Ashes and Dust
- As Esmé screams, Mihai tells her the story of how the Druj came to be, about how this select group of humans decided to choose immortality over their own souls.
- Over the centuries, the Druj forget all about their humanity and the people they once loved.
- It took Mihai thirteen cycles of hathra—of incubating inside human souls—for his own soul to come back. He loves his human hosts like family, and is glad that they won't suffer because they incubated a Druj.
- As he watches, Esmé's eyes both turn brown again. And behind him, the Druj Queen stirs and speaks his name. He remembers when they were both still human and she was his wife, and hopes that she has enough of a soul now to love him back.
- The Druj Queen takes in the kingdom that has fallen to pieces in her absence and starts to freak out in rage and confusion.
- Before she can turn on Esmé and Mihai, though, they're gone, disappearing back into the human world and leaving the Druj Queen with her own crumbling kingdom of Tajbel.