The door was gone.
The city was dead.
But the Five were still breathing.
And something else was breathing with them.
It started as a vibration under their feet.
Then a heartbeat.
Not theirs.
A heartbeat that knew their names.
Law looked down.
The cobblestones were bleeding again.
Not black glass this time.
Real blood.
It spelled words as it spread.
Five names.
Five futures.
Five graves.
Laura read hers first.
It said:
LAURA DIES FIRST BECAUSE SHE ALWAYS STEPS IN FRONT
She laughed.
It came out wet.
Liora's said:
LIORA DIES SECOND BECAUSE SHE CAN'T LET GO
Nysera's:
THE WOLF EATS HER ON THE THIRD FULL MOON AFTER THIS ONE
Zero's:
ZERO DIES SMILING BECAUSE THE VOID FINALLY FINISHES ITS MEAL
Law's was longest.
THE ANCHOR DIES LAST
BECAUSE HE WATCHES THEM ALL DIE FIRST
AND STILL CHOOSES TO STAY
The blood kept writing.
A new line appeared beneath all five names.
THE PATH REMEMBERS
The alley behind them cracked open.
Not into darkness.
Into a road.
A simple dirt road lined with white flowers that hadn't existed a second ago.
It stretched forward into mist.
And it was walking toward them.
The road itself was moving.
Every inch it advanced, the city behind them crumbled into dust.
There was no going back.
Only forward.
Or nowhere.
Laura wiped blood from her cheek that wasn't hers.
"So," she said, voice steady, "we walk."
Liora took her hand.
Not resonance.
Just hands.
Nysera's wolf growled once, low and accepting.
Zero cracked his neck.
"Five graves," he said. "Sounds like a party."
Law looked at the road.
At the blood.
At the Four who had just chosen to follow him into whatever this was.
He stepped onto the path.
The moment his boot touched dirt, the bleeding stopped.
The names vanished.
But the heartbeat grew louder.
It was coming from the end of the road.
Where the mist was thickest.
Something was waiting.
Something that had been waiting since the first time the Mirror cracked.
Law didn't look back.
He didn't need to.
He could feel them behind him.
Five heartbeats.
One path.
The white flowers under their feet turned black the instant they stepped on them.
And began to sing.
A lullaby.
His mother's lullaby.
The one he had never been allowed to remember.
Until now.
The path whispered as they walked.
Not with words.
With memories that weren't theirs.
Laura saw herself as a child, reaching for a sister who was never there.
Liora saw herself burning an orphanage to keep one girl warm.
Nysera saw silver chains and a collar that said PROPERTY OF THE MOON.
Zero saw a photograph of five children who looked exactly like them, standing in front of a mirror that had no reflections.
Law saw everything.
And nothing.
Because every memory ended the same way.
With him closing a door.
And choosing to stay on the wrong side of it.
The path narrowed.
The mist thickened.
The heartbeat became footsteps.
Heavy.
Patient.
Coming closer.
The Five walked faster.
Not running.
Never running.
Just walking toward the thing that had written their deaths in blood.
Because that was what anchors did.
They walked until the path ended.
At a mirror.
A single, unbroken mirror standing in the middle of nowhere.
No frame.
No wall.
Just a mirror.
Tall enough for all five to stand in front of at once.
They stopped.
The heartbeat stopped.
The lullaby stopped.
Silence.
Then the mirror spoke.
With Law's voice.
Older.
Tired.
Proud.
"Welcome home," it said.
The reflection in the mirror wasn't them.
It was them.
Older.
Scarred.
Missing pieces.
Laura had only one arm.
Liora's eyes were gone.
Nysera's wolf had won.
Zero was smiling, but there was nothing behind it.
And Law.
Law was wearing the crown.
The crown made of Tavren's bones and mirrors.
He was smiling too.
The reflection raised one hand.
And waved.
The real Law raised his.
And waved back.
The mirror cracked.
Not from impact.
From relief.
The older Law mouthed three words.
No sound.
Just shape.
Thank you.
Then the mirror shattered into white flowers.
And the path behind them vanished.
There was only forward now.
Into the place the city had been keeping them from.
Into the place the Mirror had been keeping them for.
Law took the first step.
The others followed.
Five shadows.
One path.
No graves.
Because the dead don't need them.
The living do.