He stopped and set me down on the ground. Around us, nothing remained but charred ruins, ash, and dying flames. Not a single Cursed left. Only emptiness, haunted by a sea of Spirits clinging together in a formless mass. And at the center of that storm—Arawn, half devoured by his own creations, gnawed apart by what he had birthed.
I wiped my tears with a trembling hand. “I still need you, Aignan. We all need you. I?—”
Aignan sat heavily, crushing under his rump the crawling Cursed who tried to ambush him. He raised a paw, nudging me gently.
“You’ve grown, Lempicka. You’re no longer that careless child. I’m not abandoning you, I’m letting you fly on your own,” he said, lifting his eyes as if he could see the stars, a smile curling his muzzle. “Nyla, I’ll soon shine at your side! I’ll join you.”
He rose and leaped back toward the Cursed chasing us.
“Aignan!”
He didn’t look back, but I was rooted in place, my vision blurred by tears. I wanted to run after him. Grab him. Pull him back. But I couldn’t, my whole body trembled.
“I’ll protect you all,” he roared. “Come on, you worthless parasites! I’m the strongest black lamb who ever lived. Those damn sorcerer experiments finally paid off.”
Aignan laughed. Real, full. He laughed like a madman, like a king, like a condemned soul joyous to finally break his chains. Then he vanished into the melee.
“We’ll hold back the Cursed. But you must go forward. If you don’t stop Arawn, he’ll destroy the kingdoms, and it will be the end.” Yeun’s voice snapped me back to reality.
His blue flames flickered over the blackened ground. I nodded and bolted. Ruined stairs crumbled under my steps. My heart thundered, not only because of what awaited me ahead, but because of Aignan… How could I live without him? My gaze hardened. I no longer wanted a world where the Cursed were only broken tools, where creatures like Aignan were abandoned, exploited, tortured, before being condemned to die.
You don’t play with life.No beast should fear being raised for a life of suffering, or for doing evil. I would build something else. For him. I would carry his strength. I lifted my chin, my tears drying in the icy air.
Aignan wouldn’t want me to cry. He’d want me to fight, to show them what I was capable of. “For Aignan.”
I crossed the last step. At the summit, the castle’s walls were no more. Only a few broken columns still stood. The rest was nothing but a black abyss, drinking the light, letting shadow weigh on my lungs like damp velvet.
And, in the center, collapsed on the fractured marble checkerboard floor, lay Zelda—or what was left of her.
Her skeletal fingers, blackened and brittle, clawed weakly at the frozen tiles. Her other arm was gone, severed clean at the shoulder. A few strands of white hair clung to her skull. Thick smoke of ash bled from her body. Dark veins marbled her hollowed face, threading beneath withered gray skin.
The most powerful sorceress of the realms, corrupted by her own magic.
“It’s over,” Zelda rasped, her throat wheezing with every breath. “Give me his heart. I must stop this.”
My hand went instinctively to the heart pulsing in the pocket of my skirt. “You lack faith.”
Zelda let out a strangled, gravelly laugh.
“You don’t see? The true monster… it was never me.” The sorceress raised a trembling finger, pointing at Arawn. “It was him. It was always him.”
My jaw clenched. Arawn thrashed, swallowed by the horde of Spirits he had birthed. They clung to him, seeping beneath his skin like living ink. They weren’t just surrounding him; they were devouring him. His humanity was being torn away, enraged, revolted. That was all that remained. Hatred. A broken, wounded heart. But still beating.
“He was robbed of his heart. You—you devoured too many, and it destroyed you. For him, there’s still hope.”
“No confectioner has ever survived sucremort. You will perish, foolish child!”
I ran straight toward the abyss that was consuming him. “Arawn!”
The Spirits reacted at once, surging toward me. Darkness clung to my legs, wrapped around my waist, and slid against my throat. Each step was a tearing away, each breath a battle.
“You have to let him go.”
Arawn’s humanity wasn’t just fading, it was corrupting. And now it tried to swallow me too. Dozens of red eyes gleamed in the dark. The air vibrated with whispers, low and cutting.
“I’m sorry I didn’t save you sooner,” I said, my voice breaking. “But if you love Arawn, you have to let him move on. Give back what he lost. You’re not protecting him. You’re damning him. He has to remember what it means to be hurt. To be human. He has to heal.”
The black tide rose higher, thick as oil. I clutched Arawn’s heart against my chest.
