Cinn turned, startled. With the horror of all that had happened, she’d forgotten Airmid was still there. It didn’t matter anyway. What more could the goddess do that hadn’t already been done? Vince and Teddy were gone, and some of her other plants might never recover.

And Sparkle. She shouldn’t have wasted the last days of her life trying to please someone called the Big Boss. Life was for living, loving, and enjoying those you loved.

Those you loved. Cinn looked up at Dacian. “I love you, you know.”

His eyes lit with joy and wonder. He leaned down to just brush her lips with his. “In six hundred years of existence, I’ve never loved anyone more.”

“I know I’ll grow old and die, but I—”

He placed a finger over her lips. “Hush. Not now.”

She nodded as Airmid slipped past her and stood beside Sparkle. Ganymede looked up at her, his eyes dead.

“I can help her.”

No one breathed.

“How?” Ganymede’s tone suggested that this had better not be a trick.

“I’m not a goddess of war, so I took no part in your battle. But I am a healing goddess. I can help bring her back.” She motioned for Ganymede to move away, and then she pulled one leaf from a plant that hadn’t been knocked to the floor. She held the leaf to Sparkle’s nose. “Breathe in the life this leaf freely gives.”

Everyone watched, riveted, as the leaf slowly shriveled up and turned to powder.

After what seemed like hours, Sparkle groaned and opened her eyes. She looked down to where only one shoe hung from her feet. Then she looked past Airmid to Ganymede. “Make sure you bury me with both Pradas, sugar-muffin.”

Cinn turned away. This time belonged to Ganymede and Sparkle. A Sparkle who would live to shop again. Cinn had the deaths of two plants, who were so much more than plants, to mourn.

Cinn hung on to Dacian as she knelt down beside Vince. His pot was shattered, his soil scattered, and his poor roots exposed. He’d lost so many leaves, so many. Tears welled up.

Asima’s keening cry rose up beside her, as the messenger of Bast mourned in her own way.

Dacian helped Cinn gather up what was left of him. Then she stood and stumbled over to Teddy. There was nothing left. Just an empty pot with pieces of cactus too small to even identify.

“He loved me. He died for me.” Asima’s tear-clogged voice was a dirge in Cinn’s mind.

Cinn sensed rather than saw Airmid standing behind her. “They gave their lives to save Asima, you, and me.”

“I know.” Airmid remained silent for a moment. “Because they showed their worthiness, I will allow you to keep the others in this greenhouse. Repot those that were thrown to the floor and they will again flourish.”