Blight shrieks, nearly falling from his shoulder.
"Clever." Mal's voice carries dark amusement. "But this is nothing to a god."
"Perhaps not," I say through gritted teeth. "But your mortal shell won't last. Rhianelle's body will tear apart first."
"I knew you were unsuited for her!" Blight hisses. "You're going to destroy her."
I meet her eyes. "Perhaps you were right all along. I am a monster."
It's a bluff. I'm already pulling my beasts back, commanding them to return to their cages.
But the gods cannot know that. They can't tell if this is a real attack or a distraction. All they see is the wendigo trying to reshape Rhianelle's bones and the hellspawn attempting to claim her soul.
"Release me!" Mal roars.
"Leave her body first," I counter, slowly pulling my monsters back one by one.
"You insufferable—"
The child on his shoulder makes a decision. She leaps off, landing in the snow gracefully. The innocent facade cracks, revealing something vast and ancient beneath. "Enough."
The word reverberates through the air.
Everything stops.
Mal withdraws his hand from my chest. The connection severs and I collapse forward into the snow, gasping. Every piece of my fractured soul feels raw and exposed.
But I'm still in one piece.
Mal does not look at me again. He lifts Rhianelle's hand once more.
The gates begin to sink.
Iron bars groan as they descend, bone and thorn folding inward. The screaming faces pressed between them are dragged down with it. Their silent agony disappears into earth and shadow. Firelight fades beneath the narrowing seam of stone. The curse bearers who found their freedom have already vanished, scattered like dandelion seeds on the wind. Only scorched ground remains where the fissure gaped open. Snow rushes in to cover the scar. The clearing is whole again, as if damnation had never opened its jaws.
Lilac eyes meet mine as the child begins to fade. She regards me one last time. "This isn't over, vampire."
Her silver hair catches the predawn light one last time before she dissolves completely.
Rhianelle collapses.
I catch her before she hits the ground. We both sink into the snow together, her weight familiar against my chest.
She's breathing. Her skin burns feverish from hosting a god. I wrap my cold body around hers, trying to draw the heat away.
"Svenn?" Her voice is raw, scraped nearly to nothing as if she's been screaming. Maybe she has, somewhere deep inside while the Keeper controlled her body.
"I'm here." I cradle her closer, pressing my lips to her silver hair. "I've got you. You're safe."
Her trembling hand comes up to touch my face. "The Rhunhraefn is gone, Svenn. You're free."
She traces my jaw with careful wonder.
“But you're still here," she whispers.
The words are soft, barely audible over the wind through the trees. But the weight behind them is enormous. I hear what she'sreally asking, the fear that's been eating at her since she decided to break the curse.
"Where would I go?" I ask her. "There is nowhere else I would rather be."
