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Mara left a trail of blood as the three men chased her. She escaped through the side door then scurried past the high priest’s vestry and out into the main courtyard. There she spotted Acastus’ replica summoning dark magick far faster than Cas ever could throughout Kairth. The Sun Warriors at their disposal, they stormed the streets beyond the walls and into the city.

Mara clutched Evrardin’s sword and headed straight for the svik . Sun Warriors cut her way, Ev and Lord Cofsi rushing to hold them off.

She’d never be able to overpower a creature of the Veil. But she had to try. What other option did she have?

She clutched her sword tightly in her palm trying not to look as terrified as she felt. The svik grinned as he approached her. She swallowed hard, holding her weapon up high in the air.

With one quick movement, the svik was on her, locking her in his grasp. Her body swam with sickly chills, the arms around her familiar, but different just the same.

She wiggled as he held a bloody knife to her throat, tempting her to move, to be able to drag the knife under her skin. She panicked. The metal of his knife began to graze the skin along her throat. Blood pulsed loudly in her ears. She closed her eyes and summoned all the courage she could, then dropped her weight.

The svik , caught off guard, released her, and she stumbled behind him. She thrusted her sword toward him, but she was too slow. The svik had already spun to face her again, dodging her blow with great ease.

“You’re no match for a deity, Princess. You’re not the hero of this story.” It was Cas’ mouth that moved, but a screeching, unhuman voice echoed out of his lips. A voice she remembered haunting her in the Veil that first time she entered it during the bonding ceremony.

“It was you. It was always you,” she realized, dumbfounded.

“Humans,” he condemned. “So easy to fool. So willing to see what they want.”

The svik charged at her and Mara turned to flee. The path to the captain was blocked by Sun Warriors that now surrounded the two men, leaving Mara with no choice but to retreat inside the castle. She stumbled down the hall as the svik chased her, his footsteps lithe and approaching fast. She barely stumbled into the Old God’s Cathedral when the svik locked her wrist in his clutches, taking away her chance to swing at him. Her hands shook, her eyebrows knitting as the creature in Cas’ form loomed above her, giving her an inhuman grin.

It opened his mouth to speak again, but collapsed instead, catching itself on its hands and knees, begging for air. Mara stood stunned, the weapon she held still locked in the air, frozen in the pose the svik had just trapped her in, and she looked at between them in confusion.

Commotion stirred and she glanced over her shoulder. Cas stood behind her, his body beginning to morph back to his original form, feathers falling away from him and leaving pale skin behind. Mara gawked.

There was a dagger—her dagger, the one she pilfered from Ev’s room—lodged in his chest. He limped as he edged farther off the dais.

“What did you do?” she asked exasperated.

He grinned. “Always focused on the wrong thing,” Cas said through the blood welling inside him. “Kill the svik now that he’s weakened.”

Acastus collapsed, mirroring the svik , blood sputtering from his mouth. He was killing himself so the svik’s connection would falter, just enough for her to be able to kill it fully. And with the svik and Cas dead, the connection would be no more.

“Go!” he shouted urgently, his hands clawing at his throat as he tried to breathe.

Mara stabbed the creature without thinking, knowing she might back down if she thought too much on it, and it screeched so loudly she had to let go of the pommel and cover her ears. As it ceased to exist the second Mara sliced through it, her lygi heart swept back into her body. He had no fuel to be a deity on this side of the Veil any longer. He was never the real threat.

Mara glowed faintly and she felt a wave of unease spark every part of her body, her lygi form dissipating in the cathedral, her true form whole again.

With the svik dead, Mara’s heart morphing back into her chest, Cas was the final connection, his blood magick letting the Veil pour into this realm.

She spun and darted a few steps to reach him. Mara’s eyes traced his movements and then she let out a hollowed gasp, her face blanching, her heart sore.

She clawed at the dagger, prying it away from the prince. She had been too forgiving, for now, she wanted him to live.

“It was the only way to end this,” he choked out.

Mara’s eyebrows furrowed, her head scooping low to be closer to Acastus’ mouth.

“I’m sorry,” he muttered. “This will free him, you know.”

She knew exactly who he was talking about. Mara shook her head. “I already broke the curse.”

He laughed, blood coagulating in his throat, the sound sickly. “I always knew you were smarter than you put on. But I meant more than just the curse, Princess.”

Her fingers stroked his cheeks, tears from the pain dribbling down his face as he sank lower.

“Protect Aevum for me,” he pleaded.

Tears fell from her eyes against her will. The Sun Warriors dissipated in the wind, dying in the living realm, killing them permanently, an eerie silence casting itself over the castle. She went to respond, but the light had drained from Acastus’ eyes. The gold and silver both absent.

The Sun Prince was dead.