Chapter 31
Years later, children asked Seraphina about the war.
She told them not of battles.
But of names.
Of how remembering someone is an act of rebellion itself.
Lucien, older and softer, stood beside her.
They weren't married.
They didn't need to be.
They had survived.
And remembered.
And on the last night of winter, Seraphina sat on a hill alone.
She whispered every name she could.
And when she was done, she whispered one last word:
"Evelyn."
The stars responded.
And the world, for once, remembered in peace.
End of Chapter 31The End of Book One: Crowned in Ashes