Page 113 of The Monster You Made

“Lucian.”

***

Lucian seizes it. He shoves Declan back, sword locked against his brother’s. “Yes! It’s me! Fight them, not me!”

Declan’s eyes flicker, war inside them. The mask cracks. The Crown’s training snarls against memory, against love. His breath comes ragged, his grip falters. For a moment, he is not Cadmus. He is Cassian, bloodied, broken, but alive.

Then the horn sounds again, deep and cruel. A command. A chain tightening.

Declan’s body jerks. His eyes harden. He surges forward with inhuman strength, striking Lucian to the ground. The rebels shout, chaos flaring. Elira moves again, ready to cutDeclan down, but Lucian raises a hand, shouting through blood and fury: “No! He’s mine!”

***

The fight reaches its breaking point. Lucian, battered, bleeding, rises one last time. His sword gleams in the firelight. He meets Declan’s eyes, eyes that are both brother and enemy, and strikes. Not to kill, but to shatter the mask.

Steel meets steel, then flesh. Declan staggers, his blade clattering to the ground. His hand clutches his side, blood seeping between his fingers. The yard falls silent.

Lucian catches him as he falls. For the first time in eight years, the mask is gone. Cassian’s voice is his own, faint, cracked, but his. “You…came.”

Lucian’s tears cut through the blood on his face. “Always.”

Cassian's hand grips his brother’s arm, weak but steady. “I tried…to fight them. I tried….”

“I know,” Lucian whispers. “You’re free now. You’re free.”

Cassian’s eyes close. His chest rises once, twice, then stills. Silence swallows the yard.

***

The rebels lower their weapons. Prisoners weep. Even Elira bows her head. The military compound burns behind us, its towers crumbling, its walls split. Cadmus is no more.

Lucian kneels in the snow, his brother’s body in his arms. He does not move. He doesn’t speak. He only holds Cassian, as if by sheer force of will he can anchor him to this world.

I kneel beside him, laying a hand over theirs. “He died himself, Lucian. Not their weapon. Not their mask. Himself.”

His breath shudders, but he nods. Slowly, painfully, he rises, lifting Cassian with him. The rebels gather, lights in hand. Together, we walk from Cadmus as its walls collapse in fire and smoke.

***

Dawn breaks red across the horizon. We bury Cassian on a hill overlooking the ruins. No Crown insignia. No mask. Only his name carved into stone, and Lucian’s sword laid across it. A brother, returned at last.

Lucian stands long after the others leave, the wind pulling at his cloak. His face is carved in grief, but his eyes are steel. He turns to me, voice low but certain.

“They thought Declan would break me. They were wrong. He made me unbreakable.”

I take his hand. Together, we face the horizon. The Crown still stands, its shadow still vast. But Cadmus has fallen. Cassian is free. And Lucian’s fire burns hotter than ever.

Epilogue - Vera

The ruins of Cadmus smolder for days, black smoke twisting into the sky until spring rains finally drag it down. The world calls it victory. The headlines roar with it.

Trafficking and Illegal Experimentation Ring Collapses in Blood and Fire.

Crown Military Compound Razed.

Who is the Wolf at the Gates?

For the first time, people outside the shadows know Cadmus was not myth. For the first time, the trafficking network that fed empires and lined quiet government coffers lies exposed to daylight.