Mudminnow River it will break my heart to go against your wishes [m]

The first time that she wrapped her jaws around someone's throat for the sake of Indra flashed through her mind. Jhala's teeth around hers. Thoughts -- if you take my sister away I don't even want to live -- and yet somehow she lived, a shell of her former self, a lesser favourite child. And yet somehow she found back Indra.

All roads lead to Indra.

Then she lost her sister again and she had become a shell of herself again. Somehow she lived. She tried to find Indra back in everything she did, but in her dying moments, Laurel realised that none of it was the real thing. None of it was really, truly Indra.

She had so little left in her life; without Indra and Abel, it wasn't enough. She did not doubt they were dead, but this time she would not let the culprit go. There was no Jhala to take her off Merrick's throat now. There was no one to stop her --

And no one to stop him. Soon, we will be together, dearest, he whispered eerily, but Laurel knew it was just another lie. Indra -- Lucas -- Indra, Abel -- I'm coming, she thought as blood continued to gush through his mouth and the realisation sank in that she would not live to tell the tale of how she murdered Merrick and saved her children.

Because she didn't want to. She wanted to give in to the peace, to being with her beloved ones again. Sequoia wasn't enough to keep her here. Everything else to keep her alive was already gone. And so she gave in; accepted fate.