“Be’shmai?” His voice is urgent as he drops to his knees beside me.
“What have you done?” Saedii asks, staring at me.
“It’s gone,” Scarlett breathes.
“What’s gone?” Finian demands.
“Her power,” Tyler supplies quietly.
“It was the only way,” I say quietly.
There’s an emptiness inside me, but the chamber that contains it is unimaginably small. I was so vast—I was infinite.
And now I am in this muffled silence, everything as quiet as a snow day.
I’ve … amputated the part of me that was joined to the Ra’haam, and I can’t sense any of my friends, any more than I could back when all this began. I’m not a Trigger. I’m not a savior.
I’m a perfectly ordinary girl.
I could have lived forever in the moment I kissed a million of them goodbye, but though I feel impossibly strange and empty, just listening with my ears, just seeing with my eyes, when Kal pulls me in against him in a fierce embrace, and I hear his heart beating loud and true through his ribs, the … the sheer joy of being alive is overwhelming.
I can’t feel him in my mind at all. I can see him, though, and touch him, and when I smile up at him through my tears, and he smiles back, I know my choice was right.
I’ll live in peace, and I’ll live for love.
Love offers choice, and I made mine—I made the choice my squad has taught me from the moment I met them. Your family is where you find it, and this is mine. We should be together.
“Is it gone?” Scarlett whispers, and I know she’s thinking of Cat.
“It’s not here anymore,” I reply. “But … it’s not gone.”
I instinctively turn in the right direction.
I think I’ll always know which way it is.
There’s a space out between galaxies where only darkness should be, and now it glimmers with life and memories, with stars like fireflies that will share themselves with each other as long as they wish.
They’re far away, but they’re not gone. And I find a phrase on my lips I learned from Saedii, in those moments we were all joined.
It seems fitting, so I whisper it in farewell.
“I will see you in the stars.”
39
ONE YEAR LATER
“Go go go, we’re gonna be late,” Scar hisses, threatening to break into a run, but not quite managing it.
“Which will be a huge shock to everyone,” I reply, reaching for her hand to slow her down.
We’re just back from shore leave, which we took on Trask—Scar even charmed my third grandmother. I’m pretty sure at this point that if we ever broke up, my family would keep her and toss me, but I can’t blame them for that. She’s impossible to resist. We’ve only been gone three weeks, but Maker, it’s good to be back at Aurora Station.
At first, none of us were sure if the Legion was the right future for us, after everything that had happened. But at least for Ty, Scar, and me, it’s where we’ve settled for now. Tyler says this is where we can do the most good, and good’s sorely needed.
Most planets lost huge chunks of their citizenry in the battle against the Ra’haam. Whole civilizations were shut off behind destroyed FoldGates. Aurora told me once that she’s positive someone will be along in the future who’ll know how to get around that, but she refused to say more.
For now, we do what good we can, where we can.
And tomorrow, we’re doing some good right here.
Scarlett and I hurry out onto the long crescent of the station promenade, stepping hand in hand into the crush. The whole place is packed with people—delegates from all over the galaxy have begun arriving at the academy, flocks of cadets and legionnaires and civilians flooding the eateries and bars, all of them abuzz with excitement for the ceremony.
I look up to the transparent ceiling, the light of the Aurora star shining down on the statues of the Founders in the promenade’s heart. One hundred meters tall, towering above this place they forged together, this Legion that saved a galaxy.
The first is carved of black opal from Trask, her face wise and brave and serene, looking into a future of infinite possibility. The second is marble mined on Terra, and I smile as I look up into the familiar face of Nari Kim. She’s older than the kid we knew, her chest covered with medals now, admiral’s stars on her shoulders. But she’s still a kid I knew.
“Looking good, Dirtgirl,” I grin.
“Hey.” Scar pinches my arm. “That’s a Founder of Aurora Academy you’re talking to, legionnaire.”