Surprise （Alternate Ending）
Surprise
ALTERNATE ENDING (THE VILLAIN LIVES)
Trent collapsed, smoke still rising from the wound in his chest—the wound meant for me.
But as the Ancestors lifted me, as their power surged and the curse shattered into embers, a thread of gold snapped downward, shooting into his broken body.
I heard a gasp—his—low, strangled, shocked.
He wasn’t dead.
Not quite.
The Ancestors whispered through me: “The betrayer becomes the bound. The betrayed becomes the tether. His life is no longer his own.”
I dropped to my knees beside him as the light lowered me, and his eyes fluttered open—no sign of the madness that had shown in them before.
They were gentle and brimming with love. “Reverie…” his voice was hoarse and filled with awe. “I thought… I believed this was how I atoned.”
Tears stung my eyes. “You don’t get to choose dying as your apology.”
His lips twitched. “Stubborn. In every life.”
“And you’re still impossible,” I breathed, touching his cheek.
He closed his eyes under my hand—like Kratos once had, all those lifetimes ago, before betrayal, before curses, before kingdoms drowned in blood.
“I remember,” he whispered. “All of it. Lilibet. The oath I broke. The Faction I destroyed. The curse that followed.”
“And yet you still saved me,” I said softly. “You broke it.”
His voice shook. “How can you forgive me?”
“I don’t know,” I stared at him, tears sliding down. “But I can’t lose you again.”
His breath hitched.
Then the chamber erupted.
Selene and Ubel, desperate and furious, broke free of Tanya’s bindings with a scream of betrayal and lunged straight at me—but this time I didn’t need Trent to shield me.
I was the shield. The crown. The queen.
Golden fire burst from my palms, blasting them across the chamber. Walls cracked—the floor split.
The Ancestors’ voices thundered through me. “SHE IS SOVEREIGN.”
Selene crumpled, too overwhelmed to stand, and Ubel crawled backward, trembling.
My family suddenly burst in, and as soon as my mother—Adelaide—saw Selene, she stepped forward. She was wearing my daggers at her waist, Ashfang and Frostbane.
Mom stopped inches from Selene, looking her dead in the face. “For my daughter and my Sly,” she whispered.
Then she pulled Ashfang from its sheath and drove it straight into Selene’s throat in one clean, unflinching strike.
Her skin cracked first, thin glowing fissures racing across her throat and jaw.
Smoke curled from the wounds, followed by a low, rising hiss as if the fire inside her had been waiting for this exact moment to breathe.
She clawed at the blade, but her fingers blistered instantly, flesh blackening before our eyes.
Heat shimmered around her, the air bending and buckling.
Then she ignited.
Flames roared out from the wound, swallowing her neck, her hair, and her scream.
Her body arched, burning from the inside out, edges collapsing into glowing embers that drifted away on the air like falling stars.
The last thing to crumble was her glare—still hateful, still locked on Adelaide—before it disintegrated into ash and scattered across the floor.
The chamber went silent.
When we emerged into the daylight, trembling, raw, and reborn, the world was waiting.
Fellats lined the cliffs, massive beasts bowing their heads, eyes glowing reverently.
The warriors Kharox summoned knelt, fists over their hearts as he made the gesture that now warmed my heart.
My men moved beside me—Oren anchoring my right, Nathan burning at my left, Zeke and Zane flanking behind, Jet gently brushing my fingers with quiet awe.
They appeared both shattered and relieved, completely and utterly in love. And I returned the emotion tenfold as was evident on my face when I looked at them.
Chloe flew into me, crying, hugging me so tight it felt like my ribs might break. “Don’t ever do that again, asshole, or I’ll refuse to include you in any new activities.”
I laughed into her hair. “No promises.”
My mother and fathers pushed through next—Adelaide covering my face in frantic kisses, John, Jesse, Sly, and Rue pulling me into an embrace. The Hawthorne Faction is complete… finally.
My heart almost burst.
Trent stepped out into the sunlight behind us, swaying but alive. He’d stayed behind to deal with Ubel. I was reasonably sure he wouldn’t be a problem anymore. Trent was still a monster at heart, but now he was my monster. He had a lot to atone for, but I knew he’d get there.
The Fellats rumbled low.
The Varruk bowed once again—not just to me.
To us.
To all of us.
The castle was rebuilt through ancestral magic—walls rising from stone, banners unfurling, ancient sigils glowing like stars returned to the night sky.
The ceremony took place in the Great Hall, beneath a canopy of floating crystal lanterns.
My men stood before me, marks blazing, growing brighter as I approached.
One by one, they placed their hands over my heart, speaking their vow—ancient words the Ancestors put in their minds when the curse broke.
“My queen, my Nexus, my sovereign bond. In this life and every life to follow.”
When I spoke mine back, power exploded through the hall, binding us as a Faction not of convenience…
…but of destiny.
All six of my men standing together.
Trent is more than prepared and eager to make amends for the many wrongs he’s done in this life. As his Nexus and queen, I couldn't ask for anything more.