Threnody didn’t speak at first, but she was listening. He could see it in the way she’d gone still, in how her silver eyes tracked his face.

  “Then understand that they died because of me,” she whispered. “I ended my people to stop them falling into darkness…to stop them from using me to rule existence.”

  Rafe had suspected after seeing her power first hand, but hearing her say it made it real. She’d killed her own people. An entire civilisation gone because they would have used her as a weapon to further their descent into evil.

  And he understood then why she’d nearly lost control.

  She’d been ready to destroy everything rather than let herself be used again. The Arcana had been fighting over her for months, each one trying to control the Echo for their own purposes. Fermata and Fortis hunting her, Tenebrae manipulating Praxis to get to her, not to mention the Covenant and their own plans to dominate. All of them were willing to tear Nightreach apart to claim her abilities for their own.

  Humanity had done the same, seeing her as a relic of power, rather than the soul of a living being. It wasn’t just that, but their potential to follow the same path as the Arcana. The path of ultimate corruption, to cause destruction in the name of power and control.

  “My ancestor was one of the seven who caged you within Nightreach.” The words tasted bitter, but he forced them out. “Two thousand years ago, they found you already bound in stone and they built the city around you. They thought they’d discovered an artefact. A source of power. They caged the Echo to stop it from being used by others to cause pain and suffering. They put you there to keep you safe…but they don’t ask you.”

  He released her arms and cupped her face, his palms resting against her cheeks. She could kill him right now, unmaking him with a thought. She could tear his soul apart the way she’d torn apart Fermata and Fortis, but he wasn’t afraid anymore.

  “I won’t cage you,” he went on. “I won’t try to control you or bind you or force you into anything, but I am asking you to choose. Not because you owe anyone anything, but because you can. Because you alone have the power to decide what happens next.”

  Vesper had been different. Vesper had shattered her to save others, not to control her. And now here he was, holding this ancient being who’d forgotten what it meant to be anything other than a weapon or a monument, asking her to choose. Perhaps for the first time in her life.

  “What are you asking?” she whispered.

  “Let her live.” The words cracked on the way out. “Let Vesper live. Please.”

  Threnody’s eyes searched his face. “You love her that much.”

  “Yes.” There was no hesitation, no doubt. “More than I’ve ever loved anything.”

  “Even knowing what she did to me?” Something sharp entered Threnody’s voice. “She broke me into pieces. Scattered my soul across the world. I spent months fractured and incomplete, fragments of myself calling out across the ley lines, desperate to be whole again.”

  “She did what she had to do,” Rafe said, “to stop D’Arco from using your power. To save everyone in that convergence point, in the Fold, in all of Nightreach. She made an impossible choice and it destroyed her to do it.”

  “It destroyed me.”

  “I know.” He held her gaze. “And I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for what happened to you, but Vesper isn’t your enemy. She never wanted to hurt you. She just wanted to save the people she loved.”

  Threnody was quiet for a long moment. When she spoke again, her voice had softened. “I can feel her love for you. It’s…overwhelming. She chose to shatter me because the alternative was worse.” A pause. “I understand that kind of choice. I made the same one when I killed my people.”

  Rafe’s chest tightened.

  “They were corrupted,” Threnody continued, her words coming faster now. “They wanted to remake me as their weapon, to use me to reshape reality according to their will.”

  “So you stopped them.”

  “I killed them all.” The admission came out flat, emotionless. “Every single one. I tore their souls from existence and then I destroyed our world so completely that nothing remained.”

  “And you’ve been alone ever since.”

  “Yes.” The word was barely a whisper. “Trapped in stone, watching humanity grow and change and live whilst I remained frozen. Unable to feel, unable to act, unable to do anything but witness time passing without me.”

  Rafe pulled her closer. “You’re not alone now.”

  “Aren’t I?” Bitterness crept into her tone. “Vesper is here, yes, but she’s not mine. She’s yours. And Threnos…” She trailed off, something painful crossing her face. “Threnos has been searching for me for so long, but I don’t know if I can be what he remembers. I don’t know if that person still exists.”

  “Maybe she doesn’t,” Rafe murmured. “Maybe you’re someone different now, but that doesn’t mean you have to be alone. It doesn’t mean you have to keep destroying things.” Her gaze lowered, but he drew her back. “Threnody?”

  “I can feel her love for you,” she said finally. “It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced. She would burn the world down to keep you safe.”

  “Then let her keep loving me.” The plea broke through despite his best efforts to stay calm. “Let her have that. Let her live and love and be happy. Please. She’s suffered so much…”

  The silver in her eyes flickered. Threnody’s presence receded and suddenly Vesper was there, looking at him with her own brown eyes, warm and alive and completely herself.

  “Rafe.” Her voice cracked on his name. Tears spilled down her cheeks and her hands came up to grip his wrists. “I’m here. I’m still here.”

  His breath caught in his throat. He wanted to say something, anything, but the words wouldn’t come. All he could do was stare at her face and memorise every detail. The exact shade of her eyes. The way her hair fell across her forehead. The shape of her mouth.

  “I love you,” he managed finally. “I love you so much.”

  “I know.” She smiled through her tears. “I love you, too.”

  The silver bled back into her eyes and Threnody returned, but something had changed in her expression. The harsh edges had softened. The fury had burnt away, leaving behind something that looked almost like hope.

  She didn’t pull away from him. She stayed there in his arms, whilst the wind howled around them.

  Chapter 31

  Threnos pushed himself upright, blood trickling from a cut above his eye. Destruction stretched before him, smoke still rising from fires that burnt across the city. His ribs ached and his hands shook but nothing was broken.

  His bond with Threnody pulsed in his chest, dragging him forward. He climbed over rubble and squeezed between broken walls. He rounded a collapsed section of street and scanned the wreckage ahead. Movement caught his eye in a scorched clearing.

  He paused.

  Rafe and Threnody stood in the centre of what remained of the square, embracing. He was barely standing, covered in blood and clearly dying, but his arms were wrapped around her whilst she sobbed against his shoulder. The sounds tearing from her throat were raw and utterly human. Her silver eyes were visible over his shoulder, streaming with tears.

  Threnos had spent millennia searching for her. He’d endured fragmentation and isolation and the slow erosion of everything he’d once been, all for the chance to stand before her again. He’d bound his consciousness to a grimoire and waited centuries for someone who might help him find her. He’d made deals and compromises, and sacrificed pieces of himself until barely anything remained of who he’d been before the cataclysm.

  And now here she was, awake and alive, but she wasn’t reaching for him. She was holding onto this human with desperate strength, weeping against his shoulder whilst he murmured something too quiet for him to hear.

  Threnos had loved Threnody before the corruption spread, at least the kind of love the Arcana had known. The bond between their souls—that was love to their people. He’d stood beside her through the golden age when their world still sang with impossible beauty and their people had reached heights humanity may never comprehend. He’d bonded with her through the moment she’d chosen annihilation over allowing corruption to spread, and his soul had been with her even as it tore apart. He’d spent thousands of years in agony because he’d believed she was worth finding even if he could never be whole again.

  He had learned a great deal about human emotions through his time sharing Ash’s body, including hate, love, jealousy…and love, but what he felt now was none of those things. Watching them embrace, he knew that Vesper had given Threnody something he couldn’t. She had shown her what it meant to love without the crushing weight of eternity behind it. How to grieve without letting that grief consume everything. How to hold something precious and choose not to destroy it trying to keep it safe.

  And Rafe… This fragile, dying man who held her whilst she shattered had given Threnody what Threnos had failed to provide. Love. The truth cut deep, but it also brought clarity. He understood now what he needed to do.

  Threnos walked forward and his footsteps crunched on broken stone. They didn’t notice him at first, too lost in each other. He stopped a few metres away and waited.

  Eventually Threnody lifted her head. Her silver eyes found him and widened.

  “Threnos.”

  He wanted to close the distance between them, to pull her into his arms, but he stayed where he was.

  “I’ll help you end the song,” he said.

  She stared at him. Rafe turned slightly, his arms still around her, his expression wary.

  Threnos met Threnody’s gaze. “I’ll die right now by your side and we’ll be together for eternity. No more imprisonment. No more isolation. We can let this world continue without us.”

  “Threnos.” Her voice cracked and fresh tears spilled down her cheeks. “I can’t ask that of you.”

  “You’re not asking.” He took a step closer and then another. “I’m choosing.”

  “They might destroy themselves anyway.” The words came out hollow. “All of this suffering, all of this death, and they might still choose corruption and violence and⁠—”

  “Then that’s their choice to make.” Threnos kept his voice steady. “It’s not our right to make it for them. We had our time and we failed. They deserve theirs…to whatever end it leads to.”

  Threnody’s expression fractured. “What if mercy is just cowardice?”

  “Then we’re cowards together.” He held her gaze. “We end the song. We die together. And we believe that love will conquer in the end, even if we’re not here to see it.”

  The silence stretched. Wind howled through the ruins and carried the scent of smoke. Fires crackled in the distance.

  Rafe’s arms tightened around Threnody but he didn’t speak. He just held her and waited.

  Threnos watched emotions flicker across her face. Fear and hope and grief and desperate relief. She’d been carrying this weight alone for so long and he was offering to share it because he loved her.

  Finally she nodded. Just once, barely perceptible, but it was enough.

  Threnos closed the remaining distance between them.

  Threnody let Rafe go as Threnos approached. The absence of his warmth sent a chill through her body, but then Threnos was there, his presence filling the space Rafe had left.

  “I love you.” Threnos’ voice was rough. “I’ve told myself for thousands of years that our bond was enough. That what we had before the cataclysm was everything we needed, but I was wrong.”

  Threnody stared at him, her throat tight.

  “Our souls are bound,” he continued. “They always will be, but that’s not why I’m here. I’m here because I choose you. Because when I think about eternity without you, even paradise feels empty.” His hand reached for hers, his fingers shaking. “Humanity taught me what it means to love someone not because fate demands it, but because your heart can’t imagine doing anything else.”

  The words broke something open inside her. She’d felt their bond her entire existence, that unchangeable connection that tied their souls together across time and space. It had always been there, as constant as breathing. She’d never questioned it because the Arcana didn’t question. They simply were.

  But this feeling that flooded through her now was something else, something that made her heart beat faster and sent heat crawling up her neck. Her skin tingled where his gaze touched her and she wanted to close the distance between them so badly it hurt.

  This was choice. This was vulnerability. This was love.

  “I choose you too,” she whispered. The words felt inadequate for the enormity of what she meant. “Not because we’re bound, not because we’re meant to be together, but because I want to be.”

  Threnos closed the remaining space between them and cupped her face in his hands. His touch was gentle, reverent, and when his lips met hers the world narrowed.

  The kiss wasn’t perfect. They moved together with the uncertainty of two people learning each other for the first time, but beneath the surface, something ancient and profound slotted into place. Their souls recognised each other the way they always had, with a certainty that transcended flesh and time. Somewhere behind them Rafe shifted but Threnody barely registered his presence. This moment belonged to her and Threnos, two beings who had endured millennia of separation finally understanding that their bond had always been more than fate. It had been choice all along.

  Threnos’ mouth moved against hers and Threnody felt herself fracture. Every kiss Rafe and Vesper had shared rushed through her memory. The tenderness, the desperation, the way love could be both gentle and consuming. She’d watched those moments through Vesper’s consciousness and thought she’d understood.

  But she hadn’t understood anything.

  This was different. This was hers. The bond between her and Threnos sang but it didn’t control. It didn’t demand. It simply existed alongside this fierce, terrible, beautiful thing that made her want to hold him and never let go.

  She pulled back and her breath came in ragged gasps. Threnos’ eyes were wet and his expression held the same devastating clarity she felt.

  Their time was over.

  They’d had their chance. They’d been part of a civilisation that had reached heights humanity might never achieve and they’d failed to save it. The corruption had spread because they hadn’t known how to stop it, because they’d believed control was the answer when love demanded surrender.

  Humanity deserved their turn. They deserved the chance to fail, to learn, and to grow without the Arcana’s shadow hanging over them. Without corruption spreading through reality because beings who should have died millennia ago refused to let go.

  But there was one more conversation she needed to have.

  Threnody closed her eyes and turned her awareness inward. She stirred immediately, warm and familiar and achingly human.

  Vesper.

  I’m here. The Resonant’s essence wrapped around her consciousness like an embrace. I’m here…

  Threnody’s thoughts came out broken. I destroyed everything I loved. My people, my world, my civilisation. I unmade them because I thought it was the only way to stop the suffering. Was I wrong?

  The silence that followed felt infinite. Threnody waited, every moment stretching into eternity whilst she braced herself for judgement. For Vesper to tell her that yes, she’d been wrong, that there had been another way and she’d been too afraid or too proud or too broken to see it.

  You believed you were doing what was right. Vesper’s voice was soft, but it carried the weight of someone who had faced impossible choices and understood the cost. They tried to corrupt you, to force you into remaking the world into something dark and terrible. You believed annihilation was the only way to stop them from spreading that corruption beyond your world. That doesn’t make what happened any less terrible, but it doesn’t make you a monster either.

  I killed them all. The words felt bitter, the truth driving a knife into her heart. I killed everyone.

  You did. Vesper didn’t soften the truth. And you’ve carried that weight for thousands of years. You’ve let it consume you, define you, convince you that mercy means annihilation. But Threnody, we aren’t the Arcana. Humanity isn’t your people. We deserve the chance to make our own mistakes, to choose our own path. Her presence pulsed with desperate conviction. Let us live. Let us love. Let us mess it all up if that’s what we decide to do, but let it be our choice.

  Threnody felt something crack inside her chest. She’d spent millennia convinced that her only options were control or destruction. That if she couldn’t save them, she had to spare them the agony of existing in a corrupted world, but Vesper was right. Taking away someone’s choices wasn’t mercy. It was just another kind of tyranny.

  To let you live, I must die, she said.

  The admission should have been harder. It should have torn her apart to admit it, but it didn’t. It felt like the first honest thing she’d said in thousands of years.

  I know. Vesper’s presence ached with grief and acceptance. I know what you’re offering. I know what it costs. The Resonant’s essence wrapped tighter around hers. You’re giving me back my life. You’re giving Rafe and me a chance. You’re giving humanity its future. A pause, weighted with sorrow. I wish there was another way. I wish you could stay and see what we build, but I understand why you can’t.

  Threnody opened her eyes. The world came back into focus slowly. Threnos stood before her, his expression holding the same terrible understanding. Behind him Rafe waited, blood soaked, but steady. The ruins of Nightreach stretched out in every direction, broken and burning and still standing.

  The world would continue. Humanity would continue. They would make mistakes and hurt each other and create beauty and destroy it and start over again. They would do all of it without the Arcana poisoning their future.