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ELIAS

T he world’s still spinning sideways when Sonya finds us.

Her boots crunch across the ruined stones, face smudged with soot and blood, but her smile—it’s a fucking sunburst through the ash.

“It’s done,” she gasps out, chest heaving. “The Purifier’s gone. Most of the Order’s gone with it.”

Gone.

The word echoes through the broken place that used to be the center of our nightmares. The place where Kaia bled, where I fucking bled to bring her back.

I sag against the cracked altar, my hand still tangled in Kaia’s. She’s here— alive —her golden-amber eyes shining like fire and hope and every goddamn thing I thought I didn’t deserve.

But even with her warmth pressed into my side, there’s this gnawing cold inside me.

The ritual tore something out of me, something important . I can feel the hole, jagged and raw, a sucking wound where my soul should be stitched clean.

At first, it’s just a hum in the back of my skull. A low static.

Then the edges of my vision darken, like the shadows are crawling closer, laughing, whispering.

Monster.

Abomination.

You should’ve let her die, spared her from you.

My teeth snap together with a brutal click, fangs slicing my own tongue, copper flooding my mouth.

Sonya’s still talking, her words blurring, but Kaia—Kaia feels it.

She turns her head sharply, her wild black curls sticking to her sweaty skin, and her gaze slams into me like a goddamn lightning strike.

“Elias,” she breathes, real quiet, like she already knows.

I jerk back a step, ripping my hand from hers like she’s made of fire. My body’s not mine anymore. My pulse is a drumbeat of rage , my hands shaking with the need to tear, rip, destroy.

I don’t know if I’m going to hurt her. And the thought of that—the thought of hurting her—makes me want to rip my own fucking heart out.

“No,” I rasp, stumbling backward. “Stay the hell away from me.”

Kaia’s face doesn’t even flicker. No fear. No hesitation.

She walks straight toward me, each step defying the beast clawing inside me.

“Elias, look at me.” Her voice is like velvet wrapped around steel. “ Look at me. ”

I do.

God help me, I do.

And it nearly fucking breaks me.

Because there’s no fear there. No disgust. No judgment.

Just her, stubborn and wild and stupidly brave, shining with that raw Fae magic that hums through the cracked Veil like a second heartbeat. Our heartbeat.

“You’re not a monster,” she says fiercely, grabbing my face between her hands. “You’re not some fucked-up accident. You’re just a man. A man born from chaos who fought like hell to become something more.Who gave your best to save me. That’s anything but a monster.”

I shake my head, a low growl rattling my chest. “You don’t know what’s inside me, Kaia. You don’t know what I’m capable of now. Especially with something missing.”

Her hands tighten, nails digging into my jaw just enough to hurt. To ground me.

“I know exactly what’s inside you,” she spits. “Because it’s inside me too. Rage. Fear. Power. And love, you stubborn son of a bitch. Love. ”

Something in me splinters down to the marrow.

She presses closer. Her magic flares between us—warm, golden, real —and I feel it wrap around the broken parts of me like a balm.

She’s anchoring me. Saving me.

Not from the world. Not from the prophecy. From myself .

Tears burn the backs of my eyes and I squeeze them shut, breathing her in like she’s oxygen and I’ve been drowning forever.

“I can’t lose you,” I croak. “I already lost too much.”

“You’re not gonna lose me,” she whispers. “I’m not going anywhere. You tied us together, remember?”

I huff a broken laugh, my hands finally finding her waist, gripping her like she’s the only thing holding me to the fucking earth.

And maybe she is.

She pulls back just enough to look at me, her eyes fierce and molten, shimmering faintly with her new magic.

“You didn’t just save the world, Elias,” she murmurs, voice rough and thick with emotion. “You saved me . And I’m gonna spend the rest of our fucked-up lives making sure you know it.”

I crush her against me, burying my face in her hair, the wild scent of her—earth and rain and something that’s just Kaia —filling every shattered part of me.

For the first time in my life, the war inside me goes quiet.

Not gone. It'll never be gone.

But it's not screaming anymore.

Not with her wrapped around me, her magic twined with mine, her soul pressed against the ruins of what used to be a hollow, bleeding thing inside my chest.

The Veil outside shudders, healing, mending, singing with new life.

And so do I.

“Come on,” Kaia says, tugging me gently toward the broken doors leading out of the ruined citadel. The battle’s over. The world is waiting.

We walk out together, hand in hand, into a world that we bled for, fought for, chose to save.

Suddenly, I don’t feel cursed.

I just feel alive .

With her.