Chapter 54

Chapter 54
“You’re trembling.”

“I’m holding the blade that can kill a man who once owned my soul.” I met Julian’s gaze. “I think I’m allowed to tremble.”

He didn’t smile. Not this time. “Ana…”

“What?” I asked, wrapping my fingers tighter around the hilt. “You don’t think I can do it?”

“No. I think you’re the only one who can.”

“Then why do you look at me like I’m already gone?”

He exhaled. “Because this blade—” He paused. “It takes more than blood.”

I froze. “What are you saying?”

He stepped closer. “To kill Elijah… you’ll have to give up a part of yourself.”

“What part?”

Julian’s voice softened. “The part that was his.”

My chest ached. “I don’t want anything of him in me.”

“You do.”

“Not by choice.”

“No. But it’s still there. That’s how he bound you. That’s how he survived all this time—through you. Through what he put in you.”

I wanted to scream. “You should’ve told me.”

“I tried.”

“No,” I said, stepping back. “You tried to protect me from the truth, again.”

“I didn’t want to watch you break.”

“I’m not breaking.” I held up the blade. “I’m ready to destroy him.”

Julian looked at me. “Then let me stand beside you.”

I stared at him. “Not in front of me?”

He shook his head. “Not this time.”

I nodded. “Good.”

—

The air outside the mansion was cold, charged, like a storm waiting to be born. The woods were silent. Too silent.

Julian walked beside me, close enough to touch, but he didn’t reach for my hand. He knew better.

“I’ve never seen this part of the estate,” I said.

He nodded. “It’s where we buried the last of his worshippers.”

I stopped walking. “You never told me they worshipped him.”

“They didn’t start that way,” he said. “But power corrupts. Elijah… he was beautiful. Fearless. They mistook it for something divine.”

“And I was just a prize.”

Julian’s face darkened. “You were never a prize. You were a weapon. A key. A soul he could tether his darkness to.”

“And you?”

He looked at me. “I was the idiot who thought love was stronger than power.”

I said nothing.

The path narrowed. Trees arched over us, their bare limbs scraping the sky like broken fingers.

Julian stopped.

“There.”

Ahead, stone steps led down into the earth. An ancient crypt. Forgotten. Sealed.

“Why here?” I asked.

“He’s closest to the boundary here,” Julian said. “This is where his soul flickers between what’s left of life and what waits on the other side.”

“Then let’s end it.”

I stepped forward. The stone beneath my feet pulsed—like a heartbeat.

Julian hesitated. “Are you sure—”

I glanced back. “No more questions. No more holding me back.”

He nodded. “Together.”

“Together,” I echoed.

—

The crypt smelled of damp moss, iron, and something older—something like grief.

We descended in silence, the torch Julian lit casting long shadows along the walls.

Then—

A voice.

“I wondered when you’d find me.”

I didn’t freeze this time. I kept walking.

Elijah stepped into the light, as beautiful and terrible as I remembered.

“Ana,” he said, smiling. “You came back.”

I held the blade tighter. “I came to end this.”

His eyes gleamed. “You don’t mean that.”

“I remember everything.”

“Then you remember me,” he said. “You remember what we were.”

I stepped forward. “We were nothing.”

He tilted his head. “You said you loved me.”

“I said I’d rather die than belong to you.”

His smile faltered.

“I meant it,” I added.

Julian stepped beside me. “It’s over, Elijah.”

“No,” Elijah said. “It’s only beginning.”

He moved, fast, but not faster than me.

I swung the blade.

He dodged.

Laughed.

“You think that weapon can kill me?”

“Yes.” I lunged again.

He caught my wrist. “You don’t want to do this.”

“I do.”

He pulled me close. “You’ll destroy yourself.”

“I’ve already survived worse.”

And then—

I drove the blade into his chest.

He gasped, eyes wide.

“You were right,” I whispered. “It took something from me.”

His body shuddered.

“But it gave something back too,” I said. “Freedom.”

He crumpled.

The crypt shook. The walls cracked.

Julian grabbed me. “We have to go—now!”

I didn’t look back.

We ran.

And behind us, Elijah’s final breath echoed like a curse.

But it couldn’t touch me anymore.

Not now.

Not ever again.