Elara's POV
"Who wants to die first?"
Vex's black magic swirls around her like a living storm. The air tastes like rot and death.
Caspian shoves me behind him. "Run. Take Nessa and go."
"I'm not leaving you!"
"You don't have a choice." He slams his staff down. Silver light explodes outward, meeting Vex's black magic in a clash that shakes the entire fortress. "GO!"
But my feet won't move. I can't abandon him. Not after he saved me.
Vex laughs. "How touching. The monster has found a pet." She throws her hand forward and black tendrils shoot toward us like spears.
Caspian blocks them, but I see him stagger. He's already weak from saving Nessa. He can't fight her alone.
I grab a fallen mage's staff from the floor. I don't know dark magic, but I know healing magic. And if Caspian taught me anything, it's that life and death are two sides of the same coin.
I channel every bit of power I have left into the staff. Golden light erupts from the tip—not an attack, but a shield. It wraps around Caspian, reinforcing his silver barrier.
"What are you doing?" he gasps.
"Helping!"
Together, our magic holds. Gold and silver intertwining, pushing back against Vex's darkness.
Her eyes widen. "A Life Weaver. So the bloodline does survive." Her smile grows cruel. "Even better. When I drain your power, I'll become unstoppable."
She raises both hands and the black magic intensifies. Our barrier cracks.
"We can't hold this," Caspian grits out. "She's too strong."
"Then what do we do?"
His eyes meet mine. In them, I see a terrible decision being made.
"I'm sorry," he whispers.
Then he releases his barrier completely and redirects all his power toward me. Silver magic slams into my chest, and suddenly I can feel everything—his exhaustion, his pain, his absolute determination to save me even if it costs his life.
"NO!" I scream.
But it's too late. Vex's black magic hits him full force.
Caspian drops to his knees, black veins spreading across his skin just like Nessa's curse. He gasps, clutching his chest.
"CASPIAN!" I run to him, but he holds up a shaking hand.
"Don't... touch me." Blood drips from his mouth. "The curse... spreads by contact."
Vex claps slowly. "Wonderful. The great Death Keeper, brought down by his own weakness—compassion." She steps closer to us. "Now, girl. Come quietly or I kill him slower."
I look at Caspian dying on the floor. At Nessa unconscious on the table. At the monster who destroyed my entire life.
And I make a choice.
"You want a Life Weaver?" I stand, staff blazing with golden light. "Fine. Come take one."
I don't know what I'm doing. Don't know if this will work. But I pour everything—every drop of healing magic, every ounce of life energy, every shred of desperate hope—into one massive burst.
The golden light explodes like a star going nova.
Vex throws up a shield, but she's not ready for the sheer force. The light smashes through her defenses and sends her flying backward into the wall.
I collapse immediately, drained completely. The staff clatters from my numb fingers.
"Impossible," Vex coughs, struggling to stand. "You shouldn't have... that much power..."
"Turns out I'm full of surprises." I can barely speak. Everything hurts.
But Vex is hurt too. Her robes are singed. Blood runs from her nose. She's not invincible.
She glares at me with pure hatred. "You'll pay for that, girl. Mark my words—I will return with an army. I will destroy this fortress stone by stone. And I will make you watch everyone you love die slowly."
Then she vanishes in a cloud of black smoke.
Silence falls.
I crawl to Caspian. The black veins have spread across half his face. His breathing is shallow and ragged.
"Hey." I touch his face gently. "Stay with me."
His eyes flutter open. "You're... insane."
"You saved me first."
"That was... different."
"How?"
"I'm... already cursed. Already... broken." He coughs, more blood. "You had... everything to lose."
"I had nothing to lose." Tears blur my vision. "Don't you get it? You're the first person in months who saw me as something other than a failure. Who fought for me. Who believed I was worth saving." My voice breaks. "So yeah, I'm going to save you back."
Something soft enters his expression. "Life Weaver."
"What?"
"Your real name... should be... Life Weaver." He reaches up with a shaking hand and touches my cheek. "Because you... bring everything you touch... back to life."
Then his hand falls. His eyes close.
"Caspian? CASPIAN!"
His chest still rises and falls. Barely. But he's alive.
I look at the curse spreading through his body. I don't know how to break it. Don't know if it's even possible.
But I know someone who might.
I drag myself to Nessa's table. Her skin is still grey, but stable. Thanks to Caspian's earlier work, she's not getting worse.
I press my hand to her heart, trying to sense the curse inside her. If I can understand how it works in her, maybe I can figure out how to break it in Caspian.
The moment my hand touches her, magic flares. The connection Caspian created between us activates, and suddenly I can feel Nessa's curse like a living thing—dark and twisted and deliberately designed.
But I can also feel something else. A thread of silver magic woven through the darkness. Caspian's power, holding the curse back, keeping Nessa alive.
An idea strikes me. Crazy. Dangerous. Probably impossible.
But it might work.
"Okay," I whisper to my unconscious sister. "I'm going to try something really stupid. If this kills us all, I'm sorry."
I take Caspian's hand in one of mine, Nessa's in the other. Then I channel my Life Weaver magic into both of them simultaneously.
The effect is immediate and terrifying.
Power surges through me like lightning. Gold and silver magic spiral together, flowing from me into both of them. The curses respond—writhing, fighting, trying to consume the energy.
But instead of letting the curses win, I do something Vex would never expect.
I accept them.
I pull both curses into myself, drawing them out of Caspian and Nessa and into my own body.
Pain explodes through every nerve. Black veins erupt across my skin. My vision goes dark.
But I hold on. I let the curses flow into me, and then I do what I was trained to do.
I heal them.
Not by fighting the darkness. But by balancing it with light. By showing the curses they don't have to destroy—they can transform instead.
The magic shifts. Changes. The black becomes grey, then silver, then gold.
And the curses... break.
They shatter into pure energy that flows back out of me and dissipates harmlessly into the air.
I collapse between Caspian and Nessa, gasping for breath.
For a long moment, nothing happens.
Then Nessa sits up with a gasp. "Elara?"
And Caspian's eyes open, clear of black veins. "What did you do?"
I can't answer. Can't move. I used everything I had and more.
But they're alive. Both of them.
That's all that matters.
Nessa scrambles off the table and throws herself at me, crying. "You're okay! I thought—the dreams were so dark—I thought I lost you!"
"I'm here." I hold her tight with the last of my strength. "I'm here."
Caspian sits up slowly, examining his hands where the curse was. "You absorbed both curses and broke them from the inside." His voice is filled with awe. "That should have killed you."
"Probably."
"But you did it anyway."
"Probably."
He stares at me like I'm a puzzle he can't solve. "Why?"
"Because you asked me to trust you." I meet his eyes. "So I did. Completely."
Before he can respond, Nessa suddenly screams.
We both turn to her in alarm.
She's staring at her hands. Black veins are spreading across her skin again—faster than before.
"No!" I grab her hands. "The curse is broken! I felt it break!"
"This isn't the same curse," Caspian says grimly, examining her. His face goes pale. "This is new. Different. Stronger."
"What are you saying?"
He looks at me with something like horror. "Vex didn't just place one curse on your sister. She placed two. The first was to control you. The second..." He swallows hard. "The second was a failsafe. If anyone tried to break the first curse, the second activates automatically."
Ice floods my veins. "Can you break this one too?"
"Maybe. With the month-long ritual I mentioned. But—"
"But what?"
"But this curse is tied to Vex's life force. As long as she lives, it keeps regenerating." His jaw tightens. "There's only one way to permanently save Nessa."
"Tell me."
His storm-grey eyes meet mine.
"We have to kill Vex."