“Enough!” His voice rose above the thundering surf.
"I don’t trust you, and I don’t want to step through the vortex with you. To you, I’m nothing but a Mark! My life means nothing, my soul an offering to your Master, Vareth.”
His jaw tightened. “You wanted the truth, Tilly. Now that you have it, don’t place your fate at my feet. The only person who could have saved you is you. We gave you the choice. We told you to decide before the madness arrived.
But it came for you far more quickly than we anticipated. I could lie and say it will all work out, but it never ends well. Never. And don’t speak to me of innocence. Not all themarkedwere innocent. Some deserved theGate.”
I didn’t flinch. I just looked at the blue, poisoned blood on his face and tilted my head. “Is this what Seraphina conditioned you to believe? That if you label us all as monsters, your hands stay clean?”
He looked at me not with pity or cruelty, but with a cold glare that sent shivers down my spine. The mention of her name was a strike he hadn’t prepared for.
“The madness is already within you. I see it burning in your eyes and reflected in your actions now. We offered you mercy.”
My voice rose. “You were going to burn me alive, and you hid behind your mask like a coward, as if I would not see it was you. I saw your hand twitch. At first, I thought it was Cillian’s, hand, but it was you.
A muscle in his jaw ticked, the only sign my words had struck deeper than he wanted me to see.
I stepped closer, refusing to let the fear he was used to seeing in his victims settle in my bones.
“You see madness,” I said, “but I see guidance from the souls that have passed. The ones your world sacrificed to Vareth. And unlike the others, I’ve already shown I can control the whispers in my head.”
His eyes narrowed, assessing my words.
“Maybe that’s why you haven't stopped the curse” I continued, heat rising in my chest. “Maybe it's because you sacrificed them before they ever had the chance to make the correct choice. “But I can help them. I can free them.”
Fionn’s expression changed instantly, “Tilly… that’s exactly what Vareth’s madness wants you to believe.”
The air between us tightened,
“Don’t you want this to end?” I demanded.
He paused and gave me a careful once-over, a look that betrayed a bit of concern.
“The Marked. They had more time than you think.” A shadow crossed his expression, and his words were merciless.
“But the madness never stays hidden. It twists all the Marked into savages.”
He stepped closer, towering over me like those monoliths on the cliff. I refused to step back and show fear.
“We don’t end the Marked quickly because they are weak, Tilly. We finish them because they stop being themselves.”
His eyes instantly darkened. Though I felt uneasy, I refused to back down. If I wanted the truth, I had to face it.
“Fionn, this is your version of a story I cannot prove. What I see in front of me now is so much darkness,” I paused for a moment, then added, “...and a coward.”
He stepped even closer, close enough that the shadows around him seemed to move in.
“And if you see a coward when you look at me, Tilly… it’s only because you don’t yet understand what real strength costs.”
He didn’t look away.
“Cowards run from the darkness inside them.”
He paused, letting the weight of his words hang in the air. “I face it every day.”
The wind surged, pulling at the edges of the vortex behind us, but he still didn’t look away.
“Know this: I don’t fear easily. I’m not afraid of blood moons and their prophecies. Believe me when I say I’m not scared of the stars,” he said, his gaze dangerous.
