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It never was.

I dont’ stay to watch him bleed to his death. I turn before I can change my mind.

Before I can let myself feel something close to regret.

Before I remember what he used to mean to me.

The past doesn’t matter anymore as I have made my choice.

There is no coming back from this.

When he calls my name?—

I refused to look back.

This is who I am now.

And I don’t belong to Zephiran anymore.

I belong to the blood between us. To the war. To battle.

And nothing will ever change that.

47

ZEPHIRAN

The first thing I notice is the blood.

My blood.

Dark, hot, seeping between my fingers as I press my palm against the wound she gave me.

She cut deep. Not enough to kill. But enough to remind me that she could have.

Enough to tell me that the next time—she will.

And still, I can’t fucking breathe.

Not from the wound.

But from the implication of what she just did.

From the finality of it.

From the truth I’ve been refusing to see since the moment she walked away from me.

Naira is gone.

She is never coming back.

My body wants to fall as I lost more blood.

The edges of my vision flicker. The earth sways beneath my boots. My grip on my sword wavers.

But I refuse.

I refuse to kneel for this.