96

EZRA

I growl, the savage sound bursting off me before I can stop it.

Raw. Feral. Wrecked.

The sound echoes across the court like thunder breaking bone but it’s not anger that fuels it.

It’s grief.

Grief with claws and a voice.

Because I just heard her say it.

“Yes,” she whispered.

Even that.

Even her memories of me.

Her voice still rings in the marrow of my bones. Shaky, honest and final.

I stagger, the weight of it pulling me forward, like something just snapped in my chest. The chains dig deeper into my skin but I don’t even feel the pain anymore. I don’t feel the blood drying on my skin, the poison rotting me from the inside.

All I feel is her.

Leaving.

Because that’s what this is.

This isn’t saving me.

It’s losing her forever.

I drag my eyes to her, my knees nearly buckling.

She stands there, fragile and steady all at once, like a candle refusing to go out in a storm.

Her tears haven’t stopped.

But she said it.

She still said it.

Her memories of me.

The way I held her. The way she called my name like it meant something.

Gone.

Our first kiss and the first day I took her?

Gone.

Our first meeting?

Gone.

The way she looked at me like I wasn’t a monster?

Gone.

I thought I could live with pain. I thought I could carry this punishment alone. I thought losing her once was the worst thing that could happen to me.

But this?

This is worse.

Because she’s not dying.

She’s choosing to forget me.

Choosing to carve me out of her heart with her own bloody hands.

For me.

And I can’t bear it.

“Thea,” I choke out, voice breaking in half.

“Don’t.”

My arms fight the chains now, muscles screaming. I don’t care if I bleed. I don’t care if it kills me. Let it kill me.

I lunge forward.

“Thea, no. You don’t know what you’re saying.”

But she doesn’t flinch.

She doesn’t step back.

She just keeps crying, and it guts me more than anything else in my entire life.

I have faced gods. Demons. Centuries of death and war.

But nothing—

Nothing—

Has ever brought me to my knees like this.

Like her, choosing to let me go in the most permanent way possible.

Without even knowing it.

“I’m not worth that,” I whisper. “I’m not worth you.”

And maybe no one hears it.

But I do.

Because I believe it.

Because it’s true.

If this is the price… I would rather die a thousand times over.

But it’s too late.

The court is silent. Still.

And I swear I can feel the world tilting. Readying itself.

Preparing to take her away from me.

My eyes dart to Lord Naskai, desperation roaring through my veins like fire in a dry forest.

“Stop this madness. Don't do this.”

I growl it, voice low, trembling with the kind of fear I’ve never admitted to. Not even in war. Not even in death.

But Naskai doesn’t even flinch.

Instead, his gaze slides to Isla.

And she—

That devil in silk—

She shakes her head.

A single movement.

Cold and certain.

And he nods.

That’s when everything clicks.

Isla.

Isla, with her slow smirks and her careful words. Isla, who always played games like she owned the board. Isla, who brought Thea here like an offering dressed in hope.

She orchestrated this.

She gave her just enough rope.

And Thea—my Thea—walked into it with her eyes wide open and her heart even wider.

Naskai steps forward. Towering. Timeless. Robes whispering over the stones like ash.

He bows his head slightly toward her.

“Love does conquer all,” he says softly.

And I want to rip his throat out.

He extends a hand toward her, like he’s offering a blessing.

“And now that you've decided, let us begin the ritual, human.”

My chains pull tight as I throw my weight forward.

“No. Thea, nooo…”

She looks back.

God.

And her eyes… they're puffy, red, broken. She’s crying and still smiling like it’s okay. Like I will be okay.

And she says it.

The words I always wanted to hear. The words I’d bleed for, a thousand times again.

“I love you.”

Soft. So soft I feel it more than I hear it.

And then, she places her hand in his.

My body breaks.

My soul snaps in half.

I scream, the sound ripping out of me, animalistic, cracked and unholy.

“Nooooooo!”

The chains rattle loud enough to wake the dead. I tear against them, every limb straining. The rune burns like acid against my skin, but I push closer. I don't care. I’ll rip myself apart before I let her go like this.

Please.

But Thea walks away with him.

And the other two Lords follow in quiet procession leaving the rest.

A funeral march. But the body still breathes.

For now.

I scream until my voice shreds. Until it’s no longer sound but something deeper, something ruined.

Malik doesn’t speak. He just watches me. Like he’s seen this before. Like he knows how it ends.

Then, Lord Iona— one of the other two lords following them —stops just at the edge of the exit.

He turns to look back.

And for a second—just one goddamned breath—I think maybe he’ll show mercy.

But he doesn't.

He lifts a finger and points at me.

And then, I feel it.

A presence behind me. Cold and massive.

A cold hand touches the back of my head. Just one.

And everything goes black.