Let’s just say that I liked the Darkling and I had a different ending in my mind where Alina becomes a villain and on the Darkling’s side, and Mal is dead and she’d be wearing his bones, and with Mal gone she has no balance and over her grief she has no emotions left and her human side is gone forever, and with that nothing can stop them (Alina and the Darkling) from unleashing their power over any enemy to Ravka, but the actual ending seems more convenient.