His voice was thick with his accent, his words broken but firm.
“Restore the balance,” he said. “She will live.”
“Maybe,” the girl muttered darkly.
Rell turned back to Elora. Kneeling slightly so he could meet her gaze. “Sunshine,” he said softly. “This is your choice. You don’t have to go with them. Youcansay no. What do you want?”
Please say me.
Please pick me.
“I don’t care,” she said flatly.
She didn’t blink. Didn’t twitch. Just stared past him, past the world, like nothing was worth seeing anymore.
Rell felt something inside him snap loose. Her voice—it wasn’t hers. It didn’t carry any of her usual sharpness, her spark. It sounded like it belonged to someone already halfway gone.
Viliam said something in Al’teran. A gentle command. A promise, maybe. The girl translated:
“We don’t wish to hurt you. But we must take her. If not, the world may rot. Shatter. Balance must be restored.”
Rell didn’t know what the hell that meant.
He didn’t care.
Viliam stepped closer. And so did Rell.
“Elora—”
Viliam reached her first.
Not rough. Not cruel.
But possessive.
He pulled her gently up from the mattress. Her knees buckled. She collapsed against his chest like a puppet whose strings had snapped. Rell moved forward to catch her—
And Viliam’s head snapped toward him. Thatlook—not violent, butfinal—was enough to stop Rell mid-step.
Dagger still in his hand. And useless.
The biggest of the Al’terans stepped forward, his limbs already warping, cracking. Flesh unraveling into black fur and fangs and feathery wings. He shifted into something massive, something ancient. A full-grown nightglider, wings spanning nearly the width of the room.
Viliam laid Elora carefully on the creature’s back. Secured her in place with braided leather straps, her limbs limp. Her head slumped sideways. She didn’t resist.
The others shifted too, melting into beasts of shadow and stars.
Viliam was the last to go.
He gave Rell a long, unreadable look. Not triumphant. Not mocking. Just... sad.
And then he was gone.
The wings of four nightgliders snapped open, catching the wind like sails. With a shriek and a gust of cold air, they launched from the balcony, soaring into the moonlit sky.
Rell was left in the silence.
The empty room.
