65. The Price of Freedom.

The peace that surrounds us is fleeting. The darkness recedes, but it never truly vanishes. The glow of victory is brief, and in its place comes a strange, unsettling feeling. I can’t quite name it, but it’s as if we’ve touched something dangerous—something still pulsing in the shadows, waiting for its chance.

Shadow remains by my side, his gaze deeper now, filled with an intensity I’ve never seen before. A heavy silence coils around us.

He’s changed.

Something in him has shifted.

And something in me has too.

I glance at him as we walk, the weight of his presence pressing against me. He’s here, close, but there’s a barrier now—an invisible wall, a distance that didn’t exist before. It’s like we’re balancing on a tightrope, holding our breath, not knowing what comes next.

My heart races uncontrollably, not from fear, but from love. Because despite everything we’ve been through, all we’ve endured, the need to be near him has never burned stronger.

“What do we do now?” I ask, breaking the silence wrapping around us.

He doesn’t answer right away. He only looks at me, those dark eyes unreadable. And when he finally speaks, his voice is low, laced with a desperation that shakes me.

“We can’t stay here long. There’s something… something we still don’t understand. I don’t know what it is, but whatever we faced—it’s not over.”

His words twist something inside me.

I know. I feel it too—that the battle we’ve fought was only the beginning. Something still lingers. Something we haven’t yet grasped. And worst of all… I don’t know if we’re ready to face it.

The price of our freedom, of everything we’ve fought to protect, might be far higher than we imagined.

“I know,” I reply, my voice soft, almost afraid. “But… what if we’re never ready? What if what’s coming is something we can’t even imagine?”

My doubt hangs in the air like a thick fog, and Shadow knows it. He feels it too. The fear we share becomes tangible, a tension that could shatter us if we don’t find a way through it.

“There’s no going back,” he says at last, his voice resolute but tinged with darkness. “What we did—what we are—can’t be undone. And we have to be ready to pay the price, whatever it is.”

It hurts to hear it, but I know he’s right.

The choice we made—the love we share—is greater than any threat. But sometimes I wonder if what we’ve unleashed is something we’ll never be able to contain.

The line between love and destruction is thinner than we ever imagined, and with every step we take, I feel us inching closer to the edge of a cliff with no return.

“Are you willing to pay that price?” I ask, looking straight into him.

For a moment, he says nothing. His gaze falters, but within it burns a resolution that hits me like a blow to the chest. Then, finally, he nods.

“Yes. I am.”

His words are a whisper, but in my heart they thunder.

There’s something in his tone that makes me understand—even if we’re together, even if we saved each other once,

we are not safe.

The fight is far from over, and the demons we face are far more powerful than any we’ve known.

The air grows heavier, thick with something I can’t name.

I feel his eyes on me, intense, raw, full of emotion I’ve never seen in him before.

His desire for me is as real, as dangerous, as the very threat that stalks us.

Every time he looks at me, I feel there’s more to him—more he’s surrendered just to stay by my side—and that terrifies me.

I fear the cost of all this.

And yet I crave it with a force I can’t resist.

My thoughts spiral.

But what scares me most isn’t what’s coming… it’s what I might be willing to do to keep him.

The desire burning in my chest coils with tension, and deep in my gut, a voice whispers:

I’ll never be the same after this.

The pull I feel toward him is too strong, too dangerous.

It’s a dark love, forbidden, like we’re playing with fire—the kind that could burn us to ash.

We stop in the middle of the forest.

The air is cold, biting. The darkness closes in.

But I don’t care.

Despite everything, despite the danger, the shadows pressing in on us, there’s something in his gaze, something in the way he draws closer, that makes the world disappear.

“I can’t lose you,” he whispers, his breath warm against my skin.

My body responds to his nearness, and the desire flares, surging through my veins.

I’ve never felt more alive—or more lost.

How can we keep going when we’re so close to destroying everything?

But then… when his lips brush mine, I know the answer doesn’t matter.

The only thing that matters is that we’re here.

Now.

Together.

And whatever comes next… we’ll face it.

“You’ll never lose me,” I whisper back, my hands trailing over his chest, feeling his heart beating—wild and strong, like mine.

The desire between us is uncontrollable.

But so is the love.

And as his lips claim mine, I realize that whatever comes, we’re ready to face it.

Together.

But that truth—so pure and so dark—has a cost.

And the time left to pay for it… is running out.