Chapter 86 – The Goddess’s Shadow

Chapter 86 – The Goddess’s Shadow


John’s POV

When the light died, it took the sound with it.

The forest was silent too. No wind, no birds, no heartbeat but mine. The world felt wrong, like a dream I’d been forced awake from but hadn’t yet escaped.

I pushed myself up through the wreckage, the ground still warm where the Goddess’s magic had scorched it. Trees lay splintered in half-circles around the clearing. The mist was gone, burned away.

But she wasn’t.

“Scarlett,” I rasped. My throat felt raw, my voice foreign.

There at the center of the ruined grove. She lay in the crater’s hollow, her hair fanned around her like spilled ink, her body limp but unbroken. The pendant she always wore the one I’d given her under the blood moon glowed faintly against her skin.

I stumbled toward her, knees giving out before I reached her side.

“Scarlett,” I whispered again, brushing a strand of hair from her cheek. Her skin was cool, too cool. But when I pressed my hand to her heart, I felt it slow, steady. Alive.

Relief broke out of me in a sound that was half laugh, half sob. I bowed my head, letting it rest against her shoulder. “You did it,” I murmured. “You banished her.”

For a moment, it was almost peaceful. The air hummed softly, sunlight filtered through the broken canopy, and I could almost believe it was over.

Until I felt her fingers twitch.

Her eyes opened slowly, beautiful, familiar, and wrong.

They weren’t green anymore. They shimmered with silver.

“Scarlett?”

Her lips curved into a faint, knowing smile. “You always were too late, John.”

The voice was hers but the rhythm wasn’t.

I froze, my pulse hammering. “No…”

She sat up, fluidly, like a shadow unfolding. The pendant at her throat pulsed once and went dark. “Did you think I’d die so easily?”

I backed away. “Scarlett, fight her. You can fight her.”

Her head tilted, that same eerie grace the Goddess had always used. “Fight? There is no fight left. She chose me.”

“She would never choose you.”

She smiled, a sharp edge of sorrow in the curve of her mouth. “You don’t know her heart as well as you think. She wanted to save you. To save everyone. So I offered her a way—and she accepted.”

“No.” My chest ached. “You’re lying.”

> “Am I?”

She rose, every movement rippling with cold power. The shadows around her feet responded, curling upward like living mist. The air dimmed as if the sun itself recoiled.

And then just for an instant Scarlett’s expression flickered. The corners of her eyes softened, her lips trembled.

> “John…”

Her real voice. Faint, desperate.

I stepped forward instantly. “I’m here. I’m right here.”

> “It hurts.”

My hands shook. “I know. Just hold on, I’ll—”

The Goddess surged back, her laughter echoing through Scarlett’s mouth. “Touch her and she’ll break.”

The air crackled, throwing me backward. I hit a tree trunk, the impact knocking the breath out of me. When I looked up, she was standing over me light and dark bleeding from her in equal measure.

“Do you feel it?” she asked softly. “The power she carries now? It’s mine and hers, bound together. The vessel is perfect.”

“You’ll destroy her!”

“She was already breaking.”

My vision blurred with fury. I lunged, grabbing for her wrist, but the moment my fingers touched her, light flared searing, endless. Pain ripped through my arm, the bond reacting like it was being set on fire.

> “You can’t save her,” the Goddess whispered. “But you can join her.”

The temptation hit like venom, her voice wrapping around my mind, my will. I felt her reach for the mark on my chest, the one that tied me to Scarlett. It pulsed, answering her pull.

“Stop,” I ground out, fighting to anchor myself. “You’re not her.”

She leaned close, her breath cool against my ear. “No. But she’s still inside. Do you want to hear her scream?”

Then, without warning, she pressed her palm against my heart.

White-hot pain exploded through me. I collapsed to my knees, gasping as the world fractured around us, my vision flashing between memory and nightmare. I saw Scarlett laughing under the moon, then saw her eyes bleeding silver. I heard her whisper I love you, then the same voice hissing I will unmake you.

“Stop it!” I shouted.

The Goddess drew back, watching me with curiosity. “Stronger than most. But not enough.”

I forced myself to my feet, every breath cutting like glass. “I’ll drag you out of her if I have to tear the world open.”

Her smile deepened. “Then try.”

I did.

We collided in a burst of power that split the air. My hands found her shoulders, light burning through my palms as I called on what little divinity still lingered in my blood. The ground screamed beneath us cracking, smoking. Her form flickered, and for an instant I saw Scarlett again, terrified and pleading.

> “John, please—stop!”

I froze. That hesitation cost me everything.

The Goddess slammed her hand against my chest, sending me flying back into the earth. My vision went dark for a heartbeat, my ribs shattering with the impact.

When I looked up again, she was gone.

Only Scarlett remained standing in the sunlight, her hair wild, her eyes still silver. She looked down at me, breathing hard, confusion flickering across her face.

“John?” she whispered. “What happened?”

I couldn’t tell if it was truly her or the Goddess pretending.

“You tell me,” I said carefully.

She blinked, her brows furrowing. “I… I remember the light. The scream. Then nothing.”

Her voice trembled. The power around her faded slightly, her aura flickering like an unstable flame.

Maybe just maybe it was really her.

I crawled toward her, slow, wary. “Scarlett, listen to me. You have to fight whatever’s inside you. Don’t let her root herself deeper.”

She pressed her hands to her temples, wincing. “She’s still there. I can hear her. She’s whispering.”

“What is she saying?”

Scarlett looked up and I saw it then. The faintest smile. The smallest shimmer of black in her pupils.

> “She says she’s not done yet.”

And then she vanished.

Just—gone. The air imploded where she’d stood, leaving nothing but silence and the echo of her laughter lingering on the wind.

I fell forward, fingers digging into the dirt.

The world felt hollow without her presence. My heart was still connected to hers through the bond, but it was fractured like listening to a melody played underwater.

She wasn’t dead.
She wasn’t alive.
She was something else.

The Goddess hadn’t been banished. She’d been reborn.

Inside the woman I loved.

I dragged myself upright, the promise forming before I even realized I was speaking it.

“I’ll find you, Scarlett,” I whispered into the broken clearing. “And I’ll bring you ba
ck. Even if it kills me.”

The wind stirred again, carrying with it the faintest echo of her voice.

> Then hurry, my love… before she decides to kill you first.