The walls breathed.
At least, that's what it felt like to Kael — each inhale not his own, but the castle's.
Every breath dragged pain through his chest, and every heartbeat pulsed with something that wasn't entirely human.
He blinked awake to darkness.
A heaviness pressed against his ribs, his vision swimming in streaks of gold and black.
It was Darius's voice that broke through first.
"Your Grace— stay still, please—"
The words came sharp, desperate, carried by the sound of armor clinking and footsteps echoing off stone.
Kael tried to rise, but the motion sent a surge of pain through his veins — his body responding not to his will, but to something ancient and furious.
"The curse," he rasped. "It's— reacting."
Darius didn't answer right away. His jaw was clenched tight as he adjusted his grip, half-dragging, half-carrying his master down the hidden corridor behind the east wing. "You have to rest— Lady Zelene, she—"
Kael's head jerked up. "Zelene?" His voice cracked through the haze. "Where is she?"
Darius hesitated — and that single second of silence was all it took.
Through the walls, Kael felt it —
a collision of power, golden and dark, bleeding through the air like a heartbeat out of rhythm.
Zelene's magic. Flaring, struggling, breaking.
And opposite it— something familiar.
Something his.
His pulse spiked. The curse stirred violently, recognizing the presence beyond the walls.
Miren.
"Darius," Kael breathed, voice low and hoarse. "She's with Miren."
Before Darius could stop him, Kael shoved himself free.
He staggered forward, one hand braced against the wall. His knees threatened to give, black smoke curling from his palms — the curse bleeding through his skin in restless hunger.
He could barely see straight, but he followed the pull — that sharp, invisible thread that led him straight to where she was.
Darius swore under his breath and followed.
"Your Grace— you're in no condition—"
"Neither is she."
The corridor where Zelene stood was no longer recognizable.
The tapestries were shredded, the marble cracked, and the air hung thick with magic and ash. Every breath burned.
Zelene's knees trembled as she held her barrier, golden light flickering like a candle in the wind. Ray lay several feet away, his magic drained, struggling to rise.
Miren stood before them, her body half-dissolved into shadow, her voice layered and hollow.
"Why do you keep fighting, child?" she hissed. "You are wasting yourself for a dying bloodline."
Zelene's jaw clenched. "You speak of dying— but it's you who serves something already dead."
"Dead?" Miren smiled, and for a heartbeat, she looked eerily human. "Oh, no, my dear. He sleeps. Waiting for his vessel to ripen."
Her gaze shifted past Zelene — toward Kael's chamber.
Toward him.
Zelene's blood ran cold. "You mean the curse—"
Before she could finish, Miren's hand flicked, and the shadows lunged. The golden barrier cracked —
Zelene cried out, thrown backward as the wall behind her fractured on impact. Her vision blurred, the world tilting. Her magic faltered, dimming.
She tasted blood.
Ray tried to rise again, hand outstretched, but Miren kicked him aside effortlessly.
"You meddled too much," the creature hissed. "If you had left well enough alone, he would have died peacefully, and the next would be born carrying his darkness. But now—"
"Miren!"
That voice—
cold, commanding, and trembling with fury.
Kael stood in the shattered archway, cloak torn, his eyes burning with twin colors — one human, one abyssal.
The curse pulsed violently beneath his skin, spilling from his arm in dark tendrils that snaked along the ground.
"Kael—" Zelene gasped, trying to rise. "Don't— the curse—"
He didn't hear her.
Or perhaps he did, but didn't care.
Miren turned slowly, and for the first time, there was something like fear in her gaze.
"Your Grace," she whispered. "You should not be awake. The mark—"
"Speak not to me of the mark," Kael said, his voice shaking the very air. "You knew what it was doing to me."
"I protected you!" Miren's words rang desperate, almost tender. "I kept it contained! If not for me, you would have perished years ago—"
"You fed it!" Kael's power flared, black fire coiling up his arm. The sigils on his skin writhed like living ink. "You kept me alive so it could grow!"
Zelene's breath caught as she saw it — the curse responding not with pain but rage, echoing his fury.
Miren took a step back. "You do not understand— I was bound to serve this bloodline. I was made for it. If you die, he awakens. The one your ancestors bound—the One Below."
Kael's expression fractured. "Then why…?" His voice broke, thick with disbelief and betrayal. "Why did you lie to me?"
"Because you were never meant to resist it!" she screamed.
And then she struck.
The shadows erupted, slamming into Kael's chest.
Zelene screamed as he was thrown back — but before the curse could devour him, his power detonated outward. The sigils on his body flared, not black, but crimson, every vein of darkness burning like molten iron.
He raised his arm — and for a moment, the shadows bent to him.
"Miren," he rasped, eyes blazing, "you will never touch her again."
And with a single motion — he unleashed it.
The air tore apart.
The curse — ancient, furious, bound to him by blood — roared through the hall in a storm of red and black, slamming into Miren with the force of centuries of agony.
Miren screamed — not human, not mortal — as the light engulfed her. Her body twisted, shadows tearing from her like smoke, her voice fracturing into echoes.
Zelene, half-conscious, reached for him through the haze, her voice trembling. "Kael— stop— you'll kill yourself—"
But Kael only looked at her — the faintest flicker of calm in the chaos.
"If that's the price," he murmured, "then so be it."
The light flared once more — blinding, burning — and then collapsed into silence.
When Zelene opened her eyes again, the world was quiet.
Ray knelt nearby, coughing weakly. Darius stood in the doorway, face pale, sword drawn but useless now.
The only sound was the faint crackle of dying embers.
Miren was gone.
And Kael lay still on the floor — his body trembling, eyes half-lidded, the black veins fading to dull crimson before slowly receding.
Zelene crawled toward him, her voice breaking.
"Kael— please— stay with me—"
He exhaled — shallow, but there.
His hand twitched, reaching weakly for hers.
"Zelene…"
His voice was a whisper, raw, almost childlike.
"She's gone."
Zelene pressed his hand to her chest, tears falling freely now. "You idiot," she whispered. "You almost went with her."
Kael's lips curved faintly — the ghost of a smile. "I told you not to care."
"And I told you it's too late."
The curse quieted — for now.
But deep within the cracks of the ruined hall, faint sigils still pulsed.
Alive. Waiting.