Cecilia had allowed me to command her pegasus for the journey back to RoCity. She sat behind me with her arms around my waist, leaning against my back. She gave me warmth.

  I was so glad that she was safe. She was wounded, but nothing fatal. She had excitedly told me about all the skirmishes she had won, and I had told her how proud I was. There had been a lot of hugging.

  The army now rode across the English countryside as the sun set on our right, providing a warm glow. The sound of pegasus hooves was surprisingly comforting to listen to. It was much better than hearing swords collide every other second.

  And, for the most part, the journey home was happy. All of my friends were alive and in one piece. We were all injured, sure, but we were alive, and that was one fact that I would not take for granted as long as it remained true.

  However, there had of course been loss. There could not be a battle without loss.

  I had broken the news of such first by informing everybody that Tom had been killed. That had set the tone. Cecilia, Harvey, Stephen, Peter, and Isaac weren’t too affected by the news, but the rest of us were, especially Charlotte. I did not know how long Tom and Charlotte had known each other, but the two had been on the same squad serving directly underneath my grandfather, so they must have at least been close.

  Charlotte was still trying her hardest to stop herself from crying, I could see that even from three pegasi over. I knew that once she was within the confines of her own home, she would weep. My heart ached for her. She was trying to act strong for the rest of us.

  Harvey had then broken the news that Joseph had been killed. Even recalling that announcement made me feel sick. Joseph had been more than a legal partner to me. He had been more than an advisor. He had been a friend.

  I did not blame Harvey at all, and it had been clear that he had been scared of such. I knew that he would blame himself, and it would have been downright wrong of me to do the same. Joseph had died to protect Harvey. Harvey had not killed him.

  ‘Why aren’t we being followed?’ Cecilia asked loudly as I stared absent-mindedly up at the sky, admiring its gradient.

  ‘I gave Quinn a little scare,’ Ethan explained, his voice sounding glum. ‘We’ll be safe from here to RoCity.’

  ‘What about Righello?’ Natasha asked. ‘Won’t he pursue us?’

  I saw Ethan glance at me from his pegasus. I didn’t say a word. Ethan understood that as my permission to tell them all.

  ‘He’s dead.’

  I felt Cecilia straighten. Natasha gasped. Everybody else either showed a drastic change in facial expression or let out a sound to express their shock.

  ‘Wha- How?’ Charlotte said, sounding astounded.

  ‘Albert killed him,’ Ethan said simply.

  ‘May Charon’s boat sink,’ Cecilia grumbled, grasping me tighter.

  ‘I’m sure he’ll go into more detail once we’re home, but it was quite the spectacle,’ Ethan continued.

  ‘So that’s why the lightning suddenly disappeared!’ Harvey exclaimed. ‘I had been on the verge of death and then it suddenly disappeared without a trace and saved my life! It must be because Righello died!’

  ‘Yeah!’ Cecilia joined in. ‘I was trapped by a cage of the stuff when it suddenly went away, and I’d been wondering why!’

  ‘How’d it happen?’ Jay asked excitedly.

  Ethan jumped in before the situation got awkward. ‘Well, it started when I saved Albert from a surprise attack…’

  I lost focus on Ethan’s storytelling, but I could hear him telling the story of Righello’s death from his perspective as I stared up at the few stars that were beginning to sparkle in the sky.

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  Ali. Midnight. Tom. Joseph. This night was for them. Righello’s death was for them.

  I reminded myself that the losses would never get easier. Some would hit harder than others, but it would never get easier. It did not matter how many times I watched someone die, or how many times someone close died out of my sight, it would hit me like a runaway train for as long as I lived.

  Henry. Grandad. Jeremy. Ali. Midnight. Tom. Joseph. I had lost them all. And each death had hit just as hard as the one before. Grief was a relentless force. Death did not play fair.

  Looking up at the brightest visible star, I thought of Ali. I remembered the day that I had met him. He had been so awkward. So tentative. It was as though he admired me.

  I thought about how that admiration for me had stuck over the course of our six-month friendship. He always seemed to respect my strength, despite the fact that he was the son of a Primordial himself.

  I remembered how desperately I had fought to protect him and still failed. Not a day had gone by that I did not blame myself for his death. If I had just been a little more aware of my surroundings then Ali would’ve been riding back to RoCity with us at that moment.

  Would he have appreciated me killing Righello? Surely, he would’ve, right? Although Ali was not the most violent of people, he hated Righello while he was alive, so surely he wouldn’t mind his death. Or perhaps he would disapprove of me killing Righello in his name. I hoped not. I hoped that he was looking down on me with pride, thanking me for finally letting him rest peacefully.

  Strangely, I also hoped Midnight was watching. I wished that I had spent more time with that pegasus. After robbing him from Maltor, the two of us hadn’t really had any specific ‘bonding time’.

  I knew that I would need to find a new pegasus, but I didn’t want to. I felt that it would disrespect Midnight’s name. No pegasus could replace him. Even as I rode on the back of Cecilia’s pegasus, it didn’t feel the same. I was simply commanding it around rather than having a conversation with it.

  Midnight, too, had been a friend of mine, I thought. If it were possible to be friends with a pegasus, then Midnight had been my friend. After all, he had literally given his life trying to get me to safety. That’s something that a friend would do.

  No tears came to my eyes as I took this trip down memory lane. I merely stared up at the sky, my body gently going up and down with the steps of Cecilia’s pegasus. My hair flowed behind me from the warm breeze gliding through us all.

  More and more stars were slowly coming into view. Perhaps it was my grief, but I began to believe, to hope, that each star was someone watching me from Olympus.

  One particular star caught my eye. Despite the fact that it was one of the brightest in the sky, it seemed to be hidden in the background amongst the others. I chose to think of Tom as I looked at that star.

  He had always been working in the background, out of sight. Whereas Charlotte had a closer bond with me and my friends, Tom looked out for us from the sidelines, choosing to shine the spotlight on him when it mattered.

  Tom had died trying to protect me. I had known since the day that I had met him that he was willing to do so. After all, we had first met when he had appeared to help protect me from Amy.

  I thought back to that day. I commonly thought of that day as the day that started it all. It was on that day that I was properly introduced to the Mutant world. It was on that day that both of the wars that had controlled my life began.

  Of the five people that had appeared to protect me from Amy Wright on that day, only two of them were still alive: Charlotte and Heather. Grandad, Henry, and Tom were now all dead.

  Tom’s death replayed in my mind. Righello stabbing him in the chest. His body going limp. The colour draining from his eyes.

  For a very brief moment, I thought about if Charlotte and Heather would meet a similar end. I hoped with every fibre of my being that they didn’t

  Then I thought of Joseph. I hadn’t even had the privilege of seeing him die. Perhaps seeing it would have given me more peace of mind. I do not know how much agony he had been in, but watching it happen would have given me an idea.

  Joseph had always been there for me. He had been the person in my government that I was closest to, by multiple miles. He had helped me through so much. He had advised me on so many decisions. He had comforted me and reassured me when I needed someone to do so.

  And he had met a brutal end out of sight. He had spent the latter portion of his life by my side, making sure that as little harm as possible came my way, only to meet his end far away from me, on a random area of the battlefield.

  If nobody else would be proud of me, Joseph would be, dead or alive. He had supported every single step I took, regardless of whether or not he had wanted me to take that step. Perhaps he, too, had been a friend.

  I felt a slight anger towards myself for not realising that these people had been my friends earlier. I had thought of Midnight as a pegasus until he died. I had thought of Tom and Joseph as colleagues. In reality, the three of them had been friends, and I had just been too na?ve to realise.

  I hoped they were watching. And I hoped that they were watching with pride.

  Cecilia squeezed me gently. Amongst my waves of grief, a glimmer of happiness shone through.

  I stared wistfully at a faint cloud passing by. Whether it was a fabrication of my own mind or the Gods having some fun, I am certain that the cloud slowly morphed right in front of my eyes into the faces of Ali, Midnight, Tom, and Joseph. Their smoky faces stared off into the distance, and all of them wore a hard expression, yet their cloudy eyes seemed warm.

  I smiled gently to myself again. Maybe they were watching. And maybe, just maybe, they were proud of me.