She gave me a sharp look. “Braver, or more foolish?”
“Both,” I admitted. My lips curved faintly. “But it suits you.”
Her cheeks flushed a pale rose, though she tried to hide it beneath her hood. I felt the flutter of satisfaction low in my chest at the sight. It was a dangerous indulgence, but I couldn’t stop myself.
For a long moment, silence stretched between us. Not the suffocating silence of my cursed forest, but a silence alive with meaning, with everything unspoken.
I wanted to make a caustic remark, to pass off the moment.
And then Elena drew a sharp breath. “Let’s finish this.”
“Finish?”
“The wards. Your prison.” Her voice steadied, though her fingers trembled slightly as she drew back her hood. Her hair tumbled free, gold catching faint strands of moonlight, a banner of light in the heart of my darkness. “It’s why I came back, Dario. To break them with you.”
I nearly laughed, half in disbelief, half in relief so sharp itbordered on pain. I had not dared to hope she would say those words aloud. The wards that bound me were Nyx’s last cruelty, a lattice of ancient spells woven with malice and iron.
They had come into being the moment Nyx had placed her curse on me, woven through with layers of dark magic as twisted as the trees that guarded this cursed place.
Even I didn’t know their full extent, but with Elena’s power alongside mine, I could feel the slightest possibility, the faintest edge of hope that together, we might finally break them.
For a century, they had been unbreakable. Alone, I could scratch at their surface, unravel a thread here or there, but never more.
But with her light—
With her…
The thought made my shadows twitch and coil at my feet like restless hounds.
“You have no idea what you’re offering,” I said at last, the words rough, almost ragged. “Once the wards break, there’s no undoing it. You’ll have loosed me upon the world.”
Her eyes flashed, unflinching. “You’re not a monster, Dario. You’ve convinced me of that much. And if Solaris cannot see past its own fear, then… I will. I need answers, and you cannot help me find them chained to this place.”
Her faith in me—so newly given, so undeserved—cut deeper than any blade.
In that moment, though I had sworn never again to kneel before gods or women or fate, I think I might have fallen to my knees for her if she had asked.
Instead, I bowed my head once, sharply. “Very well. Together, then.”
I led her deeper, into the thickest dark, where the forest itself seemed to hold its breath. I could feel the power radiating out from the heart of the forest here, toward the ancient boundariesthat had held me prisoner for a century.
The ground hummed faintly with power, veins of ancient magic running like molten ore beneath our feet. Every step we took closer to the heart of the wards made the air heavier, pressing against my ribs until each breath felt stolen.
And yet she walked at my side as though she belonged here. The crimson folds of her cloak whispered against my shadows, her light—muted though it was in my domain—flickered stubbornly like an ember refusing to die.
When we reached the boundary, the wards revealed themselves. Even Elena drew a sharp breath.
Before us stretched a wall of darkness, not my shadows, but Nyx’s. It rippled like oil on water, etched with faint runes that glowed with a pale, cruel silver. The sigils twisted as though alive, each one thrumming with the Goddess’s voice, whispering chains tighter around my soul.
Elena raised a hand, light blooming at her fingertips. The glow pressed against the surface of the wards and the entire barrier quivered, shrieking faintly in a tone only I could hear. My body flinched in answer.
“Steady,” she murmured, glancing at me.
Her calmness infuriated and comforted me all at once.
“You’ll weaken the outer threads,” I told her, my own voice low, dark with anticipation. “I’ll strike when you open the seams. But don’t linger—if the wards taste your power too long, they’ll turn it against you.”
She nodded, jaw tight. “Then stay close. If they strike back, you’ll shield me.”
