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Ianora ran to Castor's side, throwing her arms around him as tears streamed down her face. It was finally over. After all these years, it was finally over.
"You did it," she sobbed into his chest. "He's dead."
Castor pulled her flat against him, his whole body shaking from the adrenaline of the fight. "We did it," he corrected. "You'll never have to be afraid of him ever again."
A sparkle of magic whirled around Ianora and Castor, and they pulled apart in awe. Castor's face began to glow, the sharp lines of his cursed features beginning to soften and smooth into a powerful jawline, the animalistic edge of his eyes once again returning to the beautiful man Ianora once knew.
"The curse ..." Ianora murmured. "It's lifting."
Once Castor was back to normal, the magic fell into the floor, lighting up the ground and walls, returning them to the shimmering white marble they'd been years ago. The thorn bushes wrapping through the corridors shrunk and untwisted from the walls, the sentient roses having long since stopped bleeding. With one final sigh, the roses shivered and once again became normal roses, swept away with the retreating vines.
"It's over," Castor said, and with equal glee in his voice, he kissed Ianora firmly on the mouth. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer to deepen the kiss. "It's finally over."
With a surge of newfound strength, Castor lifted her up into his arms and carried her away from Johnathan's body. Together, they had overcome the monster that had haunted Ianora's nightmares for years and had driven her and Castor apart. With him gone, Castor and Ianora truly had the opportunity to begin their love anew, unburdened by the past.
They were stronger than ever before, and nothing would ever come between them again.
Chapter 20 - Castor
The palace staff had been cleaning up the rest of the palace for weeks, repairing the damage done by the overgrown, magical rose vines that had not been healed by the magic in the castle when the curse lifted. Castor, filled with so much happiness and energy that he didn't know what to do with himself, even labored alongside the servants to clean Ianora's favorite parts of the lost palace. The pair explored passages that had been sealed off for years together—often because they had been filled with too many memories of their previous courtship.
Now, they galivanted through those halls together, creating new ones.
On this day, in particular, Castor and Ianora delved deep into the underground passages leading from the guest suite she had lived in when first brought to Castor's castle. With the help of servants, they gathered the magical coffin hidden within, as well as Mitron's bones, which were all then brought out to a special place on the palace grounds that Castor and Ianora had prepared for their friend.
"Hmm, the rose bushes are fitting," Mitron said, suddenly appearing from nowhere.
Ianora jumped, pressing herself firmly into Castor's side. "Oh! You frightened me. I didn't realize you could leave the castle."
"I'm tethered to the castle grounds, technically." They watched as the servant’s piled dirt over the coffin, and the bones within. Around Mitron's new resting place, there were several bushes of the roses that had once occupied the castle. "Do you think this is going to work?"
"Of course it's going to work," came the voice of the nearby witch. She sounded almost offended that Mitron would suggest otherwise. "You just have to be patient."
"All right, well, I'm ready whenever you are." Mitron's gaze softened as it fell over Castor and Ianora. "As much as I've appreciated these past few days with you both, I'm tired. I'm ready to rest."
"Then let's get on with this, shall we?" the witch said.
Castor watched as Mitron floated to hover over the now buried coffin. The ghost had been haunting the castle for almost three decades. She had been a constant source of company and amusement over the years that Ianora had gone. But it was time for all of them to move on to the next stage of their lives—or in Mitron's case, death.
She had done Ianora and Castor both an incredible service. She should have been put properly to rest years ago, and it was one of Castor's greatest shames that he'd failed to do so. But now, he would correct that wrong.
The witch began to chant, and the energy in the air around them shifted. It crackled with magic, lifting the hair on Castor's arms. The witch spread her arms wide and called on the elements, earth and air, and water, to do her bidding.
Mitron's form wavered and then solidified again as the magic took hold. The witch's chant became wilder, her words low and unfamiliar over the hum of wind and magic. As she spoke, the ground around Mitron's grave began to glow a faint green. The light grew brighter and brighter until it was so intense that Castor had to look away.
Beside him, Ianora clutched him tighter, burying her face in his side.
When the heat of the magic began to fate, Castor looked back. The glowing had stopped, and the air seemed quieter and staler than before.
He caught one last glimpse of Mitron's ghost, fading into the light with a serene smile on her face.
"Goodbye, my friend," Castor said.
"Thank you for everything," Mitron replied, and then she was gone.
Leaving nothing behind but her grave and the memory of her.
"It is done," the witch said solemnly.
