Chapter 29 #2
“Hey, monster slumped on the floor,” Nyla scoffed, wiping away a tear in one swift motion. “What has Zelda ordered of you this time?”
Arawn tipped his head back, staring at the ceiling.
“She ordered me to slaughter my home village. She says I’ve lost my edge.
There was… a librarian. He reminded me of someone from my old life, but it was all a blur.
” He shook his head, a muscle twitching in his jaw.
“It doesn’t matter. I left no survivors. At least Zelda suspects nothing.”
“Good. We don’t have a choice.” She clenched her fists to hide their tremor. “You won’t betray me, will you?”
“I may be a monster, but what monster enjoys being chained? Zelda has her toys, her slaves, her unfair bargains, I don’t want to be their keeper and their executioner. She’s almost hollow now. She’s not who she once was.”
“Don’t tell me she used to be charming. I wouldn’t believe you.” Nyla held out a soft marshmallow. “Eat. I used to make these for my daughter.”
I collapsed to my knees, holding my breath, as if that alone could pause the memory here. My daughter.
“It’s the first time you’ve admitted out loud you have a daughter,” Arawn said with a dark chuckle.
“Because I didn’t trust you. And besides, it’s none of your concern.”
He bit into the sweet. “Is she a confectioner too?”
“No,” my mentor said. “She was not blessed by the golden apples. Her heart has too many cracks for the sugar to fully answer, but… I couldn’t shatter her dream.”
A fissure split inside me. Like a cut you don’t feel yet, but that already bleeds.
My hand clutched my chest. So Nyla had never believed in me?
All of it… was just to keep a little girl’s grief busy until she figured out on her own she didn’t belong.
My fingers dug harder until my nails pierced the fabric.
“You gave her a grimoire and that damn letter, knowing perfectly well she’d never unlock it. You’re more cruel than I thought.”
“If she applies what I taught her, she’ll have a few recipes, and that will be enough… And one day, she’ll grow up, let it go, and live a better life far away from all this.”
Sugar was my whole life. How could she think that? She had watched me. She had seen me try again and again, day after day. She had said that if I worked harder, I’d be like her. My lungs didn’t have enough air left to cry. I wanted to scream. To demand an explanation. I just wanted the truth.
“You’re wrong. Nothing is more stubborn than a child’s dream,” Arawn murmured.
Nyla slumped against the edge of the counter, struggling to stay upright.
You lied to me, Nyla. You looked at me every day with that same smile… and you didn’t even believe in me. Why… Why didn’t you ever tell me?
The image shifted. Nyla stood in Zelda’s orchard, cane in hand, on a balcony suspended in the clouds, at the mountain’s peak. The trees were bare, their branches stretched toward the void like weary hands.
I felt Arawn’s presence at my side slip away, as though he couldn’t bear to face what came next. The Arawn of the memory stormed in, his steps quick toward Nyla.
“What are you doing? The kitchen is on fire. The guards are searching for the culprit!”
Nyla turned, her arm blackened by dark magic creeping up to her neck. “I couldn’t cook the sucremort for the elixir. My heart isn’t in it anymore. I… I can’t.”
“Even if I have to rip your arm off, you will finish it!” Arawn roared.
The elixir to end his life. But if even Nyla hadn’t been able to make it, what hope was left for me? An explosion thundered in the distance. Nyla rested her hand against the nearest tree, her legs trembling.
“They say confectioners are reborn as orchards… if their heart is pure enough,” she said, meeting Arawn’s eyes. “Zelda’s corruption hasn’t yet touched mine… It isn’t fully blackened.”
“Where is the elixir, Nyla!” Arawn pressed.
She gave a faint smile. “We all have monsters inside us. But it’s up to us to choose whether we control them or let them control us. You can control yours. Don’t be afraid of what you are.”
She placed a hand on her chest, her shoulders sagging and her back bowed. My heart clenched to see her like this, when she had been the very image of strength itself.
“Now do what you promised, Sorcerer.”
“You’re a coward!” Arawn shouted, his fist tight.
“You’re just jealous.”
Arawn pulled off his glove, stepping toward her with heavy strides. “Any last words?”
Nyla lifted her eyes to him and smiled. “Look at the stars for me, will you? Someone has to keep looking at them.”
He nodded. The stars on his bedroom ceiling were the promise he had made to her.
She closed her eyes. “I was wrong about so many things. But I am sure of one thing: it always takes a monster to do what no one else dares. Sometimes it’s in the shadows that the light is born.”
And Arawn plunged his hand into her chest.
A sickening sound. A brutal tearing. Nyla’s skin split beneath his fingers in the icy air. He pulled out her heart, glowing with golden light, but already veined with dark streaks.
“Nyla!” I screamed, my throat tearing with the cry.
She fell in slow motion, her body hitting the ground.
Her smile lingered only as a ghost of satisfaction, as if she welcomed this end.
Horror twisted my stomach. Nyla had always said that, after her death, she would become an orchard to watch over those she loved.
It was the end she wanted, but Arawn had robbed me of ever seeing her again.
He had robbed me of demanding the truth.
He pressed the still beating heart into the soil without a word. The earth drank the organ as an offering. Not a single emotion cracked his mask of ice. Then he bowed.
“Your soul is saved.”
He turned, his coat snapping in the air.
A storm of mist surged through the palace like a black wave, ravenous and relentless.
The guards didn’t even have time to scream before they were cut down.
He spared no one. Not a soul. Zelda’s castle crumbled under his wrath, pillars collapsing, stained glass shattering into a thousand shards.
Mist slithered through every crack, creeping, venomous, suffocating the weak.
And him… he gave himself over. His bones cracked. His wings tore free. His fangs sharpened. His claws lengthened. His horns grew. He split the skies, a creature born of curses and vengeance.
At the highest tower of the castle, Zelda awaited. Slouched in her chair, cigar between her fingers, her bored expression clashing with the chaos collapsing around her.
“All this for that?” she scoffed. “I expected such foolishness from that confectioner. But you, Arawn? You were like a son to me.”
He lunged at her. Zelda vanished in a puff of ashes and reappeared across the room, snapping her fingers to unleash a rain of daggers. They buried into his flesh. Arawn ripped them out without flinching and swept the room with a wave of mist.
“You’ve already used too much magic,” Zelda taunted. “You’ll die at this rate. Let’s talk it over.”
Arawn slipped into the shadows and emerged behind her, in human form, his fingers clamping around her throat. “It’s over, Zelda. You’re weaker than me in close combat.”
“Don’t forget I saved you,” she breathed.
“Will you really kill me? Me, the only one who ever believed in you? Who gave you a home for centuries? Who loved you like a son? Without me, you’ll have no one.
You’ll be alone.” Zelda turned to face him, a solitary tear sliding down her cheek.
She raised her hand as if to stroke his face, then withdrew it at once.
“You wouldn’t kill your mother, would you? ”
Arawn’s grip faltered, his muscles stiffening. “Our contract is finished. I will never serve you again.”
Zelda collapsed to her knees, her throat marked crimson where he had touched her, her skin withering.
Yet instead of fear, malice gleamed in her eyes.
“I was far too lenient with you. If I could rewrite our contract, everything would be different. I gave you everything, left you the choice, and all I asked in return was—”
“Eternal slavery,” Arawn cut in, his gaze blazing. “I’m the one who blackens his soul for you, while you hoard your magic. How is that fair?! You want me to become your greatest Cursed. But you didn’t expect me to resist this long.”
Zelda conjured a staff to haul herself up, a sly grin on her red lips. “No, I did not. But you forget one thing, I must collect what I’m owed.”
Her arm shot out before he could react. Her fingers pierced his chest. Arawn staggered, frozen, paralyzed by the magic flooding his veins. Zelda ripped out his human heart. She held it aloft before him. A black organ, streaked with violet veins, beating faintly in her pale hand.
“This weakness belongs to me,” she whispered, caressing the organ. “It’s this heart that trapped you in the confectioner’s snare. But I forgive you. The weaker you are, the easier it is for me to remind you what it means to be human!”
She squeezed, and Arawn clutched his temples as if to stop his mind from shattering. He let out a scream that blasted the tower walls apart. His eyes blazed like a burning sun, bleeding crimson tears.
My breath caught. His human heart carried nothing but sorrow and rage. So that was it. Whenever he drew closer to his humanity, she could torture him—drive him into the unforgivable.
“If you try to kill me again, you’ll become what you fear most. And with that little heart of yours, you will serve me willingly for eternity, my dear Arawn.
So surrender, and I’ll make you forget all those terrible memories.
” She smiled, savoring her triumph, as Arawn shifted into his cursed form.
“That is how I know you’ll return to me one day!
And this time, we will spend eternity together. ”