Ari says they're free, and Ava doubts. But without her husband, none of it matters. She's not happy anywhere knowing he's potentially trapped elsewhere. Not knowing if he's alive or safe.

"I don't want to go back," Ava whispers shamefully. Not to her home world where half the population had been obliterated, nor to the human zoo display that awaited them. She has nowhere but here. The choice really hadn't been much of one at all.

"But I..." she's overwhelmed by the sense that she failed everyone back on the ship. That she urgently needed to get back to keep fighting. Skulduggery had said he expected it of her, if she managed to get out. Come back for the rest that hadn't. She had promised to protect Fio and Darcy, and here she was without either.

Except she must have died in the process. Maybe there was truly nothing she could do, after all. Just as useless in the end as-

She sways weakly on her feet, the movement fractured. And then nods, sitting in the grass in a slump. Ari is correct that she much rather stay away from the crowd. "A bit." A lot, but the idea of eating too much makes her nauseous.