The silence between us thickened like fog. Death stood there—tall, cloaked in the essence of everything eternal and empty, but there was something deeply human in the way he looked at me. As if, for once, he wasn't Death… but a man who had been alone for far too long.
"When I first saw you," he said, voice low, "I thought the Fates were playing a trick. That the blade had drawn you here only for me to curse it again. But then I saw you—not just a bearer of destiny or a princess bound to duty—but you. And I wanted something I've never dared to want."
He stepped closer. I didn't flinch.
"I want you, Anna."
My heart jolted. "What?"
He didn't smile. He didn't look away. "I want you to become my wife. Here. Now. Leave behind the Blade of Time. Abandon your title. Let go of the war, the shards, the pain that's coming. Become mine. Not a weapon of fate—not a daughter of royalty. Just… my queen."
I felt like the world was spinning. I couldn't move. Couldn't speak.
He continued, his voice almost gentle. "With you beside me, I would need nothing else. I would keep you safe in a realm untouched by death or time. No more bloodshed. No more heartbreak. Just eternity. Just you and me."
My hand unconsciously brushed the blade at my side—the very thing that had guided me this far. The one thing that connected me to Kai… to Alex… to the fate of the world I was meant to protect. The weight of it now felt heavier than ever.
"I don't ask lightly," Death added, watching my every breath. "But if you say yes, if you give up that cursed blade and walk away from the world that never gave you peace… I will make you my queen. My bride. My equal in eternity."
His words settled into me like a storm cloud, beautiful and terrifying. I could almost see it—myself in a dark crown, a kingdom built beyond the grasp of life and time, where no one could hurt me again.
But to have it, I'd have to forsake everything else—Kai, Alex, the Sentinels, my people… my purpose.
And still, a small voice in me whispered: What if it would be easier? What if peace was finally within reach?
Death stepped even closer, offering his hand.
"The choice is yours, Anna."
My fingers trembled as I stared at the hand Death extended toward me. His offer hung in the air like a spell—dark, alluring, and impossible to ignore. My heart was torn in two.
But I didn't move.
I couldn't.
Death tilted his head slightly, the stillness of his form making his next words land like thunder.
"You're hesitating."
I looked up at him, unsure of what to say. My silence was answer enough.
His eyes narrowed—not in anger, but in knowing. "Still thinking of them… Kai and Alex."
I clenched my jaw, my grip tightening on the hilt of the blade.
Death let out a quiet, cold breath. "Then let me tell you more. Perhaps the truth will unbind you."
He stepped away, only slightly, pacing with the weight of millennia in his stride.
"Kai," he said, voice edged with disdain and something like pity, "is noble, yes—but also bound. Bound to duty, bound to others, always putting the world before you. Even now, he buries himself in village politics, protecting elders who would turn on him if fear took hold. He won't choose you, not truly. Not unless you're part of the war."
My chest ached, but I couldn't look away.
"And Alex?" Death's voice darkened. "He wants you, craves you—but it's more than affection. It's obsession. He sees you as a piece of his destiny, not a person. You were the mystery that shook his loyalty, the spark that distracted him while Seraya slithered deeper into betrayal. He's blind to her, even now."
I shook my head slightly, whispering, "That's not true…"
"Oh, Anna," he said, stepping closer again, softer now. "I don't lie. I can't. I have no need for it. You've seen it, haven't you? Kai's silence. Alex's possessiveness. You carry the weight of their war and their hearts, and neither of them sees the cost you're paying."
Tears stung at the corners of my eyes. His voice wrapped around my indecision like velvet and chains.
"They will love you only so long as you carry the blade. So long as you fight beside them. But me? I ask for nothing but you. No more war. No more pain. No more pretending to be a princess. Just freedom. Eternity. Peace."
He offered his hand again.
"Say yes… and the past burns away. You'll be my queen, and I'll be yours. And no one will ever hurt you again."
I stared at his hand. My heart thundered.
Kai… Alex… could I walk away from them? From everything?
And still, Death waited—his offer as still and eternal as the grave.
Death's hand was still outstretched, but I couldn't bring myself to take it. My breath came shallow, and I could feel the tremble in my chest, my pulse pounding beneath my skin.
Then I saw it—the flicker in his eyes. The stillness inside him cracked.
He turned away sharply, walking in tight, rigid circles like a storm building inside him. His composure was unraveling. And then his voice snapped like lightning:
"Why the hell are you still hesitating?"
I flinched.
He turned back to me, his face shadowed, voice rising with fury—and something far more desperate.
"You know you can trust me. I've shown you nothing but truth. I've offered you peace. Power. Love. And still, you're deciding—between your heart and your duty."
His eyes burned into me now. "Kai and Alex will never choose you the way I have. They will only ever see you as a piece of this war, this prophecy. I see you, Anna. All of you."
My lips parted, but the words caught in my throat.
He stepped closer, voice sharper now, cutting through my silence. "So answer me this—if you could go back… *Back to the time before the blade, before the titles, before their hearts wrapped themselves around yours—*when you were just a girl, free of duty, untouched by war or destiny…"
His voice dropped, and it was no longer angry—it was aching.
"…would you have chosen me then?"
The question hit me like a stone in the chest.
Would I?
The image burned into my mind—of a simpler time, before all of this. Before the shards. Before the Sentinels. Before I had to lead. When I could dream, and breathe, and just be.
"I…" I started, but my voice cracked.
Death stared, unmoving, waiting—daring me to answer.
"I…" I whispered, but my voice cracked. My mind spun between memories and choices, torn between the gravity of duty and the weight of my heart.
Death stood before me like a storm made flesh, his fury held back by threads of desperation. His question still rang in my ears.
Would you have chosen me then?
My lips parted, unsure what would come out.
But then—
A soft glow cut through the gloom.
Warm. Radiant. Like a heartbeat made of starlight.
Death's expression twisted instantly, his head snapping toward the light. "No—not you."
The glow intensified, and from it stepped a woman wreathed in rose-colored light. Her eyes were endless galaxies of tenderness, and her hair flowed like molten silk spun from dusk. She didn't need to speak her name—I felt it the moment she arrived.
The Goddess of Love.
She moved with effortless grace between us, placing herself directly in Death's path. Her voice was calm, yet echoed with ancient power.
"That's enough," she said.
Death growled low, the shadows around him trembling. "This is not your realm, goddess."
"It became mine the moment you tried to break her heart," she said gently, not even looking at him. Her gaze was on me, full of knowing. "Anna, child of fate and fire, you stand at a crossroads not of power—but of soul."
"I didn't break her," Death hissed. "I offered her freedom."
"No," she said, still serene, "you offered her escape. Not peace. Not love."
He moved toward her. "She would have been safe with me—worshiped. Adored."
"She doesn't want worship," the Goddess said, finally meeting his eyes. "She wants truth. And you tried to twist it into a crown."
Death snarled, stepping back like her words physically struck him. "You always interfere. You never let me have—"
"I never stop her," the Goddess interrupted. "But I do protect her right to choose. Not from fear. Not from guilt. But from love."
She turned to me again and took my hand. Warmth flooded through me like a balm against the cold void Death left behind.
"She is not yours to possess, Death. She is her own."
My throat burned as tears welled in my eyes. I looked between them—one a shadow, offering eternity; the other, a light, offering clarity.
And I realized in that moment… I still had a choice.
The Goddess's hand stayed gently wrapped around mine, her warmth pouring into me like sunlight after a storm. Her eyes searched mine—not with pressure, but with patience.
"You don't have to answer yet," she said softly. "But let me show you something—not from prophecy, not from fate—but from your heart."
The world around us began to dissolve into golden light. Death's realm, his shadow, the weight of the moment—it all slipped away as warmth wrapped around me like a childhood blanket I thought I'd forgotten.
I was standing in a field of wildflowers under an open sky. No crown weighed on my head. No blade hung at my side. The wind tugged at my hair as I spun, laughing—young, unburdened, untouched by destiny. I remembered this place.
I remembered her.
The girl I used to be.
Free.
Before the duty. Before the war. Before I even knew what the Blade of Time was.
Back then… I didn't know him. Kai. We came from different timelines, different threads in the weave of existence. Our stories hadn't crossed yet.
And yet—he appeared.
At the edge of the field, beneath a crooked tree half-wrapped in golden light, stood a boy. Older than me by a few years. Dressed in black. Hair long and wild in the wind. And his eyes—those molten gold eyes—watched me with quiet reverence. Like somehow, in some corner of the universe, he had always known me.
I stopped spinning.
The child version of me didn't see him—couldn't. But I could. In that moment, I wasn't watching a memory—I was witnessing a truth. A memory pulled not from time, but from the heart.
He didn't speak. He just stood there, hands in his pockets, eyes full of something ancient and gentle.
The Goddess's voice whispered through the wind:
"You didn't know him as a girl… but he knew you, in a way time couldn't erase. Your souls have reached for each other across lifetimes."
I felt my chest tighten. The warmth in his gaze wasn't just recognition—it was longing. Silent and pure. Like he had always been waiting for me, even when he didn't understand what for.
He began to turn, fading with the light—but before he disappeared, he placed his hand over his heart and bowed his head… just once.
Then he was gone.
The memory melted away, and I was back in the in-between.
Death still waited, watching from a distance, his fury now replaced by something colder—like patience straining to hold.
The Goddess still held my hand. "You didn't need to know him then," she said. "But your soul did."
And I did. I felt it now. The truth. Like an ache in my ribs and a warmth in my chest.
He was mine—not because fate said so, but because my heart remembered.
I stood there in the stillness, the warmth of the memory fading, but its truth settling deep into my bones.
I looked at Death.
He hadn't moved, but something in him had changed. He was still. Too still. Like the final breath before a storm. The offer still lingered in his eyes, but now it trembled beneath something darker.
I took a breath.
And I spoke.
"No."
The word rang through the space like a blade drawn from a sheath.
His eyes narrowed, but I didn't stop.
"I'm not running from my duty. I'm not running from my heart. You offered me escape, Death, but not love. You want to possess me—not walk beside me."
He stepped forward, slow, almost like he couldn't believe what I'd said. "You would choose them? You would choose this war?"
"I choose myself," I said firmly. "And I choose the truth of what I felt when I saw him in that memory. Kai didn't ask for me to carry a crown or a weapon. He saw me. The real me. Not what I could be, not what I could give—but just me."
I took a step back and let go of Death's offer completely.
"I don't want to be your queen, Death. Not now. Not ever."
Silence.
Then—
His calm shattered.
The shadows around him flared like flames. The floor beneath us cracked. His voice echoed with thunder and venom.
"YOU DARE TURN ME AWAY?!"
I didn't flinch.
He stormed toward me, dark and furious, eyes blazing like dying stars. "I offered you eternity! I offered you peace beyond this pitiful mortal suffering! And you—you choose pain? You choose him?"
The Goddess of Love stepped in front of me again, her glow flaring stronger.
But Death didn't care.
"I swear to you, Anna," he hissed, pointing a shadowed hand at me. "You may have refused me now—but I will not be forgotten. I will do whatever it takes to make you mine. If I must bend time, if I must tear your fate apart thread by thread—I will."
The very realm trembled with the force of his vow.
"You will be my queen. Whether by love… or by fate turned inside out."
He vanished into the darkness in a flash of shadow and ice, leaving only silence in his wake.
I stood there, heart pounding, breath shallow.
The Goddess turned to me slowly, her face calm but her eyes heavy with concern.
"You've made your choice," she said.
I nodded, my voice small but steady. "Yes. And I'll face whatever comes."