The air was too quiet. The Temple stones groaned as magic bled away, as though the world itself mourned with me. And for the first time in a century, I was afraid not of shadows, not of light, not of the curse that had defined me—but of emptiness. A world without her.
No.
“No, not like this.” My voice broke, harsh and raw, clawing from somewhere deep within. “You can’t leave me here.”
It wasn’t supposed to end like this. She was the phoenix, eternal, immortal. She was supposed to blaze against the darkness forever. She was supposed to outlast me.
Desperation gnawed at me, sharp and merciless. I felt the shadows stir at my call, sluggish, reluctant—as though they too recoiled from this truth.
For once, I didn’t think of myself. I didn’t think of curses, of bargains, of gods. I thought only of her—her laughter in rare, unguarded moments; the way she looked at her city with both pride and sorrow; the fire in her eyes.
I thought of how she had chosen me, even knowing I was cursed, knowing I was dangerous. And now she had chosen me again, with her life.
And I could not—would not—let her go.
I pressed my forehead to hers, clutching her limp hand in mine. “If I could give you my life, I would. If I could burn for you, I would.” My voice cracked. “But all I have is this cursed shadow, and it’s yours.”
The decision was no decision at all. It was instinct. It was love.
I summoned the shadows. Every last wisp, every fragment of darkness I had bent to my will across a century. They curled, black and cold, answering my desperate plea. I drove them intoher, threading the darkness into her still body, not as chains, not as poison, but as lifeblood.
“Take it,” I begged, pressing the shadows deeper, forcing my very essence into her fading flame. “Take everything I am. Take it, Elena. Please.”
The magic fought me. It resisted, as though Nyx’s curse itself sought to deny me this one selfish act. Pain lanced through me, sharp as knives, my body unraveling with each surge. But I pushed harder, my vision darkening at the edges, my strength draining as I poured myself into her.
I didn’t care if it destroyed me. If shadows were all I had left to give, then I would empty myself to nothing for her.
My chest heaved with effort, my body trembling, as the shadows swirled into her, cocooning her in a shroud of living night. It wasn’t beautiful. It wasn’t holy. It was desperate, jagged, raw.
But it was love. My love.
And I wouldn’t stop, not until she opened her eyes, not until I felt the warmth of her light fill the cold emptiness that had taken root in my chest.
“Come back to me,” I murmured against her skin, my lips brushing her temple. “Don’t leave me in the dark again. Please, Elena.”
As I poured my energy into her, a strange sensation bloomed within me—a warmth that felt foreign, yet familiar, a light that burned brighter than any shadow I had ever known.
It grew stronger with each passing moment, filling me, consuming me, and I felt something within me unfurl—some ancient barrier, breaking as though a seal had been shattered.
And then, impossibly, her eyes fluttered open.
Her lashes trembled, and when her eyes opened, they were no longer the gold of the sun. They gleamed silver, luminous and ethereal, a light I had never seen before.
“Elena…” Her name left me in a broken exhale, disbelief and relief colliding.
Her lips parted, the faintest smile touching her face as she whispered, “Dario.”
My entire body shook, every nerve alight with overwhelming release. She was alive. She was here.
But not the same. Her hair, once as gold as sunlight, spilled in waves of moonlight across my arm. Her skin shimmered faintly, as if threads of starlight wove through her veins. She was transformed—no longer just the phoenix, but something new, something beyond mortal and divine alike.
And when she lifted her trembling hand to my cheek, her fingers warm and steady, her eyes widened. “Your eyes…” she whispered. “They’re silver.”
I blinked, startled. Reflexively, I reached for my shadows, cloaking myself from her blazing light.
And then I noticed that my form wasn’t turning incorporeal, wasn’t dissolving away in the light.
My shadows still clung to me, as solid as they had been in the Forest of Night’s Bane, even as the light that clung to Elena grew stronger.
