“Silas…?” I whisper, my voice barely existing. The world trembles. The walls crack, stone groaning as dust and debris rain down around us.
“We have to go, now!” Viktor shouts.
“No!” I cry out in protest.
“Lilith.” Lucian’s voice is softer now. Careful. Like I might shatter if he speaks too loudly. “Let me carry him.” I can’t let go. I can’t.But my hands… they don’t listen. They slip. Black, stained and empty.
Lucian lifts him from my arms, and something inside me goes with him.
“Lilith.”
My name, barely a whisper.
I turn. Morbius. Dying. Alone. I don’t think. I move, ignoring Evelynn’s protests, stepping through falling debris like none of it can touch me anymore. Nothing can hurt more than this moment.
I crouch beside him. His hand shakes as it lifts, brushing against my cheek, leaving streaks of black in its wake. And still, he smiles; small, broken, and tragic. “I…” he chokes, coughing, more ichor spilling from his lips. “I love you.”
The words are fragile. “You were the only one who ever saw me. The real me…”
“I loved you once, I loved the man I thought you were. The man I so foolishly believed.” My voice is rough with anguish and tears. “I was wrong, all this time I was wrong.”
His eyes sting with the pain of my words. “Forgive me, before I turn to ash. Before I leave my undead life. Forgive me, please,” he begs. My dead heart aches, still a thin piece of thread tethered to him, longing to believe and see the good in him. Still, the smallest part of me was desperate for him to live. I hated him for it. I hated myself for it.
I lean in closer to him. “I could never forgive you,” I say softly.
The castle groans, louder now, like it’s dying around us. The floor fractures beneath my feet, cracks spidering outward as stone splits and collapses. Dust chokes the air. Debris rainsdown in violent bursts. But I don’t move. I can’t. My world has narrowed to him. I lean forward and press my lips to his temple; a final kiss, a final goodbye. His eyes flutter closed, and for a fleeting, impossible moment, a soft, almost peaceful smile touches his lips like he’s finally free of the weight he’s carried for so long. When I pull back, a single tear slips from the corner of his eye, trailing slowly down his cheek.
“For all the bad…” His voice is thin, fragile, barely clinging to life. “I tried.”
My chest caves in.
“I’m sorry,” he breathes, and this time there’s no mask, no manipulation, just the truth. Raw. Exposed. “Truly I am.” His violet eyes lock onto mine, unguarded and vulnerable.
The same look he gave me that first night, the man I fell for, was buried beneath everything he became.
“Take care of him… for me,” he whispers. “Tell him…” A violent cough cuts him off, black ichor spilling from his lips. “Tell him…” His voice fractures, fading into nothing. “I’m sorry.”
His head tilts. His gaze goes still. Empty. “Morbius?” My hand trembles as I reach for him; just one more touch, one more second. But before I can, he crumbles. His body breaks apart into black ash, dissolving beneath my fingers, slipping through my hands like he was never there at all.
“Lilith!” Evelynn’s voice tears through the chaos from across the hall. I blink, reality slamming back into me just as a massive slab of stone crashes down where Morbius had been seconds ago. I fall back with a gasp, heart pounding, breath ragged. Alive, but barely. Scrambling, I push myself to my feet, ready to run, but then I hear it. Sobbing. Broken. I turn. Cain.
Curled into the shadow of an alcove, Cain cradles Fiadh in his arms as if he lets go, she’ll disappear again. I don’t think. I move, dodging falling debris, sliding to my knees in front of him. “Cain, we have to go,” I urge, my voice shaking. But he doesn’thear me. Doesn’t see anything but her. I follow his gaze, and my breath catches. Fiadh. She looks different; whole. Alive in a way she wasn’t before. Her features softened, her hair falling like silk around her face. And her eyes—God, her eyes—they’re filled with so much love it hurts to look at.
“Hundreds of years…” Cain rasps, his voice splintering under the weight of it. “I thought you were dead. I thought I had killed you.”
“For hundreds of years,” she whispers, her voice gentle, almost fragile. “I waited for you to find me.” Her hand lifts, cupping his face like she’s memorising him. “You finally did.”
My throat tightens, their pain pressing in on me, suffocating.
“I’m too late,” Cain chokes, the words tearing out of him. Movement catches my eye; black smoke, everywhere. The vessels, one by one, are dissolving into dark plumes, rising into the air like souls being dragged away.
“Cain,” I warn softly.
Fiadh smiles at him, soft, peaceful and utterly devastating. “You found me,” she breathes. “I’m free now. Finally free.” Something flickers in her eyes. Urgency. She knows. She doesn’t have long. “I love you,” she whispers. “Kiss me, one last time. Please.” Her voice breaks.
So does he. Cain leans in, pressing his lips to hers like it’s the only thing keeping him alive. I look away. It feels too sacred. Too painful to witness.
“Take me with you,” he pleads against her mouth, desperate. My chest tightens, I want to stop him, to drag him away, to force him to live.
