Rowan’s hair has been cut to her shoulders, but I’d know my girl anywhere. Her head is raised and proud, the gold in her eyes catching in the light as she takes in the crowd above us.

Then she looks at me. She turns, taking in our enemy on the other side of the arena. Ox and Sethran both call to her to warn her of the danger, but her name falls from my lips as a strangled cry. Eyes on the lioness as it circles the arena, I run over to Rowan. She meets me halfway, curling into my embrace like she needs it as much as I do.

The feeling of her hugging me back is a stronger magic than anything I’ve found since the Heliana.

“How the skies did you survive that landslide?” I ask.

“Luck,” she says, pushing me back to keep her attention on the lioness.

“Leonodai don’t believe in luck.”

“This one is starting to,” she counters. “Skies, is that … armor?”

“Supposed to be.”

The lioness is dazed for a moment, taking in a new contender. Then it charges. Ox throws himself forward, shield raised, as a distraction to throw the lioness off. Rowan, fresh in the fight, lets out a battle cry as she makes a large arc on the opposite side, adding to the chaos. While the animal roars at Ox’s charge, she lands a hit across its nose, blood spraying in the gash’s wake.

The lioness charges again, growing and shrieking unnaturally, and I ready my axe for another go. Rowan throws a knife, but it bounces off the armor. The lioness backs up and for a moment is distracted by the other felled animals.

We take the moment to regroup. Ox reaches for Rowan, and she squeezes his hand in return, but she addresses Sethran. “Commander. What’s the plan?”

Sethran shakes his head. “We have to survive, even if that means killing her.”

Rowan stares hard at the lioness. “I know, but we could do it in an honorable way.”

The three of us turn to her. Our commander shifts on his feet. “What do you mean?”

“A fast death. One with dignity,” Rowan replies. “And then, we stop fighting ourselves. Seth, there isn’t a way out of this.”

Ox shakes his head in disbelief. “You’re giving up?”

She shakes her head. “I’m accepting the truth. We can’t last forever.”

Hearing the truth from Rowan hits harder than it did when I was saying the same to myself. We tried. We made it this far. But she is right. We can fight our best for hours, but eventually, we’ll fall.

“Think of how you want to go to the Endless Skies,” she says, voice trembling. “I want to go on my own terms. What say you?”