The scene in front of Jax and Athanasia ended with a green cloud blooming out of nothing and Loki stepping through it, and then Athanor and Lysia were gone along with her.
Athanasia kept staring at the spot where she had watched all of it happen.
It was an ending nobody in any realm would ever wish for.
But reality had never been the sort of place that handed dreams over for free, and everything inside it carried a price.
A loaf of bread demanded sweat. Peace demanded blood. Duty and responsibility came collecting your childhood. Love demanded the tattoo of vulnerability you never once had, and the more precious the dream, the heavier the price reality asked for it.
Her parents had paid that same price, in the worst way it could possibly be paid.
Then tears started forming in the eyes of a girl who hadn't known those eyes were capable of it.
