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"I apologize," the cloaked figure said, voice gruff. "I failed again. Every time I try to help you, it ends with you getting more hurt instead. But no matter how much either ofus wish it, I'm not the man you're looking for. I am not Jaiel."

Chills ran down my spine. "Then — where is he?"

"You must enter the last memory," he said, a new door appearing behind him, gilded in gold and a dozen hands tall.

"What you need is through there."

I swallowed, mind full of that terrible scream that shadow Jaiel had let out as the harpoons struck his body.

So much pain!

If there was any chance Jaiel was inside that room and I could save him, I would take it.

"I'm coming, Jaiel," I whispered, stepping through the final door and into the all too familiar ballroom — my prison for so many nights.

Except, this time, it stood completely empty.

I turned back to the cloaked man. "What is this? Why are we back here? Where is he?"

"This is the final memory," he said, walking to my side.

My stomach turned. "Then where is he?"

"I — I'm sorry. But —"

Indignation flooded my veins, followed closely by a sick fear. "Sorry?" I snapped. "I don't want sorry! I want Jaiel!"

"Kaiya. This memory — it's Jaiel's final —"

"No!" I cried out, fighting the ice rushing through my veins. "You said — you said he would be here! He's here! I know he is!"

The man said nothing as my heart beat staccato in my throat.

He was still there, somewhere inside the monster. So, he had to exist in this ballroom, too. He had to!

Closing my eyes, I grasped for him through the bond, desperation clawing at my chest.

But that dimming bond led past the cloaked figure and out of the ballroom — out to the storm.

"No," I pleaded, voice breaking. "Please!"

"I'm sorry." The cloaked figure said, voice a deep rumble. "I was — hoping this might help you work through the pain of his loss and give you some closure. Help you to understand how much —"

"No! Gods damn you!" I clenched my fists. "Gods FUCKING damn you!"

I searched the empty ballroom, feeling each of the dances we'd shared there — all those nights that let me survive my hell on the prison ship.

Why?! Why hadn't he told me the shadow was killing him? I could have — would have been there for him …

But he always pushed me away! Our last words had been a fucking fight, for gods sakes!

Fuck! Why had I lethim push me away?

I sank to the ground, world spinning around me. "What happened?"

The figure shook his head. "I'm not completely sure. I found him after the shadow had taken his body. Only his mind was left."

"This isn't real," I whispered, gripping at the pain tearing my chest apart — a hole where my heart used to be. "This is just some fucking nightmare. It has to be!"