Ezen stood motionless at the entrance of the cave, the fire from the ritual pit casting flickering shadows over his face. The dagger in his hand gleamed ominously, its blade pulsing with dark energy—alive, almost, with purpose. His eyes were locked on Anastasia, who stood between Larissa and Julian, her arms bound, her strength almost gone, her gaze hollow with heartbreak.
Lilith appeared beside him, her dark aura curling like smoke around her figure. "Now, my son," she whispered, her voice velvet and venom. "End her misery. Complete the sacrifice. Free me fully, and all will be made right. You will rule beside me."
Ezen took a step forward.
Anastasia looked at him, her voice barely a whisper. "If... if you're going to kill me, please just do it quickly. But if there's even a part of you that remembers what I did for you... then don't let them win."
His hand tightened around the dagger. He remembered her voice calling out to him in the Forbidden Forest. The way she bled trying to break the chains that bound him. How she never asked for anything in return.
Larissa snarled, "What are you waiting for, Ezen? Do it already!"
Julian echoed, "We don't have time! The ritual is losing strength!"
The flames in the circle began to sputter, the ground beneath them rumbling faintly. The energy in the air grew volatile. Lilith's eyes narrowed. "Kill her. Now."
But instead of stepping toward Anastasia, Ezen turned the dagger toward Larissa.
Before she could react, he slashed it across her chest.
The blade—meant to kill powerful entities—sank deep, not into her flesh, but into her essence. Larissa screamed, her body glowing with a violent light as the dagger severed her life force. She stumbled back, clutching at the wound as her body began to dissolve into ash.
Julian let out a horrified cry, rushing to her, but it was too late.
Lilith's voice erupted with fury. "What have you done?!"
Ezen looked back at his mother. "You wanted me to be a demon, right? Well, demons don't obey anyone. Not even their mothers."
He threw the dagger at Julian next—missing his heart but slicing his shoulder deeply enough to knock him off his feet. Julian scrambled backward, blood pouring down his arm, eyes wide with terror.
The ritual circle began to destabilize. The flames exploded upward and the air howled with demonic energy as Lilith's form flickered, becoming unstable. Her expression twisted with rage and heartbreak.
"You chose her over me?"
Ezen's voice cracked. "I chose what's right."
Lilith's form surged toward him, screaming with the fury of a thousand damned souls. But just before she could reach him—
A powerful beam of light shot through the cave.
Victor and Equinox burst in, the real crystal in Equinox's hand glowing brighter than before—it had duplicated before it was destroyed, and she used it to shatter the illusion and unlock the box trap from within.
Equinox's magic flared as she raised both her hands, chanting in a long-forgotten tongue. The light grew blinding. Lilith shrieked, her form collapsing in on itself.
Victor rushed to Anastasia, untying her quickly. "Are you okay?"
She nodded weakly, clinging to him for support.
Julian, realizing all was lost, tried to crawl toward the dagger—but Ezen stepped on his hand.
"You're not escaping this," Ezen said coldly.
As Lilith's form cracked, pieces of shadow falling like burning feathers, she whispered one last thing to Ezen: "You were my greatest creation... and my deepest regret."
With a final roar, her form exploded into darkness, vanishing into the void.
The cavern crackled with leftover embers of ruined magic. Julian clutched his bleeding shoulder, trying to drag himself toward the fallen dagger. Larissa writhed beside him, barely conscious, her body still glowing faintly where the soul-wound bled through her skin. The once-mighty siblings were nothing now—broken, trembling, their immortality hanging by a thread.
Victor stood tall, his sword pulsing with protective magic. "Anastasia," he said, turning to her with urgency, "you need to finish it."
She blinked, swaying on her feet. "Finish...?"
He held out the Book of Fate, the ancient tome glowing gold and humming softly like a heartbeat. "Their names are still written. As long as they remain, they can return. Wounded, but not dead. You have the power now. Erase them."
Anastasia looked at the book, its pages flipping on their own until it settled on the names Larissa Perez and Julian Perez. They pulsed in red ink—alive, defiant.
With trembling hands, she picked up the quill that floated above the book and drew a line through Larissa's name. A scream ripped through the air as Larissa's body jerked violently. Her skin cracked like shattered porcelain, eyes wide in shock and agony. She reached out to Julian—
"No—!" Julian shouted, crawling toward her.
Anastasia struck his name next.
A second, louder scream echoed. Julian's body twisted unnaturally, his mouth open in silent horror. The light in his eyes flickered, and in the same moment, both of them disintegrated into burning red dust—ash swirling upward and vanishing in a storm of fate.
Silence followed.
Anastasia's knees buckled. Her vision blurred. The magic she had poured into the book, into the world, was too much. Her eyes fluttered shut—and she began to fall.
But she never hit the ground.
Strong arms caught her.
Ezen knelt with her in his arms, holding her close as if she might vanish too. "Anastasia," he breathed, voice rough. "No, no, stay with me—"
A breeze whispered through the cave, impossibly soft.
Then—he felt it.
A tug.
Something warm curled around his pinky finger.
He looked down—and saw it.
A single red thread, faint and glowing, stretching from his finger to hers.
Ezen froze.
"No," he said, voice hollow. "No. Not this. Not her."
But the thread didn't lie. It shimmered faintly with the glow of fate itself, pulsing like a heartbeat shared between two souls. His chest clenched, the weight of truth crashing down like an avalanche.
He looked at Anastasia's unconscious face—her soft features slack with exhaustion, her hair clinging to her damp forehead—and all at once, the memories slammed into him.
That laugh. That voice. That fire.
Dahlia.
How could he not notice?
She was the reason he had suffered for centuries in that cursed dungeon beneath the forest. The reason he had become what he was.
And now—
"She was you?" he whispered, shaking. "All this time... it was you?"
It all made sense. Why Anastasia was the only one who could free from underground door. Why the Forbidden Forest had let her through. Why Lilith wanted to kill her. Why Victor was trying to save her? Now he understood everything.
Dahlia kept her promise to him.
The promise she made when they first met each other.
He remembered the memory, dahlia erased from his mind.
***
(Flashback: Stafford Village, Year 1500 – New Year's Eve)
The sky over Stafford Village was alive with fireworks—bursts of golden light blooming over icy rooftops as the clock in the square struck ten. Laughter rang through the streets. Noble carriages rolled through frosted lanes, heading toward the Diamond Palace, where a New Year's celebration was already in full swing.
Inside, the palace glittered like a dream. Candles floated mid-air, bathing the ballroom in amber light. Music drifted from a string quartet enchanted to never tire, and champagne flowed from fountains shaped like phoenixes. The elite danced, drank, and whispered secrets behind jeweled masks.
But Ezen—cloaked in obsidian robes stitched with silver runes—didn't come to celebrate.
He moved through the gold-lined corridors like a shadow, the opulence of the palace brushing against his shoulders like dust. The scent of spiced wine and burnt sugar lingered in the air. Humans and immortals alike mingled, their laughter sharp in his ears.
He hated this place.
He hated them.
But he was here to check on Equinox—to ensure she was doing what she had promised. Kill Victor. That was the plan.
Ezen's gaze swept the crowd. Then it happened.
A jolt.
He brushed past a woman—just a touch, an accident—but the moment their hands barely grazed, a violent current surged through his arm, stopping him mid-step.
He turned sharply.
Just the back of a woman in a navy-blue gown, walking away toward the terrace, completely unbothered. Her hair glinted like gold beneath the chandelier. She didn't even look back.
Ezen's brows drew together.
Strange.
No aura. No energy signature. Just... familiarity. Something ancient stirred in his chest—but he shook it off.
He didn't have time for ghosts.
"Finally," a voice said beside him.
He turned to find Equinox, dressed in violet silk, her dark hair crowned in starlight. She handed him a small black box.
"What's this?" he muttered, his tone dry.
"A New Year's gift," she said with a grin. "And your birthday gift. Two birds, one dagger."
He arched a brow and opened the box.
Inside—a blood-red ring with an infernal sigil carved into it, and a necklace of two intertwining stones—one black, one white—glowing faintly.
"Cursed?" he asked, amused.
"Bound," Equinox replied. "To souls. Fate-forged. Only activates if the two people are... well, fated."
He scoffed. "So useless."
She smirked. "I thought maybe you'd find your soulmate tonight."
He snorted. "If I do, I'll burn this palace down."
Equinox chuckled. "Don't be dramatic. Even demons fall in love."
Ezen gave her a sharp look. "Don't tell me you've started to feel something for Victor."
Her smile thinned. "Focus on your own cursed love life, demon. Victor will die. I don't fail."
Ezen slid the box into his coat. "You better not."
With that, he turned and walked off toward the balcony. The cold air hit him like a slap, clearing the haze of the party. Fireworks bloomed over the horizon, casting flickering shadows across the garden below.
And then—
He saw her again.
The same woman.
Standing alone near the frozen fountain, hands clasped in front of her. The wind toyed with her dress, and her golden hair shimmered in the moonlight.
Drawn in despite himself, Ezen descended the marble steps, every instinct warning him—but curiosity stronger.
He approached from behind, his voice smooth but mocking. "Enjoying the fireworks, human?"
She didn't turn. "Not the fireworks. The silence."
His brow arched. Her voice—it stirred something in him. A memory just out of reach.
"Strange," he said. "Most humans would be trembling right now."
She tilted her head. "Why would I tremble in front of you, Ezen?"
He froze.
It was like a dagger to the chest.
No one had called him that in centuries.
He moved to stand in front of her—and saw her face for the first time.
Dahlia.
His eyes flared with recognition, and then—rage.
"You," he spat. "Of course. It had to be you."
She gave a small, amused smile. "Happy Birthday."
He stepped back like she'd struck him. "Don't pretend to be kind. I should have known that thread of fate would bring you crawling back."
Dahlia laughed softly. "I didn't crawl. I walked in through the front door."
"You're mocking me," he said, cold fury creeping into his voice. "Even now?"
"You always hated me, Ezen. I thought I'd remind you why."
"Because you were the joke of my existence," he hissed. "An angel. My soulmate. Do you know how many demons mocked me for that?"
"Yet you still kept the thread," she whispered.
"I would've cut it myself if I could've," he growled.
"Well," she said lightly, producing a glowing dagger of golden light, "then let me give you your birthday wish."
He stared at her warily.
"It's a temporary sever," she said. "The thread of fate between us will go dormant. One decade of freedom."
His eyes narrowed. "Why now?"
"Because I can," she replied, a little too calmly. "But there's a condition."
"Of course."
"If you do something that disturbs fate—something dark enough—I'll be the one who locks you away."
He laughed bitterly. "You, an angel, dragging me to punishment? How poetic."
"I'll forget this meeting. Erase it from your memory too," she said softly. "But I'll remember the promise."
"And if I do end up trapped?" he mocked. "Will you come save me, angel?"
Her smile returned, smaller now. "Maybe. Maybe I'll come as a stranger. Maybe I'll have no idea who you are. But if I feel the time is right... I'll come."
His throat tightened.
He hated the conviction in her voice.
She turned to leave, the wind catching her hair like a golden ribbon. Her hand lifted once—and a flash of divine magic swept over him.
His memories—wiped.
He staggered slightly, blinking.
The garden was empty.
He couldn't remember why he'd come out here.
Behind him, fireworks exploded.
Inside his coat pocket, the necklace of twin stones pulsed faintly—waiting for the day fate would awaken again.