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Something he will not survive.

He has given me permission to end him. And I am about to destroy everything to do it.

I rise.

Slow. Unshaking.

My sword still dripping with the blood of men who thought they could take me down.

My vision locked on the man who should have died years ago.

"You always said I was your greatest mistake,” I say, my voice dripping with deadly precision.

I take a step forward. Then another.

"Let me prove you right."

56

ZEPHIRAN

Iwas made for this moment.

For war. For vengeance. For killing the man who cursed me before I even drew breath.

He will die screaming under my sword.

Zeran moves first.

Fast. Precise. Predictable.

He thinks I will break before I ever touch him.

He is wrong.

Our swords clash, steel scraping against steel, and the sound is thunderous. I don’t let him push me back.

I meet his strength with everything I have left.

This is not just a fight. This is his reckoning and I have been waiting my entire life for it.

Pain rips through my bones as the curse burns through me. Zeran’s activating it, using it against me.

This is a constant reminder of what he’s done to me.

Of the power he still thinks he holds over me.

Of the nights I have spent writhing on the floor, breaking and healing over and over, screaming into the dark while he listened from the shadows.

He smirks, sensing it.

"Still weak, son?"

I bare my teeth.

Not weak.

I shove him back.