And maybe… he always had been.
The argument reached its boiling point one cold afternoon as we stood beneath the shadowed eaves of the school, where whispers of darkness clung like frost.
“Why must we wear this mask of virtue,” I snarled, “while secretly reveling in what we are? It’s like playing nursemaid to sick prey, pretending to be something we’re not. I’m tired of this farce. I want to embrace my nature—to unleash it.”
Mathias shook his head, his tone clipped. “We must correct the darkness within us. Just because we were born with it doesn’t mean we must become it.”
“It’s like forcing a lion to eat vegetables,” I snapped, fists clenched at my sides. “It goes against everything in our blood.”
He stepped closer and patted my shoulder, calm, composed, patronizing. “These feelings are part of the correction process. They’ll fade in time.”
But I didn’t want them to fade.
I wanted them to grow.
To devour everything inside me until nothing remained butvengeance. Until I could finally strike down those who had taken everything from me, including him.
Mathias excused himself, thinking I would cool off. Instead, I stormed to the training hall, seized a sword from the rack, and unleashed my fury on a straw dummy. Each strike echoed through the chamber—purposeful, violent.
Then I heard footsteps.
I stilled, breath heaving. I slid the sword back into its holder on the wall, the steel singing softly as it settled into place. Quietly, I moved across the polished floor and peered through the doorway.
Mathias was in the corridor, walking toward the front entrance with his arm wrapped protectively around his wife, Cora. She cradled their infant close to her chest, expression soft and adoring.
“When will you return?” she asked gently.
“As soon as my business is complete,” he replied, flashing her a practiced smile.
“You always say the same thing,” Cora pouted, her voice tinged with playful complaint.
“And I always return, don’t I?” Mathias said with a carefully composed smile, pulling a gold coin from his pocket and pressing it into Cora’s palm. “Take this into town. Buy something beautiful to wear.”
Cora clung to him desperately, her fingers gripping his coat, lips hungrily seeking his in a final, lingering kiss that felt more like a plea than a farewell. When she finally let go, it was with visible reluctance.
He turned and left without a backward glance, his figure swallowed by the looming shadows beyond the estate’s towering entrance.
Cora hesitated, then closed the massive door behind him with a hollow thud.
The silence that followed was deafening.
It echoed through the marble halls like a curse—every inch of this too-perfect like a slap to my face.
My fists clenched.
My vision blurred with red.
A scream tore from my throat, echoing through the empty corridors like a war cry. The sickening sweetness of their exchangetwisted inside me, poisoned by grief and betrayal. He had murdered Zara. He had looked me in the eye and lied through his teeth—and now he played the loving husband, the devoted father.
It was more than I could bear.
It was time to end things.
I couldn’t pretend any longer. I couldn’t keep marching to his commands, playing a student in his twisted academy, where he trained “soldiers of darkness” to turn around and kill them if they didn’t conform to his ideals.
No more.
If the world called me a monster, then I’d show them what a monster truly looked like.
