Cassia's POV
"Choose," the Moon Goddess says.
I'm standing in an endless void of golden light, face to face with a being made of starlight and moonbeams. She's beautiful and terrifying at the same time—ancient beyond measure, but her eyes hold kindness.
"Choose what?" My voice echoes strangely in this space between worlds.
"Your path forward." The Goddess gestures, and images appear in the light around us. I see Theron fighting Malekith. See the fortress crumbling. See Oracle Lyanna holding back shadow demons with pure light. See Seraphine and Kael caught in the chaos. "If you awaken your full divine power now, you will have the strength to destroy Malekith and save everyone you love. But the cost will be high."
"What cost?"
"Your humanity." Her voice is gentle but firm. "Divine power at its fullest burns away mortal weakness. You will become like me—eternal, powerful, but no longer truly human. You will lose the ability to age, to change, to grow. You will be frozen in this moment forever."
My breath catches. "And Theron? The soul bond?"
"Will remain." She waves her hand, and I see another image—Theron and me, standing together, but I'm glowing with divine light while he remains cursed and cold. "You will be bound to a mortal man who suffers while you cannot. You will watch him age and break and eventually die, while you live on eternally. Unless..."
"Unless what?"
The Goddess's eyes seem to look right through me. "Unless you freely choose to love him. True, genuine love given without force or manipulation. That is the key the prophecy has always been about—not ending the world, but transforming it. Your divine power combined with his curse, united through freely given love, will break both. You will both become mortal. Human. Free."
"But everyone says love will end the world—"
"Malekith twisted the prophecy to make you fear it," she interrupts. "He wants you to awaken your power without love, because a divine being without love is a weapon he can eventually control. But a divine being who loves is something he can never touch."
I try to process this. "So my choices are: become a goddess and watch Theron suffer forever, or fall in love with him and risk the prophecy being wrong?"
"Or choose a third path." The Goddess smiles. "Awaken partial power. Stay mortal. Fight alongside him as partners. It's riskier—you might not be strong enough to defeat Malekith. But you keep your humanity. Your choice. Your freedom."
Images swirl faster around us. I see three possible futures:
One where I'm a goddess of light, powerful and alone, watching Theron from a distance I can never cross.
One where I'm fully human, fighting beside Theron, maybe winning, maybe dying.
One where I take a leap of faith and love him freely, breaking both our curses—or triggering apocalypse.
"How do I know which is right?" I whisper.
"You don't." The Goddess touches my cheek with fingers that feel like warm sunlight. "That's what free will means, child. You choose, and you live with the consequences. But know this—I didn't bind your soul to his as punishment. I did it because I saw in both of you the potential for something beautiful. Something worth fighting for."
The void starts to fade. The golden light dims.
"Wait!" I reach for her. "I don't know what to choose!"
"Yes, you do." Her voice echoes as she disappears. "Your heart already knows. Trust it."
I slam back into my body with a gasp.
I'm on the floor of the throne room, Theron's arms around me, his face pale with fear.
"Cassia! Can you hear me?" He shakes me gently. "Say something!"
"I'm okay," I croak. My head spins. How long was I in that vision? Seconds? Hours?
"You've been unconscious for three minutes," Oracle Lyanna says, answering my unspoken question. She's still floating, still glowing, but now she looks tired. "The Goddess doesn't usually speak to mortals directly. You must have impressed her."
Across the room, Malekith snarls. "What did she tell you? What did you choose?"
I look at him—this ancient sorcerer who twisted prophecies and cursed an innocent boy. Who's been pulling strings for decades, trying to create the perfect weapon.
Then I look at Theron, who's holding me like I might disappear.
"I choose," I say clearly, "to stay mortal. To fight beside my partner. And to stop you."
Malekith's face twists with rage. "Fool! You could have been a goddess!"
"I don't want to be a goddess." I stand, Theron rising with me. "I want to be human. I want to choose my own path. And right now, I choose to kick your ass."
Oracle Lyanna laughs—a sound like silver bells. "She has your spirit, Theron. I can see why the Goddess chose you two for each other."
"Can you help us fight him?" Theron asks urgently. Another tremor shakes the fortress. More shadow demons are breaking through.
"I can hold him off," Lyanna says. "But only for a short time. My power is borrowed from the space between death and life. I'm not fully real in this world." She looks at me. "You need to break the circle that's anchoring Malekith here. Destroy the symbol on the floor, and he'll be pulled back to the void."
"The soldiers are protecting it," I point out. Kael and the others still stand around the purple symbol, their eyes glazed with mind control.
"Then we get through them," Theron says grimly.
"Without killing them," I add.
He looks at me like I'm insane. "They're trying to kill us."
"They're being controlled. It's not their fault." I squeeze his hand. "Please. Kael is your friend. Don't make him another regret."
Something painful flashes across Theron's face. He nods once, sharp and quick.
"Fine. We knock them out. But if it's a choice between them and you—"
"It won't be," I interrupt. Because I have a plan. A crazy, probably stupid plan. "Lyanna, can you free them from the mind control?"
"Not while maintaining my form and holding off Malekith." She sends a blast of light at the sorcerer, who deflects it with dark magic. They're locked in a battle that's tearing the throne room apart. "I can only do one thing at a time."
"Then I'll do it." I pull away from Theron and start walking toward the controlled soldiers.
"Cassia, wait—" Theron grabs for me, but I'm already moving.
"Trust me," I say again. That phrase is becoming our mantra.
I stop in front of Kael. His eyes are empty, his sword raised to strike me down. Behind him, Seraphine watches with hungry anticipation.
"Kael," I say softly. "I know you can hear me somewhere in there. I know you betrayed Theron because you love him. Because you remember the boy he was."
Kael's sword doesn't waver, but something flickers in his eyes.
"The curse is breaking," I continue. "Because we're choosing partnership over destiny. Friendship over fate. Love over fear." I place my hand over Kael's heart. Let my golden light flow gently into him—not attacking, not forcing. Just offering. "You don't have to be controlled anymore. You can choose."
For a moment, nothing happens.
Then Kael blinks. His eyes clear. He looks down at his sword, then at me, then at Theron behind me.
"Your Majesty," he whispers, his voice breaking. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry—"
"Later," Theron says roughly. "Help us now."
Kael nods and turns to face Malekith, sword raised against the sorcerer instead of us.
One by one, I touch the other controlled soldiers. One by one, they break free. It drains me—each person I free takes a piece of my energy. By the time I reach the last soldier, I'm swaying on my feet.
"That's everyone," I gasp.
"Not quite." A voice behind me. Cold and familiar.
I turn, and Seraphine stands there, no longer glazed with mind control. She's smiling, holding her purple blade.
"You freed them," she says. "But you forgot—I was never controlled. I'm here because I want to be."
She lunges, blade aimed at my heart.
I'm too slow, too drained to dodge.
But Theron is faster.
He appears between us, and Seraphine's blade plunges into his chest instead of mine.
Time stops.
Theron looks down at the blade protruding from his body. Black blood—cursed blood—streams from the wound.
"No," I breathe. "No, no, no—"
He collapses, and I catch him, lowering him to the floor. The soul bond flares between us—I feel his pain, sharp and cold and terrible.
"THERON!" I press my hands to his wound, trying to stop the bleeding. Golden light pours from my palms, but it's not working. The blade is cursed—designed to kill him specifically.
Seraphine laughs above us. "Finally! With him dead, you'll die too! The soul bond ensures it!"
She's right. I can feel it—my life force draining away as his fades. We're dying together.
"Cassia," Theron gasps. His hand finds mine. "The prophecy. You have to—"
"Don't you dare," I sob. "Don't you dare tell me to let you die!"
"Listen." He coughs, more black blood staining his lips. "The Goddess said love breaks the curse. If you love me—truly love me—we both live. We both become mortal. But you have to choose it freely."
I stare at him through tears. At his storm-cloud eyes that have become so familiar. At his face, usually cold, now soft with acceptance.
Do I love him?
I've known him for days. We've fought, argued, barely trusted each other. We're bound by prophecy, by fate, by forces beyond our control.
But in this moment, holding him as he dies, I realize the truth.
"I love you," I whisper. "Not because of the prophecy. Not because we're soul-bound. But because you gave me hope when I had none. Because you protected me when no one else would. Because you let me choose, again and again, even when it meant risking everything." My tears fall on his face. "I love you, Theron Nightshade. Freely. Completely. Please don't leave me."
The words hang in the air for one heartbeat. Two.
Then the world explodes with light.
Not gold. Not silver. But both, swirling together in a brilliant storm of power that fills the entire throne room. I feel the curse inside Theron shattering. Feel my divine power transforming. Feel the soul bond changing from chains into something beautiful—a true connection, freely chosen.
The light is so bright I have to close my eyes.
When I open them again, Theron is staring at me with wide eyes. The wound in his chest is closing. The black blood is turning red—mortal red.
"It worked," he breathes. "The curse is—"
Malekith's scream cuts him off.
"NO! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"
I turn to see the sorcerer dissolving. Without the curse to anchor him, without the prophecy to feed on, he's being pulled back to the void. Oracle Lyanna stands behind him, her hands raised, pushing him through a portal of light.
"Go back to the darkness where you belong," she commands.
Malekith reaches for us one last time. "This isn't over! I'll return! I'll—"
The portal closes. He's gone.
Silence falls over the throne room.
The shadow demons outside start to fade. Without Malekith's power sustaining them, they dissolve into harmless smoke.
The fortress stops shaking.
It's over.
Theron sits up slowly, touching his chest where the wound was. His fingers come away clean. Red blood, not black.
"I can feel warmth," he whispers in wonder. "Real warmth. And my heart is beating—actually beating—" He looks at me with something like awe. "I'm human again."
I laugh through my tears. "We both are."
He pulls me into his arms and kisses me.
It's nothing like the kisses in stories—awkward and desperate and perfect all at once. His lips are warm now, not cold. His touch is gentle but urgent. And I kiss him back with everything I have.
When we finally break apart, I see everyone staring at us.
Kael is crying. Oracle Lyanna is smiling. The freed soldiers look confused but relieved.
And Seraphine stands frozen, her face twisted with disbelief and rage.
"You were supposed to die," she hisses. "Both of you. It was perfect!"
"Nothing about this was perfect," I say, standing and helping Theron to his feet. "But it's over, Sera. You lost."
"Not yet." Her eyes flash with madness. "If I can't have the crown, if I can't have the power, then no one will!"
She raises her cursed blade high.
And brings it down on the purple symbol at her feet.
The circle shatters.
But instead of nothing happening, reality tears open. A portal—not to the void where Malekith went, but somewhere else. Somewhere worse.
Through the rip in space, I see a world of eternal darkness. A place where nightmares live.
And something huge is trying to push through from the other side.
"What did you do?" Theron demands.
Seraphine laughs—high and broken and completely insane. "I opened the door to the Abyss. The place where all dark things are born. And I can't close it." She looks at me with hatred and triumph mixed together. "Congratulations, cousin. You saved your lover. But you doomed the world."
The thing in the portal roars—a sound that makes my bones vibrate.
It's coming through.
And I have no idea how to stop it.