now at last the worst is over (we should run away someday)

“War or not, halo or not, you have us,” Beatrice assures. Ava remembers months ago, halfway into twenty feet of stone and a panic attack, when Beatrice declared the same thing. The darkness in her bedroom becomes easier to bear compared to the dead silence of Ava’s own room, what with the moonlight, the faint scent of vanilla, and Beatrice’s warmth, just inches away from her.

“I know. Thank you.”

or after the war, Ava and Beatrice spend a summer together