Chapter 57 The Last Gamble
I woke to find Kael gone. Not unusual. He barely slept lately. Too worried. Too afraid I would do something stupid while he was not watching. He was right to worry. I dressed. Left our chambers.
The palace was quiet. Dawn light bleeds through the windows. Most people are still sleeping. Good. Fewer witnesses. I went to the holding cell. To Arianna. She looked worse. Skin stretched tight over bones. Eyes sunken. Dying slowly.
"You came back," she growled. "Why?" because it is not an option to give up." I took a vial out of my pocket.
"I brought something. A solution. Maybe." "There is no solution. We have been over this." "This is different." I uncorked the vial. "My blood. But not just my blood. Blood mixed with magic. With intent. With a binding." "What kind of binding?" "The kind that ties your curse to me. Shares it between us.
Makes two people carry what one cannot." I held it through the bars. "You drink this. The hunger splits. Half for you. Half for me. Manageable for both." "That is insane. Would you curse yourself again? Voluntarily?" "Half a curse is not the same as the full curse. I can control half. So can you. Together we manage what neither can alone." I pushed the vial closer. "Drink. Please. Let me help you." "And what happens when you cannot control it? When half becomes whole again?
When I watch you become the shadow while trying to save me?" She pushed the vial back. "I did not sacrifice myself so you could sacrifice yourself right back. That makes my choice meaningless." "Your choice was to save me. I am alive because of you. That is not meaningless." "It is if you throw that life away." She stood. Walked to the bars. We were close enough to touch. "Let me die, Sera. Let the curse die with me.
End this cycle before it consumes everyone you love." "No." "Why? Why fight so hard for someone who does not want to be saved?" "Because you saved me when I did not want to be saved. Because that is what family does. Because I am stubborn and stupid and I will not let you die in this cell." My voice broke. "Because losing you means Nyx loses an aunt. Kael loses an ally. I lose someone who understands what the shadow feels like.
We lose family. And I will not accept that." "Family." The word made her flinch. "I am not your family. I am a version of you from a dead timeline. A ghost. An echo. Nothing real." "You are real enough to bleed. To hurt. To sacrifice. That makes you real enough to save."
Through the bars, I took hold of her hand. "Drink the blood.
Share the curse. Give us both a chance." She looked at the vial. At me. At the choice between death and fighting. "If this does not work—"
"Then we find something else. But we try. That is all I ask." She took the vial. Drank. Gagged. "Gods that taste like death and desperation." "That is accurate." I felt it immediately. The curse is reaching. Splitting. Part of it flows from her to me through blood, magic, and bond. The hunger hit. Not overwhelming. Not consuming.
But present. Manageable. Like thirst instead of drowning. "It worked," Arianna breathed. "I can feel it. The hunger is less. Not gone but—" "Bearable. Yes." I smiled. "We control this. Together. We feed carefully. We manage. We survive." "You are insane." "I am desperate.
There is a difference." Footsteps. Running. Kael appeared. Saw me. Saw Arianna. Saw the empty vial. "What did you do?" "I split the curse. Half for her. Half for me. We share it now." "You did what?" His voice was ice. Fury. "You cursed yourself? Again? Without asking? Without planning?" "There was no time for planning.
She was dying. I had a solution. I used it." "That is not a solution. That is stupidity. What if it does not work? What if the curse recombines? What if you both become shadows?"
He took hold of my shoulders. "What were you thinking?" I was thinking that it would be better to die trying than to give up.
I pulled away. "It is done. The curse is split. We manage it, or we do not. But at least we try."
"This is just what I was worried about. To save everyone else, you are destroying yourself.
You cannot keep doing this, Sera. You cannot keep sacrificing yourself." "Watch me." We stared at each other. Fury. Love. Desperation. All colliding. Then Nyx appeared. Looking pale. Shaking. "Mother. Father. We have a problem." "What now?" Kael asked. "I did something. Something you are going to hate. But I had to.
There was no other way." She would not meet our eyes. "I prepared a ritual. To destroy the curse. To unmake it completely." "What kind of ritual?" I asked. "The kind that costs everything. The kind that requires—" She stopped. Swallowed. "Requires my life. My power. My existence. I trade myself to break the curse permanently. To save both of you." The world stopped. Just stopped. "No," Kael said. "Absolutely not. You are not dying for this. For us. For anyone." "I am not asking permission. I am telling you what I am doing." Nyx finally looked at us. "The ritual is ready. I start it in three hours. You cannot stop me. Cannot change my mind. I decided."
"Then we tie you up. Lock you in a room. Prevent the ritual." Kael moved toward her. "You could. But then Arianna dies in four days. Mother loses herself to guilt. You lose both of them. The curse continues." Nyx stepped back. "Or you let me do this. Let me save everyone. Let me be the hero." "Heroes do not die at ten years old!" I shouted. "Heroes do not sacrifice children!
You are my daughter. Mine. I will not let you throw your life away for me." "You threw yours away for me. Multiple times. This is the same thing." "It is not the same.
You are a child. You have a whole life ahead. You have—" I have four hundred days. I look ten. I feel ancient. I have walked through time. Seen futures. Lived lifetimes in moments." She smiled. Sad. Determined.
"I've already lived longer than most people do in a hundred years. If I die now, I will have saved those I care about.
That is enough." "It is not enough. It will never be enough." Kael's voice broke. "You are our daughter. Our future. Our everything. Losing you would destroy us." "Then do not lose me. Remember me. Honor what I do. Be happy." Nyx walked to me. Took my hand. "Mother. You taught me to fight for what matters.
To sacrifice for family. To never give up. I learned from you. This is me being your daughter." "This is you being stupid and noble and everything I was terrified you would become." I pulled her close. "Please. Please do not do this. There has to be another way." "There is not. I have looked and walked through every timeline.
Every possibility. Every choice." She pulled back. "In every future where I do not perform the ritual, the curse continues. People die.
You suffer. Arianna suffers. It spreads. Consumes. Destroys. This is the only path that ends. Where everyone survives." "Everyone except you." "Everyone that matters."
She touched my face. "You gave me life. Let me give you yours back. Let me save you as you saved me. Please." I wanted to argue. To refuse. To lock her away and never let her do this impossible, stupid, heroic thing. But I saw it in her eyes. The determination. The certainty.
The absolute knowledge that she would find a way, no matter what we did.
She was my daughter. Stubborn. Fierce.
Willing to burn the world for family.
Just like me.