Eiren’s body arched, light blazing from her mouth, her eyes, her hands. The Veil behind her ripped, a shriek echoing into the heavens.
Then silence.
The blade fell from Maris’s hand.
Her knees buckled.
Her vision went soft at the edges.
But she smiled faint and tragic.
Because Eiren was gone.
Because the gods had been answered.
Because she had chosen to end it.
Then she collapsed, goddess and girl, side by side in death.
Chapter seventy-six
A Promise Kept
-Alarik-
He didn’t notice it at first.
He was mid-battle, lightning searing across the chest of a Veilspawn, his sword flashing with faelight, his breath ragged from effort and smoke. The war was endless noise — steel, screams, thunder.
And then a silence bloomed inside him.
Heavy.
Slick.
Like a door closing in his mind.
He staggered. Blinked.
And in that flicker of stillness, he heard her.
“You made a promise once to Kael, didn’t you?”
The voice coiled through his thoughts like silk over a blade.
Eiren.
He gasped, tried to move, to speak, to shake it off buthis limbs stilled.
She laughed, soft and venomous.
“I plan to help you keep it.”
Then came the pull.
Not a shove.
A claim.
