The moment the chamber darkened and the cold thickened, Elena felt it—
a pressure, a weight, a presence pushing inward rather than outward.
It wasn't trying to break the door.
It was trying to break Leon.
Leon's back arched sharply, a strangled sound ripping from his throat as he dropped to one knee. His fingers dug into the floor, claws slicing stone.
"El… Elena—"
His voice strained, warped, as if something else were layering over it.
Something ancient.
Something hungry.
Elena rushed to him, grabbing his shoulders.
"Leon! Look at me— look at me!"
But his eyes weren't fully his.
Black veins crawled across the whites.
The pupils flickered, trembling violently as if drowning under a tide of darkness.
Behind them, the entity whispered.
A low, guttural vibration that seeped into the air like poisoned smoke.
"Open… the seal…"
The voice wasn't sound.
It was inside the chamber.
Inside Leon.
Inside the thin, weakening thread that tied him to the seal he'd just broken.
Leon gasped, clutching his chest.
"Elena… get away from me…"
"No!" she snapped, grabbing his face to steady him. "You're not pushing me away again."
He convulsed violently.
The entity pressed harder— she could feel it.
Like a freezing hand pushing through Leon's ribs, tightening around something inside him.
His breath hitched.
Then—
He screamed.
Not in pain.
In defiance.
But the entity surged.
His body jerked forward, forced by something that wanted control of his limbs.
"Elena…" he groaned, barely conscious, "it's trying to use the bond— it found a crack when the seal broke—"
His nails carved deeper into the stone floor.
"It's trying to get in— through me."
Elena's blood turned to ice.
"Leon, fight it. Please—!"
"I'm trying—"
His voice shattered.
Another voice slipped through, overlaying his like an echo from the grave.
"Open the door… child of the Blackwell curse…"
Elena pressed both hands to his cheeks.
"Leon, listen to me. Stay with me. Don't let it in."
His head jerked back— violently.
The temperature plummeted.
The torches lining the walls flickered, then bent inward as if drawn toward Leon's body.
"Elena," he gasped, "run— before it turns me—"
"No." She leaned closer. "You're stronger than this thing. Look at me."
"No— you don't understand—"
His voice distorted again.
"If it controls me… it can— kill you."
"I don't care."
His eyes snapped wide, startled despite the torment tearing through him.
The entity struck again.
His entire body seized, his veins darkening. For a terrifying moment, Elena saw his fangs slip out, unbidden, and his hand shot toward her throat—
Not in hunger.
In possession.
He stopped his hand mid-air, shaking violently, muscles trembling under the force of resisting something overpowering.
"Elena— MOVE!" he roared.
"NO!"
She grabbed his hand instead, pressing his cold fingers to her chest.
"You are stronger than it," she whispered fiercely. "You hear me? YOU are stronger. Leon Blackwell does not obey monsters."
His breath hitched.
Something shifted.
The entity hissed— a furious, cold sound.
Elena felt a pulse—
not through her,
not through the room,
but through Leon.
A spark.
A flicker of something ancient and powerful buried deep in him.
He seized that spark— gritted his teeth— and dragged air into his lungs with the last bit of strength he had left.
Then he spoke—
Not to her.
To it.
"Get… OUT."
A blast of force erupted outward, cracking the floor beneath him like a spiderweb.
The entity recoiled, shrieking, its presence snapped back from Leon's body like a torn thread.
Leon collapsed into Elena's arms, trembling, weak, his skin cold as ice.
"It's not gone," he whispered against her shoulder, voice shaking. "It's waiting. It wants me. It'll try again."
Elena held him tighter.
"Then it'll have to get through me first."
The chamber trembled—
a warning.
A reminder.
The entity was not finished.
And neither werethey.