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Their spirits had passed through me and out of me. Each one recognized me, thanked me. A gift, they had said. I had given them the gift of eternal peace. I had brought them the deaths they had longed for and ended their liminal torment.

But they had given me gifts as well. Gifts for the lady of night, for the daughter of darkness.

For the one they called the goddess of death.

Marzanna. My other name.

“You both killed the ones you claimed to love. You stole souls to feed your lust for power. The souls of innocent children,” I said to my father and Vela. “If only you had learned at one point in your miserable, overly long lives where true power lies. Not in taking. But in letting go.”

CHAPTER 35 - DRAVEN

I watched Morgan with a reverence that never waned. My mate, my empress, my heart.

She was utterly magnificent.

A perfect mingling of grace and strength. She radiated with a luminescence that could rival the stars themselves.

As she stood there before the throne of this corrupted court, I saw her past, her present, and her future. I saw who she was and who she had become.

Both her fierceness and her fragility left me in awe.

There was a fire behind her eyes, a hard-won wisdom, a silent testament to the trials she’d faced and conquered. Yet beneath the veneer of flame and steel, I saw a vulnerability that spoke to the depth of her compassion, her empathy—a reminder of the passionate heart that beat firmly in her chest.

Her gaze met mine, and I was lost in the depths of her soul, reminded of all we had shared. The triumphs and tribulations that had forged us. The paths we had walked hand in hand to bring us here, to this place. To this ending.

However it ended, amidst all of the chaos of our world, she remained my anchor, my solace, my hope.

Yet here I sat. Ensnared.

Or was I?

Beside me, another woman wrapped around me like a sensual vine. Her thighs pressed against my body. Her fingers slid possessively over my skin. She was a vision of temptation in silken finery. Her touch was a tantalizing caress.

A sickeningly familiar one.

Morgan’s eyes flickered. I caught the glint of uncertainty, the shadow of doubt that threatened to cloud her thoughts.

While her expression remained a perfect mask of composure, I felt the weight of her scrutiny, the silent questions that lingered unspoken.

Did she doubt my loyalty? My devotion? Did she question the bond that tied us together in this lifetime and for all the ones to come?

Her thoughts remained a mystery, but I knew her heart, her soul. I knew the depth of her love, the unwavering faith she placed in me.

I rose to my feet, casting aside the chains of deception that bound me.

My destiny lay not with the woman who sought to claim me as her own, but with the one who had always held my heart in her hands.

CHAPTER 36 - MORGAN

I could almost feel the ripple of shock coursing through the room as Draven came towards me. Vela’s expression was a mask of incredulity as she watched my mate rise and walk away from her, her hold over him shattered like a fragile mirror.

But I paid her no mind. My focus lay elsewhere. Drawn towards the man who was my heartline.

At last, he stood before me. The embodiment of all that was good and true in this world.

There was a lump in my throat. I had hoped. Hoped that being here in this place would trigger for him all that I had already remembered.

But that didn’t mean I had not still feared I might be wrong.