Why Is Alex Stern The Protagonist In 'Ninth House'?

I’ve been turning over possibilities for how 'Ninth House' book three could settle Alex Stern’s fate, and honestly my brain keeps swinging between tragic, redemptive, and mythic. In one version she pays the highest price: a sacrificial move that severs her link to the darker strands of necromancy so the secret societies can’t use her as a weapon. That would hit hard emotionally — she’d save others, but lose part of what made her uniquely herself, which echoes the series’ themes about what power costs. Another path I see is transformation rather than death. Maybe Alex becomes something that lives between worlds: no longer quite human in the old way, but free of past wounds and able to finally name her trauma instead of running from it. That could give a bittersweet closure where friendships remain intact, and the book ends on a strange, liminal hope. There’s also a grittier political ending where she outmaneuvers the societies, stays alive, but chooses exile, trading public victory for private peace. Whichever route happens, I want her ending to feel earned — messy, morally complicated, and full of the relationships she’s fought to protect. I’d be satisfied if Bardugo leans into the moral ambiguity and leaves me both wrecked and oddly comforted.