The weight of the doll in my hands became unbearable, as if I were holding an entire mountain. Its cracks pulsed with a dark glow, and its voice pierced through me like a blade.
"Break me… free me… we will be one."
With a scream, I hurled it to the stone floor. The impact echoed through the entire room, and the porcelain shattered into a thousand fragments that shot out like shards of glass. Selene threw herself over me while Kaelis raised her sword to deflect the flying pieces.
The silence that followed was far more terrifying.
Where the doll had fallen, there was no emptiness—only a black fissure spreading like roots across the floor. From it, a dense smoke began to rise, thick as ink, climbing to the ceiling and swallowing the walls.
"Nyx, get back!" Kaelis shouted, stepping in front of me.
The smoke began to take shape—first arms, long and twisted, then a skeletal torso, and finally a head crowned with horns of shadow. Its eyes were two burning abysses, and its grin was a nightmare of impossible teeth.
The voice that emerged from that figure was not childish, not pleading. It was a deep, ancient roar that made the castle stones tremble.
"At last… free!"
Selene clutched my hand, trembling."What… what is that?"
Kaelis didn't look away, her sword shaking slightly."A Khorvash," she whispered. "A devourer of shadows. Creatures that were wiped out centuries ago… or so we thought."
The being laughed, and its echo scraped across our souls."Wiped out? No. Chained. Sealed inside vessels like that doll. And now, thanks to you, hybrid… I walk again among the living."
The shadows in my room stirred violently—but they no longer obeyed me. They moved in rhythm with her, bowing to her as if she were their queen.
"No!" I shouted, stepping forward. "You're not mine—you don't own me!"
The Khorvash's burning eyes turned toward me, gleaming with hunger."Oh, but yes, little one. You are the mirror of what I am. Half curse, half power. You were born to break chains. I am merely the beginning."
Then, in one swift motion, she hurled herself toward the window, shattering the stone frame as if it were paper. The night opened before her, and in a whirlwind of black smoke, she vanished into the skies above the capital.
Silence. Crushing, absolute.
Kaelis slammed her fist into the wall, fury twisting her face."I warned you! We've unleashed a nightmare upon the world!"
Selene wrapped her arms around me, trembling."Nyx… are you all right?"
I could barely breathe. The emptiness in my chest was unbearable, as if a part of me had been torn away with the doll. But deep down, I knew the truth.
She wasn't gone.She wasn't fully free.
A part of the Khorvash had stayed behind—inside me.