Between Bruises & Blooms

Everyone thinks
the ending
is the war.

The final battle.

The crown
hitting the floor.

The villain gone.

The kingdom
finally quiet.

But stories
rarely tell you
how heavy silence is
after years
of screaming.

Mare survives.

Cal survives.

Enough of them
survive
to build something
out of the wreckage.

And somehow
that is its own
kind of cruelty.

Because survival
does not erase
the dead.

It does not
return Shade.

Does not undo Maven.

Does not make
the blood
on every memory
disappear.

There are still
rooms
that feel haunted.

Names
that hurt
to hear.

Choices
that cannot
be taken back.

Love
that survived
but did not
remain untouched.

Maybe that
is what comes
after revolution.

Not peace.

Not immediately.

Just people
standing
in the ruins

trying to decide
what kind of world
deserves
to grow there.

The crown
can fall
in a moment.

Healing

takes
much longer.