Chapter 56 Faces of the Dead II
NYX
Mother was unraveling.
The guilt. The pressure. The impossible promise. She was so overwhelmed by everything that she was having trouble breathing.
Her father was attempting to keep her together.
I saw it in how he watched her. How he followed her everywhere. How he barely slept because he was too afraid she would break if he looked away.
"We need help," I told grandmother Arianna. "Mother is drowning. Father is drowning trying to save her. And Arianna the Younger is literally starving to death in a cell. We are out of time."
"I know. I have been researching. Walking through timelines. Looking for answers." Grandmother looked exhausted. "There are no good solutions. Every path leads to loss."
"Then we choose the least terrible loss."
"That is not how magic works. That is not how curses work. The shadow demands sacrifice. Blood. Life. Identity. We cannot bargain with it."
"What if we do not bargain? What if we destroy it?" I looked at her. "You said the curse was created. Someone made it. If it was made, it can be unmade."
"Unmaking a curse that strong would require power beyond what we have. It would require—" She stopped. Stared at me. "You."
"Me what?"
"Your power. Time magic. Reality bending. You are the only one strong enough to unmake the curse." Her voice was quiet. Afraid. "But it would cost you. Potentially everything."
"What everything?"
"Your powers. Your memories. Your life. Unmaking something that fundamental requires equivalent exchange. You would have to give up something equally powerful." Grandmother gripped my shoulders. "I cannot ask that of you. Your mother would never forgive me."
"You are not asking. I am offering." I pulled away. "Tell me how. Tell me what I need to do. I will decide if the cost is worth it."
"Nyx—"
"Tell me."
She did. Explained the ritual. The price. The risk. The near certainty that I would die or lose myself in the attempt.
I listened. Processed. Decided.
"I will do it."
"You are ten years old."
"I am four hundred days old. I look ten. I feel thirty. I exist in multiple timelines simultaneously." I smiled. "Age is meaningless for me. You know that."
"Your parents will try to stop you."
"Then I do not tell them until after."
"That is cruel. To both of them."
"Crueler than watching mother destroy herself with guilt? Crueler than letting Arianna starve in a cell? Crueler than waiting for villagers to burn them both?" I shook my head. "Sometimes love is cruel. Sometimes it requires doing the thing they would never ask for."
"You sound like your mother. Before the shadow."
"Good. Because I am her daughter. And I will not let her suffer for saving me." I stood. "We have seven days. I need three to prepare the ritual. That gives us four days buffer. We start now."
"If you die—"
"Then I die having saved two people I love. There are worse ways to go."
We prepared in secret. Drew symbols. Gathered materials. Built the ritual that would either save Arianna and destroy the curse. Or kill me trying.
SERA
Day three of seven. Arianna was fading. The hunger was consuming her from inside. She barely spoke. Barely moved. Just sat in the cell and waited to die.
I visited every day. Brought blood. She refused it. Said she did not deserve to drink. Did not deserve to survive.
"You saved me," I said. "That makes you deserve everything."
"I killed twenty-three people saving you. That is not heroic. That is tragic." She looked at me with those black eyes. "Let me die. Let this end. You do not owe me anything."
"I owe you everything. I owe you life. Freedom. Family. My daughter." I pressed my hand against the bars. "Fight. Please. Arianna, fight. Do not give up."
"I have nothing left to fight with. No hope. No strength. No reason." She closed her eyes. "Tell your daughter thank you. For being kind. For seeing the person under the monster. Tell her she was right. About being sad but also happy. Tell her I tried."
"Tell her yourself. When we save you."
"You cannot save me. Some things are beyond saving." She lay down. Turned away. "Go. Spend the last days with your family. Let me die alone. It is better this way."
I left. Because staying hurt too much. Because watching her give up was killing me. Because I had no solution and time was running out.
Found Kael in our chambers. "She is giving up. Choosing death over fighting."
"Can you blame her? The hunger is torture. I felt it through the bond when you were cursed. I know what it does." He pulled me close. "Maybe she is right. Maybe death is mercy."
"I do not accept that. I will not accept that."
"Then what is your plan? We have four days left. No solution. No miracle. What do we do?"
"I do not know. But I will find something. I have to." I buried my face in his chest. "I cannot lose anyone else. Cannot add her name to the wall.
I can't watch someone else perish because I wasn't strong enough to help them." It is not your duty to save everyone.
"Then who is? If not me, then who?" I pulled back. Looked at him. "She saved me. I save her. That is how this works. That is what family means."
"And if saving her costs you everything?"
"Then it costs everything. I pay it. Gladly."
He was quiet. Then nodded. "Then we find a way. Together. Like always."
But I knew. Deep down. I knew there was no way that did not cost someone everything.
The question was who. And how much. And whether I could live with the answer.
Four days. You have four days to either witness a miracle or see everything burn.
It took four days to save someone who refused to be saved.
Four days to prove that sacrifice mattered. That love was stronger than curses. That hope was not just a lie we told ourselves to survive.
Four days. And I had no idea how to use them. Before we lost someone else to the shadow.
Time was running out. And I had no idea how to stop it.