"She delayed the inevitable." The Devourer’s presence pressed against my skin like burning charcoal. "But you’re here now. The bridge stands complete. And I can offer you something the Veil never could."
Aeron rose. Joints popped. Shadows peeled from the throne, clinging to him.
"Your parents." The words struck like blades. "Whole. Restored to exactly as they were before the pyre."
My breath stopped.
"Vaelthorne rebuilt. Every Fae slaughtered, returned. The children. The elders. Lyralei." Aeron descended the steps, movements growing smoother as the Devourer settled deeper into his flesh. "All of it. Real. Permanent."
"If you think defiling a corpse with your sickness brings back the lives of our loved ones, you’re wrong."
"Maybe it looks that way to you now," the Devourer replied softly, "but you won’t know the difference when you take your rightful place by my side."
He stopped ten feet away, close enough for me to see the black veins spreading from his eyes.
"Your suffering can end, Seris. Yours. Theirs. Everyone who died because of choices you didn’t make but are still bound to." Aeron’s hand extended. "I can undo it. All of it. I can create a new reality for you to perceive and relish."
Even knowing it was a lie, even knowing the Devourer would twist my mind until I believed it, I couldn’t stop the images from forming.
My mother. Not the burned corpse swinging from the gallows, but her smile as she braided my hair. My father reading by candlelight.
Vaelthorne, whole and shining beneath Veil-light, music drifting through trees heavy with purple blossoms.
Lyralei’s gentle hand on my shoulder.
All of it.
Real.
Mine.
"You need only open the door fully." The Devourer's voice gentled to something almost empathetic and kind. "Let the Veil fall. Let the barriers be no more. Become what you were always meant to be. Not a weapon, but the one who brings eternal peace to all of existence. Through you, I bring paradise. Through you, death becomes obsolete. Through you, "
"Through me, you devour worlds."
Silence.
Aeron's smile widened. "Devourer. I never understood why some of your kind chose such a name. I offer you eternity in the arms of your loved ones, yet you are too foolish and prideful to accept my blessings. There were once Fae of the Veil who accepted my offer. They flourished until their time came. Why not make the same choice?"
"I’ve seen what your paradise looks like, filth." Daemon took a step forward. "We’ve traveled far and wide to witness your will burning down villages and killing all those who came across it."
"Son of Thorne, I wonder how you can utter such words when you have taken the lives of so many yourself. A hypocrite, like the ancestor that stands before you."
Daemon turned to me, and the allure of the Devourer’s temptations vanished. The Devourer sensed the hesitation leaving me. His eyes settled on Daemon, full of malice and primal violence.
"We can talk when we’re… undisturbed." He turned and made his way to the throne.
"No." I stepped forward. "I’m done talking. No resurrection. No paradise. No bargains." I reached for the Veil, feeling it sing against my blood. "My mother taught me what matters. Not what we lost, but what we choose to protect."
The Devourer didn’t wait. His power filled the throne room like crashing waves. Creatures of shadow, formed from all those he had poisoned over the years, crawled out of the stone. TheFirst King pulled his sword, but before they could take another step, I struck.
The Veil compressed around Aeron’s legs, folding space into itself. Bone shattered. Flesh pulped. The king’s body crumpled as physics remembered how fragile mortal frames actually were.
He hit the floor. Shadows erupted from his ruined form.
Then he stood.
Legs whole. Bones intact. Death magic knitting him back together faster than my eyes could track.
