It came to Anya in that moment with a total crystalline certainty: she wanted nothing to do with death. She wanted nothing to do with endings. She wanted beginnings—new ideas, new plans, new joys, new truths, new futures. These things would not reach her across the gulf of killing. Anya said: “I won’t kill you. I won’t give up my own heart just to see you dead.” She looked at the throne. “And I won’t rule from that throne: not ever. Nobody should. We will find a better way.”
