With each day that passes, the shadows become harder to fight. If I could end the pain and take the curse with me, I would. Each day without Arabella is more difficult than the last. I spent a lifetime without her, never truly feeling alive, and part of me wishes I could go back to those days, back when my heart was as cold as my country is.The doors slam closed as I walk up to the east wing, and I sigh. For a few days now, the palace has been trying to keep me away from this wing, where the curse is at its strongest… but I can’t stay away. The curse’s pull is too strong, and each time I lose control, I find myself here.I inhale deeply and push against the doors, my magic counteracting the palace’s, until they swing open. The curse has gotten so strong within these walls that I can see black smoke pulling at the mirror, attempting to leach some of its magic. I raise my hands and push my magic against it until it slides back onto the walls, hiding away in natural shadows.“Pythia,” I say, my voice rough. “Show me Arabella.”Pythia appears in front of me and shakes her head. “Forgive me, Your Excellency. I cannot do that. Each time you see her, the darkness overtakes you for a moment. The curse is at its weakest right now—never before has it been this fragile. It is trying its hardest to concentrate its power, and it has chosen you as a vessel. Each time you see Arabella of Althea, you seem to give in to it, letting it possess you. If the curse were to gain access to a vessel as powerful as you are, the world as we know it would end. Everything would be cast in darkness and ice, and every remaining magical being would be lost. It wouldn’t just be the people of Eldiria that would suffer, and I cannot let that happen.”I stare at her, my brows raised. “You are compelled to obey me and mine,” I murmur, the gears in my mind turning.“The binding spell between us was meant to keep me alive and safe from the curse. The curse has weakened sufficiently for it to no longer be a threat to me, and you are no longer strong enough to keep the binding intact.”She smiles and takes a step forward, stepping out of the mirror. I freeze in surprise and take a step back, my eyes widening when I notice the dagger in her hand.“I cannot be killed, Pythia,” I tell her, my voice soft. I’ve tried several times, thinking it might set my people free, but it’s all to no avail.She shakes her head and raises the dagger. “I cannot risk the curse embodying you completely. The future I see is one that cannot come to pass. I’ve tried, Your Excellency. For days I’ve scoured every possibility, every version of your future, and in each one of them you let the darkness possess you fully. In turn, it possesses our world. You must die to rid the world of this curse. It’s you who keeps it alive. To break a curse of this magnitude, a life must be sacrificed. This will end when your bloodline does.”I raise my arms, my thoughts whirling. If what she says is true and death truly is upon me, then what I regret most is that I did not get to say farewell to Arabella. Perhaps in a different life, she and I might find our way back to each other.Pythia pulls the dagger back, her hand trembling. She inhales deeply and strikes, but before the dagger reaches me, her wrist is held in place.“No!” a loud scream resounds through the room, the windows in the tower shattering as the spirit of a woman appears in front of me, her hand on Pythia’s wrist. “Run, Felix! There is no escaping death this time,” she shouts as she pushes Pythia away, flickering out of existence moments later. Pythia falls to the floor and scrambles for her dagger, her resolve seemingly strengthened.“Felix!”I turn to find Arabella in the doorway. She runs up to me, pushing me aside just as Pythia strikes again. I pull all my magic together to push her out of harm’s way, but it’s too late. Pythia’s blade pushes through her chest, and Arabella falls to her knees, her eyes on mine.“No, no, no,” I murmur, taking her into my arms. I try my hardest to take her wounds away, to absorb them within me, but it’s to no avail. Nothing I do makes a difference, and for the first time in decades, I feel completely powerless. “Arabella, please. You cannot leave me, beloved.” My voice breaks, and tears rapidly gather in my eyes. “I’m begging you, please. Hold on for me, my love.”I take her into my arms, and she lifts a trembling hand to my cheek. “I’m sorry,” she whispers, her voice so soft it’s hard to make out her words. “Th-This isn’t how our story was meant to end, but I… I’m grateful I don’t have to live a life without you.” She smiles weakly, and that look in her eyes… it’s as though she knows this is the last time she’ll ever see me, and she’s trying her best to savor the moment. “I… I love you, Felix.” Arabella inhales shakily, and then her eyes flutter closed, her body collapsing in my arms. I cry out as I feel her fade away, her magic fading from our lands slowly, until its subtle hum is gone.Time seems to still as I hold my wife, countless pleas escaping my lips without conscious thought. I pray to every god I have ever known, but my words go unheard.Rage slowly begins to overwhelm me, and at last, I give in, letting the curse take me, in the hope that I might join my wife in death. My strength is leached away as the curse drains me, and I hold my wife tighter as the curse takes control of me. Its first aim is Pythia, a sharp sliver of darkness going straight through her heart, mimicking Arabella’s wounds.I start to lose consciousness as darkness slithers into me, my control over my limbs slipping. Dread settles in my stomach as I look down and watch dark, sticky tendrils of pure malice radiating off me, extending through the windows quickly. Bile rises up my throat when my ears are pierced by the screams of souls the curse is taking all over my beloved country, their magic coursing through my body, one after the other. With each soul lost, the curse gains more sentience, more autonomy, and my body begins to move against my will. I watch in horror as I turn toward the mirror, only to find something akin to a demon smiling back at me.Just as my vision begins to blur, my body is turned to face Arabella, and I watch in shock as she is lifted into the air by magic so pure that it chases away the malice, more of my consciousness returning with each second that passes. An inhuman scream tears through my throat, the curse fighting to cling to me, but I feel it losing strength as water circles around Arabella, shortly followed by circulating air. I watch as vines rise from the floor, circling her, too, the three circles moving over one another. Fire erupts around her body, forming a fourth circle.noveldramaFeeling returns to my limbs when the sky around us lightens, until sunshine illuminates the room through the windows, chasing away the last remnants of darkness. “The curse,” I whisper, feeling it drain out of my body despite its best efforts to cling to me.Arabella opens her eyes, each of the elemental circles disappearing one by one, until she’s lowered to the floor, her wounds gone. She inhales sharply, and my heart starts to race.I reach for her and run my hands over her body, terrified I might be hallucinating. “Felix,” she says, her voice breaking. Could this be true? Or have I truly lost my senses?“Fates, Arabella,” I murmur, pulling her into my embrace. Her floral scent brings me peace of a kind I’ve never known before, and the way her chest rises and falls against me chases away my lingering disbelief. “I thought I lost you, beloved.”She looks into my eyes, her gaze roaming over my features as she cups my face. She looks as much in disbelief as I am. “Felix,” she whispers. “The black veins… they’re disappearing.”I watch my wife as she stares at me in wonder, her hands moving over my face just as I feel the last remnants of the curse drain from my body. A tear runs down her cheek, but even so, she laughs as she traces her finger over my brow. “I didn’t think you could get more handsome,” she whispers, the tip of her finger trailing to my cheekbone, and then my lips.I swallow hard, overwhelmed by emotions as she pulls me closer and kisses me, her movements desperate, as if she, too, didn’t think we’d ever get to experience this again. I kiss my wife the way I’ve been wanting to from the moment she left, and not once does evil reach for me. I lose myself in her, relishing her touch. For a moment, I thought I’d lost her forever.The salt of her tears mixes with the taste of her, and I pull away to kiss her tears, only to be mesmerized by the way the sun kisses her hair and colors her skin golden. She draws a shaky breath as she pulls my forehead to hers with a smile on her face. “We broke the curse, Felix.” Her words are soft, almost like she’s scared to believe it, to say it out loud, and I hug her tightly to me, equally in disbelief.“You came back of your own free will, and a life was freely given out of love,” I whisper, realization dawning. I’d always known that breaking the curse would come at the cost of a life, since a life was given to cast it, but I’d always assumed it’d be mine. “You broke the curse.”“We did,” Arabella tells me. “We did.”