This broke through my grief. “Maybe I shouldn’t have released the power?” I asked, looking between Shadow and the others.

My mate shook his head. “She’s no match for us without the stone, and it was too risky to hold that much energy.”

That provided some relief, and I thought of what might happen when we saw her again. “I hope she doesn’t choose to return,” I admitted. “Because I’m not sure we can allow her to remain free. Not with her need for power.”

“Her rebirth should strip that away,” Shadow said, “but I agree that it would be best if she didn’t return.”

The others nodded, all except Reece, who had drifted over to stand before Angel’s armor. Armor none of us had been able to bring ourselves to touch yet. I watched as he reached down and pressed his hands to the gold-and-bronze piece, and then it vanished. I had no idea where he’d sent it, but I hoped back to the wall in her home. That was where it belonged.

Reece’s eyes met mine, and even though his face was expressionless, his eyes were fire. He wasn’t okay, even if he was hiding it somewhat better than me.

“We should go now,” Shadow said, giving us all the distraction we were searching for.

He opened the portal into the Grey Lands, which really needed a new name. Since my rebirth, where I’d risen with the Nexus, it had been slowly returning to its former glory.

With not a scrap of grey in sight, these lands were now a run of golden fields and mountains, cut through by red rivers. Beautiful and powerful… It felt whole again.

“How is it that you don’t need to stay here in the Nexus?” Lucien asked me. “Your rebirth created you into another Nexus goddess, right? Are you bound to it now?”

“No,” I said, knowing the truth of it. “I still belong to multiple worlds. It’s what makes me different to Dannie and allows me to exist in multiple places. I may need to return here at times to keep it all in check, but this is not my only home.”

Earth, Honor Meadows, the Library of Knowledge. All equally as important as this land we stood on now. “There is no other like Mera,” Shadow said, his eyes locked on mine. “And there never will be.”

Even my broken heart flip-flopped at the depth of emotion in his voice.

We moved closer together, and our hands joined as we made our way up to the Nexus itself, still at the top of a gently sloping hill. As we closed in on it, a sense of calm and peace washed through me. The relentless hammering pain I hadn’t been able to lock away eased just enough that I could take a deep breath and not feel like my lungs were being compressed.