Gabriel's hands land on my shoulders before I can finish the thought, his grip firm enough to demand attention.
"I love you, Gwenievere." His voice carries the particular weight of final words, of things that must be said before opportunity is lost forever. "My sister. My twin. My other half."
I open my mouth to respond, but he continues before I can interrupt.
"You'll be the one to deal with Elena... so work hard to figure out the final riddle to her demise, and remember—" He pauses, making certain he has my complete attention. "The key is wickedness, but at the expense of free will."
The key is wickedness, but at the expense of free will.
I frown, trying to parse the meaning behind the cryptic phrase. Elena's downfall lies in wickedness? In free will? In some combination of the two that I can't currently comprehend? The riddle settles into my mind with the particular weight of important information I'll need to decode when this moment ends.
But there's no time to ask for clarification.
"I love you too, Gabriel," I whisper instead, because some things matter more than understanding, some truths transcend the need for explanation.
His smile in response is radiant—exhaustion temporarily forgotten, peace settling across his features like a blessing. For this instant, suspended between realities, between futures, between the selves we were and the selves we're becoming, we're simply siblings who love each other beyond measure.
"See you one day," he promises, "when we carry our crowns with pride and wickedness."
Tears track down his cheeks now, matching my own, catching the impossible twilight and transforming into liquid silver as they fall. But he's still smiling—still radiating that particular peace that suggests he truly believes in the reunion he's promising.
I have to believe too.
Have to trust that this isn't goodbye, just... see you later.
A pause in our shared story, not its ending.
"Oh," Gabriel adds, and something in his tone shifts—mischief replacing solemnity with speed that should have been warning, "and this is payback for being a bitch to Nikki."
I frown, the sudden topic change not computing.
"What do you—EEEP!"
The shriek that tears from my throat is entirely undignified as Gabriel's hands shove against my shoulders with force that sends me tumbling backward. The hill's edge was closer than I realized—or perhaps it moved while we were distracted, dreamscape rules asserting themselves with cruel timing.
There's a single suspended instant where I'm airborne, where gravity hasn't yet remembered I'm supposed to fall, where I can see Gabriel's grinning face silhouetted against the impossible sky.
Then I'm plummeting.
"GABRIEL, YOU BASTARD!"
The scream echoes through the dreamscape as I fall, carried on winds that shouldn't exist, bouncing off surfaces that have no physical presence. The Academy's golden gates rush up to meet me—or perhaps I'm rushing down to meet them, perspective impossible to maintain when reality itself has become suggestion rather than rule.
Gabriel's laughter follows me into the void.
The sound mingles with my continued shrieking as the dreamscape collapses around me, colors bleeding together into chaos, sensations flooding back with overwhelming intensity after so long being muted. I can feeleverythingnow—the wind tearing at my hair, the fear clenching my stomach, the bond marks blazing against my skin as they sense my distress and reach for their counterparts.
He pushed me off a cliff.
My own twin brother.
Payback, he said.
PAYBACK.
The golden gates are so close I can see individual symbols writhing across their surface, ancient languages screaming warnings I can't comprehend. The Academy beyond seems to be watching my descent with something like amusement, gargoyles turning stone heads to track my trajectory.
I'm going to die.
