“Don’t forget I saved you,” she breathed. “Will you really kill me? Me, the only one who ever believed in you? Who gave you a home for centuries? Who loved you like a son? Without me, you’ll have no one. You’ll be alone.” Zelda turned to face him, a solitary tear sliding down her cheek. She raised her hand as if to stroke his face, then withdrew it at once. “You wouldn’t kill your mother, would you?”
Arawn’s grip faltered, his muscles stiffening. “Our contract is finished. I will never serve you again.”
Zelda collapsed to her knees, her throat marked crimson where he had touched her, her skin withering. Yet instead of fear, malice gleamed in her eyes. “I was far too lenient with you. If I could rewrite our contract, everything would be different. I gave you everything, left you the choice, and all I asked in return was?—”
“Eternal slavery,” Arawn cut in, his gaze blazing. “I’m the one who blackens his soul for you, while you hoard your magic. How is that fair?! You want me to become your greatest Cursed. But you didn’t expect me to resist this long.”
Zelda conjured a staff to haul herself up, a sly grin on her red lips. “No, I did not. But you forget one thing, I must collect what I’m owed.”
Her arm shot out before he could react. Her fingers pierced his chest. Arawn staggered, frozen, paralyzed by the magic flooding his veins. Zelda ripped out his human heart. She held it aloft before him. A black organ, streaked with violet veins, beating faintly in her pale hand.
“This weakness belongs to me,” she whispered, caressing the organ. “It’s this heart that trapped you in the confectioner’s snare. But I forgive you. The weaker you are, the easier it is for me to remind you what it means to be human!”
She squeezed, and Arawn clutched his temples as if to stop his mind from shattering. He let out a scream that blasted the tower walls apart. His eyes blazed like a burning sun, bleeding crimson tears.
My breath caught. His human heart carried nothing but sorrow and rage. So that was it. Whenever he drew closer to his humanity, she could torture him—drive him into the unforgivable.
“If you try to kill me again, you’ll become what you fear most. And with that little heart of yours, you will serve me willingly for eternity, my dear Arawn. So surrender, and I’ll make you forget all those terrible memories.” She smiled, savoring her triumph, as Arawn shifted into his cursed form. “That is how I know you’ll return to me one day! And this time, we will spend eternity together.”
The memory evaporated, leaving me in the middle of a storm of moths beating their wings. My body shook, my fists clenched so tight my knuckles turned white. Crystallized tears had piled up at my feet. Arawn was already standing. I pushed myself up and slapped him square across the face.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I screamed, pounding my fists against his chest again and again.
He stood unmoving, impassive, letting me strike him until I was out of breath.
“Stop. You’re starting to lose your sugared skin,” he remarked dryly. “Hurt me as much as you want, but don’t hurt yourself because of me.”
“Take me seriously, for once!” I cried, wiping away fresh tears. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“And how exactly do you imagine that conversation would have gone?” he said, tilting his head. “‘By the way, I knew your mentor. She made me promise to kill her if her heart was corrupted, and I did. And even she (your perfect idol) couldn’t manage to make the elixir to kill me, because the sucremort in my heart demanded too much strength. So, ready to give it a try?’”
I blinked. He wasn’t wrong. If I had known, I would have given up before I even started. But that wasn’t the point.
“I can’t believe you let me talk about her all this time without saying anything. Add ‘liar’ to your list of flaws!”
He raised a brow. “List?”
“Yes, a list.” I crossed my arms and started ticking them off on my fingers. “Arrogant. Cold. Condescending. Insensitive. Sarcastic. Evasive. Rude. Whiny. Prideful. Unbearable, and?—”
“All right, all right, I get it,” Arawn cut in with a grimace. “Well, at least I can stop worrying about your feelings for me. Clearly, they’ve disappeared.”
I slapped him again, my palm burning against his cheek.Ouch. His skin was so damn hard. “Feelings don’t just disappear like that!”
Arawn’s eyes widened, his usual coldness faltering. Was that… a hint of red on his cheeks? No, impossible. Must’ve beenfrom the slap. I let out a frustrated sigh, my emotions tangled into a knot I couldn’t untie.
“Nyla considered me her daughter,” I murmured, a bitter smile tugging at my lips.
“That’s what you take away from all this?” Arawn said, incredulous.
My heart pinched. “What happened to Nyla… it’s what she wanted. She wanted to save her soul. You gave her the end she chose, the happiest one of all.”
“What I did to her…” Arawn’s voice was lower, rougher. “You can’t forgive that. You should hate me.”
“I don’t forgive you. I don’t know if I ever could, but…” I still didn’t understand why Nyla had gone to Zelda. I couldn’t change the past, but in the future, I intended to have a say. This had to end. “Zelda took everything from us. I won’t let you spend eternity chained to her. Even if Nyla didn’t believe in me, and I’m your confectioner by default, I’d rather kill you myself than let that happen!”
Arawn’s mouth curved into a half smile. “Is that jealousy I hear?”
I bit my lip, fighting the urge to slap him again. “What was your relationship with Nyla? Were you… close?”
