all these thousands of years, Set was finally dead.

Danny could feel it inside himself, not because Set had been there, but because the Sutahites who had chosen him felt their last connection with Set dissolve. He was gone from Mittlegard, and now Danny’s Sutahites were Sutahites no longer. They were part of Danny, completely in his ba. They were him.

Pat sighed. “Oh, Danny,” she whispered. “Who would have thought that the only way to end his life was to begin it.”

“Now that it worked,” said Danny, “it feels obvious.”

“They’re truly mine now,” said Pat. “The prets that chose me.”

“You chose them back,” said Danny. “Till death do you part.”

Danny called the others, and they came, and they touched each other or held each other or, in the case of Anonoei and her sons, clung and wept together.

“Now it’s official,” said Loki. “I’m the worst human being alive.”

“Maybe,” said Danny North. “But I doubt it. You haven’t met Grandpa Gyish or Uncle Zog.”

“Should we tell Hermia’s family?” asked Pat. “She died well.”

“They won’t understand what she did,” said Loki.

“But they’ll know we honor her for it,” said Pat. “That’s something. And if anyone in her Family loved her, they’ll want to know.”

So Danny took Pat by the hand, and led her off to tell the Greeks.

Chapter 22

22

The world should have changed. There should have been headlines, like, “People aren’t thinking of doing so many rotten things.” “Chances of another Hitler dropped by 40 percent.” “Fewer traffic accidents caused by driver aggressiveness and road rage.”