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El Perdón de la Hereje

H e was dead.

The sight of my brother, crumpled over the lifeless form of the boy, stirred something deep within my ancient, weary bones.

Over five hundred years had passed since I’d seen Sebastián weep—truly weep—as he did now.

His shoulders shook with the force of his grief as he clutched his lover to his chest.

A wolf’s mournful howl pierced the night air, a chorus of anguish that matched my brother’s pain. How fascinating, that these creatures showed such loyalty to him. Beyond our circle of power, the sounds of battle still raged—snarls and screams as vampire and wolf tore at each other in the darkness.

Flynn Carter lay limp in his arms, pale as marble, those blue eyes that had blazed with such defiance now glazed and empty. What a waste of potential. His power had been extraordinary, the way he’d commanded the water, pure and untainted.

“ Hermano mío, ” I whispered. “Still so weak for love.”

Sebastián didn’t look up, his fingers threading through Flynn’s matted blond hair. After he’d condemned me to burn on the pyre, my darling brother hadn’t come to watch. I’d suffered alone. Simply me, and the crucifix.

I clutched the crucifix tighter, feeling its corrupted power pulse through my veins. The sacrifice was almost complete. My thirteenth soul, claimed by Lilith’s darkness. Soon, I would be free of her chains .

Yet… something in his broken sobs called to me. Perhaps it was the echo of our shared blood, or a fragment of the loving sister I’d once been. I reached down, my fingers hovering over his trembling shoulder.

The moment I touched him, memories crashed through me—not my own, but his.

Padre Rodrigo’s study materialised. The priest’s hand rested on my brother’s shoulder as he whispered poison in his ear.

“God has chosen you, Sebastián. These heretics threaten His divine order.” Day after day, year after year, feeding him lies wrapped in scripture until my brother’s very soul belonged to him.

Then that terrible night. Sebastián on his knees before Rodrigo, tears streaming down his face. “Please, Father. She’s my sister. There must be another way—” The crack of Rodrigo’s hand across his cheek echoed through the chamber. “You dare question God’s will? Your sister consorts with demons.”

The day of my execution. Sebastián locked in his chambers, screaming himself hoarse as they dragged me away. He’d tried to break down the door, bloodying his fists against the wood. “Magdalena! ?Perdóname, hermana! ”

Later that same night. Rodrigo offering him wine laced with laudanum. “Drink, my darling. Ease your pain.” My brother’s sluggish confusion as Rodrigo’s fangs sank into his throat. The horror in his eyes as Rodrigo forced his own blood past Sebastián’s lips.

The hunger that followed was monstrous. In those early days of his transformation, he’d curl into himself, racked with bloodlust and grief. My name was a constant prayer on his lips: “Magdalena, forgive me. Lo siento, hermana mía. ”

Five centuries of carrying my ghost. Every ten years, reading his journals, torturing himself with the memory of my death. Visiting Spain, standing where the pyre had been, leaving white roses in the ashes.

All this time, I’d thought him my betrayer. But we’d both been betrayed.

My brother had carried such pain, for so long. Until…

As my gaze slid to the dead man in his arms, another wave of memories barraged me—not his anguish this time, but his joy.

Flynn Carter, that very first night. The way his face had lit up at the music, swaying with such abandon. Sebastián had watched from the shadows, transfixed by those graceful movements, seeing something pure and untamed that called to his own trapped soul.

The moment Flynn had looked up at him, terror melting into trust as Sebastián promised to keep him safe. Keep him safe like he was never able to keep me . And Flynn had believed him completely, without question. Like a gift freely given.

Flynn in the kitchen with another. Shy, awkward. Making him laugh, drawing him out of his shell. Sebastián’s heart had swelled watching them, seeing Flynn’s gentle persistence.

His laughter—god, his laughter. Like summer rain after drought, fresh and clean and healing. The sound had washed away decades of my brother’s carefully constructed barriers.

Those ridiculous red-chequered pyjamas he wore. Sebastián’s fingers itched to touch the soft flannel, to pull Flynn close and breathe in the scent of home that clung to the fabric.

Flynn had done what I was unable to—helped Sebastián face the darkness of his past. Held his hand as they read those damning diaries together. Showed him that even the deepest wounds could heal with enough care and patience.

And their kisses… Those love-soaked kisses. Each one saturated with such tenderness it made my heart ache. The way Flynn would cradle Sebastián’s face between his palms… How my brother’s eyes would flutter closed, centuries of loneliness dissolving in that tender press of lips.

I stared at Flynn’s lifeless form—this bright, beautiful boy who’d made Sebastián whole again. Reminded him the world isn’t all shadow and darkness and monsters.

Now dead.

“I thought…” I peered down at my hands, where purple light still danced beneath my skin. “I thought I was choosing power. Freedom. But I’m just another instrument of torture.”

A presence stirred in the shadows—vast, ancient, and terrible. She had arrived.

Vale stepped forward, his eyes gleaming with desperate calculation. “My lady,” he said, voice honey-smooth. “Think carefully. We can find another way. The boy’s death need not be in vain—we could harness his power, break your bonds and keep your gifts.”

“ Sweet child. ” Lilith’s voice poured like ice water down my spine. Her presence manifested as a towering shadow, beautiful and terrible. “ Have you forgotten all I gave you? The strength to survive when others would have burned you to ash? The power to make those who wronged you suffer? ”

My hands trembled. “You gave me nothing. You used me, just as Rodrigo used my brother.”

“ I saved you. ” Lilith’s form rippled closer, her touch like frost against my cheek. “ When your own flesh and blood condemned you, I alone showed mercy. And now you would throw away centuries of preparation? For what? A brother who betrayed you and his mortal pet? ”

Vale circled closer. “The Mother speaks truth. Think of what we could accomplish together, Magdalena. No more serving—we could rule. The power you’ve gathered, combined with what’s left in the boy’s corpse…”

At this, Sebastián’s head snapped up, his grief momentarily eclipsed by rage. His eyes blazed crimson in the darkness, fangs bared in a feral snarl.

“Touch him and I will tear you apart,” he growled, his voice barely human. He clutched Flynn’s body tighter against his chest, protective even now. “Haven’t you taken enough?”

Lilith’s presence seemed to expand at his defiance, the shadows around us growing denser, colder. The air crackled with ancient power as my brother and the Mother of Demons regarded each other—predator facing predator across the centuries.

“ You are mine, ” Lilith purred. “ You have always been mine. ”

The purple fire beneath my skin flared in response to her call. For a moment, I wavered. The promise of power, of true freedom, sang in my veins like poison.

But then I looked at my brother, still cradling Flynn’s body, and saw the echo of my own past. Another soul twisted by those who claimed to love them. Another life corrupted by false promises.

“No,” I whispered. Then louder: “LIES! All of it—LIES!”

The twelve points of light surrounding us pulsed violently as my power surged. Vale stumbled back, his mask of concern shattering into fear.

“You never wanted to free me,” I snarled at Lilith. “You wanted to own me. To make me as much a monster as you.” I knelt beside Flynn’s body, placing one hand over his still heart, the other gripping the crucifix. “But I choose differently now.”

Sebastián reached out to touch my knee. “Sister—”

“Five hundred years of a half existence, watching the world from shadows,” I whispered.

“You ran from your past through endless cities, while I haunted crossroads and crypts. Both of us watching time slip past like water, seeing mortals live and die while we remained frozen. But where you sought escape, I sought power. Creating cambions, corrupting souls, preparing vessels dark enough to satisfy Lilith’s hunger. ”

I looked down at my hands, still bearing the transparency of something not quite alive, not quite dead.

“Five centuries of borrowed time, each decade taking another piece of my humanity. All these sacrifices. Creating monsters to serve a monster.” My eyes met Sebastián’s.

“Just like they did to us. Let me do this, brother.” My smile felt foreign on my face, gentle in a way I’d forgotten how to be.

“Let me choose to save instead of destroy.”

The magic surged through me as I began the transfer, but this time I pulled the power inward rather than outward. Five centuries of collected power, twelve souls worth of darkness, all of it flooding into my own essence. My skin turned translucent, dark veins spreading like cracks across my form .

“ Foolish child. ” Lilith’s voice scraped across my soul like winter frost. “ After everything we shared? ”

I poured more power into Flynn’s lifeless form, feeling my own existence beginning to fracture. “You never shared anything,” I gasped. “You only took. Like them. Like Rodrigo. Like all of them.”

The air grew thin as Lilith’s darkness coalesced around us. “ Then you choose death? Again? ”

“No.” I met her terrible gaze. “I choose life. His life. My brother’s happiness.” The cracks in my skin spread wider, purple light bleeding through. “I choose to end this cycle of suffering.”

Flynn’s chest rose suddenly beneath my palm—a sharp, desperate inhale. His eyes flew open, brilliant blue and full of life.

“Flynn?” Sebastián’s voice broke on the name, raw with disbelief.

His hands trembled as they cupped Flynn’s face.

“Flynn, mi amor ?” When Flynn’s gaze focused on him, recognition dawning, Sebastián let out a sound somewhere between a sob and a laugh—the sound of a man who had lived only in darkness suddenly finding light.

My brother looked to me. “Magdalena…” He reached for me, but purple flames erupted between us. For the first time, I saw him truly look at me—not the monster I’d become, but the sister he’d loved. The sister he’d mourned. “ Gracias, hermana ,” he whispered. “After everything I did—

“It’s alright, brother.” Tears left burning tracks down my cheeks as my body began to dissolve. “I’m choosing this. The way they never let us choose before.”

As my consciousness scattered into stardust, I glimpsed one final image: my brother, cradling Flynn against his chest, his face transformed.

The weight of five centuries finally lifted from his shoulders—the guilt, the self-loathing, the endless penance.

In its place bloomed something I’d forgotten existed: hope.

The rigid lines of his face softened as he pressed his forehead to Flynn’s, whispering words I couldn’t hear but understood nonetheless.

A promise. A future. The man who had spent half a millennium punishing himself for my death was finally allowing himself to live.

And in that moment, I knew my sacrifice had truly set us both free.

Forgive me, brother. And thank you for teaching me how to love again.