Page 220 of War

I touch my stomach again, panic clawing up my throat. “And the baby—she’s still alive?”

“I made sure of it.”

I begin to weep then—because apparently crying is contagious right now.

I don’t understand. I went from dying to living. As did War. As did our child.

“I surrendered,” I say nonsensically.

War pulls me tight against him. “So did I.”

For a moment, the two of us simply stay like that. His body is as solid as ever; hefeelsunchanged, and yet things must’ve changed.

“What’s the catch?” I ask him.

Everything I love, I lose. Now, when it seems like I have regained it all, I’m afraid it’ll slip away from me again.

“There is no catch,” War says, “unless you count the fact that now I am well and truly mortal. I will live and age and die as you will.”

When he said he was free of his purpose, he meant it literally.

Whatever happened while I was …gone… it came at a steep personal cost to War. So steep that he lost his immortality.

My heart breaks a little at that. I’ve seen enough of death to last me at least twenty-seven lifetimes.

“And Deimos?” I ask.

“He will endure the same fate.”

“What about the other horsemen?” The ones who haven’t yet walked the earth.

War’s expression turns grim. “My brothers will not stop, and they are even stronger than me.”

So the world still isn’t safe—but it isn’tbeyondsaving, either. Pestilence and War laid down their weapons. Not all hope is lost.

Besides, that’s a worry for a later time.

I’m alive, War’s alive, and my child’s alive. Oh—and there will be no more killing.

The corner of my mouth curves up as a thought hits me. “Are all your powers gone, or can you still speak every language that has ever existed?”

“San sani du, seni nüsüna ukuvi?”

Can you still understand me when I do?

A laugh slips out. “I can.”

War and I stare at each other, and for the first time, it truly sinks in.

It’s over. It’s really over. The fighting and killing and suffering. I get to have this man and my child and a future too.

My smile slips away. “What do we do now?” I ask him.

“I don’t care, wife, so long as I do it with you.”

Chapter 63

Two years later

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