Meanwhile, in the forest.
Alwin burst through the treeline with Aria in his arms. Not a scratch marred her, though her small frame trembled as daylight seared her eyes. For a heartbeat she was blinded, the world only a blur of white and ringing silence.
Then a voice—low, steady, achingly familiar.
"Aria, are you alright?" Abigel's shadow loomed, his face pale with worry despite the blood dripping from his wounds.
Relief swelled in her chest. She managed a fragile smile. "I'm fine."
Her gaze lifted, and found him.
Icarus.
He stood apart, staff in hand, watching her as he always did. Silent, unreadable, as though he had seen this moment before. But there was something… wrong. A stillness in him that made her heart falter.
The next instant shattered everything.
A silver flash—too quick to stop.
The sound of steel splitting flesh cracked through the air.
The dagger plunged through Icarus's chest, bursting out in a spray of crimson. His pristine white uniform darkened in an instant. His body jerked, a gasp torn from his lips.
"No!"
The cry tore from more than one throat—Abigel, Alwin, Aria herself.
The blade slid free with a sickening hiss. Icarus stumbled forward, collapsing—only for Aria to lunge, catching him before he struck the ground. Blood soaked her hands, hot and slick, painting her arms scarlet.
Her breath shattered into sobs. "Icarus!"
All around, the world had stilled. Abigel stood frozen, eyes wide in horror. Alwin's blade half-raised, trembling. Even Umbros and the familiars hissed in disbelief, the forest thick with the weight of betrayal.
Because when Aria's gaze lifted—when she saw who stood behind Icarus, dagger dripping red—
The air itself seemed to collapse.
Her lips quivered, refusing the truth her eyes delivered. Her heart stopped.
"You…" she whispered, the word splintering into silence.
No one had expected this face.
No one.
"Why…?" Aria screamed, her voice breaking, raw with disbelief. Her heart burned like fire, every beat crushing her chest as if it would burst. Through the bond she could feel Icarus's pain—his heartbeat slowing, his life slipping—and her own tears blurred her vision.
"No, no, stay with me," she begged, pressing her trembling hands over the wound, blood spilling warm and fast through her fingers. "Please… please, Icarus… don't leave me."
Her eyes darted upward, desperate for reason—only to meet hers.
"Lilly…" Aria's lips quivered, the name choking her. "Why…?"
Lilly stood there, dagger clutched firm, scarlet dripping from the blade. Her face was twisted with anguish, but her grip never faltered. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she bit her lip hard enough to draw blood. She looked like a woman already broken—yet still resolute.
"I loved him," Lilly whispered, her voice splintering. "Even before you. For so long. But he never once—never once—looked at me the way he looked at you, Aria…"
Her body shook, but her eyes burned with a madness sharpened by years of longing.
"I waited," she went on, louder now, her tone rising to a shriek as her tears turned wild. "I waited all these years! Every time I tried to speak to him… only your name came from his lips. Every time his eyes lit up, it was only for you!"
Her voice cracked into hysteria. "I hated it. I hated you! Aria the princess, Aria the duchess's heir… Aria, Aria, Aria—always you!"
Aria's own tears fell fast, mixing with Icarus's blood as her vision swam. This wasn't some enemy. This wasn't some stranger. This was her best friend—the girl she had grown up with, shared secrets with, laughed with under the same stars.
Lilly's lips curled into a trembling smile, her tears never stopping. "Do you know… I enjoyed your suffering? Every time you were hurt, kidnapped, when you bled—I prayed you'd die then and there. But no… you always survived."
Her laugh cracked like broken glass, manic, unsteady.
"That's when I thought…" she whispered, eyes shining with cruel delight. "If I poisoned you, no one would suspect me. After all, the South Duchy already has enemies everywhere. Who would ever think it was me? And so I waited for your coming-of-age ceremony."
Her smile widened, deranged. "And it worked. I saw you spitting blood, gasping your last breath. I thought finally—finally—you would be gone."
Her voice dropped, venom soft as silk.
"But then your power awakened. And you lived. Again."
Her laughter rang, jagged and shrill, echoing through the forest like the cry of something unholy.
Memories slammed back into place—dinner at the celebration, Lilly's smile hidden behind polite laughter as she guided Aria toward the ceremonial seat. The room had glittered; everyone had watched. No one had seen what Lilly had planned.
"Even then," Lilly breathed, voice low and raw, "I put the curse on you—with the help of that foolish count. I thought it would finish you. But then I realized… Icarus had bound his soul to you. How could I hurt you without hurting him?" Her hands trembled as the words left her.
Aria's fingers tightened around Icarus as if to hold him close. He lay pale and still in her lap, and the sight of him made Lilly's confession slice deeper.
"When I heard you went north, I sent him letters—countless letters—pouring out my heart. He never answered." Lilly's eyes cut to Icarus, and for a moment she sounded like a child betrayed. "Then I heard—he's busy learning to sleep beside you." Her laugh was brittle and broken. "While I drowned, you two shared his bed."
She jabbed a finger at Abigel as if accusing the world itself. "I thought if he saw you with him—if he saw you with Abigel—he'd hate you. But….How the hell he can love you like this and never love me …"
"Lilly… I didn't know. You never told me," Aria whispered, hurt folding into confusion.
"Of course not," Lilly spat. "Put on your innocent face now—pure Aria. You wicked thing. You stole him from me. You took him away." Her voice rose, raw with years of held-back venom.
Aria shut her eyes. "I always loved him, Lilly. I—" Her words came out small, trembling. "I pushed him away to keep him safe from my miseries."
"No." Lilly's laugh turned ugly. "You can have anything in this kingdom—power, title, a throne—but all I ever wanted was him. And you took that too." Her lips twisted. "Aren't you happy now? He's yours—even as he's bleeding out."
Aria's hands rose on an instinct she had practiced a thousand times—palms glowing for a heartbeat, fingers trembling as she tried to call the golden light that never fully answered her anymore.
"There's no point," Lilly said, stepping forward with a terrible, calm smile. "It's a soul-binding dagger. It pierced him straight through his heart—pierced the tether. He can't draw on his aura." Her voice was quiet, almost maternal, and that made it worse.
Aria's world narrowed to the sight of Icarus: pale, chest heaving, life seeping into the earth in slow, crimson lungs. Kirael beat frantic circles above them and then dropped down to settle at Icarus's shoulder, ruffling her feathers as if she could warm him. The familiar's wings fluttered with sharp, exhausted breaths; her noises sounded like sobs.
"Icarus—please be strong," Aria pleaded, voice raw. "Please—please don't leave me."
"Icarus," Alwin said, desperate, kneeling to press his hands against the wound where steel had shorn flesh. He felt for a pulse that grew thinner with every breath. Abigel stood stiff as a spear, Umbros whispering at his side like a tide of grief.
Lilly's smile did not falter. "Now you know how I felt all these years." Her eyes glittered wetly. "I watched him look at you. I watched him love you. And I could not take it. I had to make you watch him slip away."
Aria's hands shook so violently the light quivered and died at her fingertips. "No—no—" she whispered, pressing both palms into Icarus's chest in a useless prayer. "Heal him. Please."
Kirael rasped, pressing her beak to Icarus's temple as if to pull him back. The air smelled of iron and smoke and something older—regret. The forest answered with a single long cry, the sound of a world aching.
"You won't die," Lilly said softly, as if granting a mercy. "Your aura will keep you alive—that is your fate. But watching him fade… that is what I wanted. To make you understand."
The words landed like a blade. Around them, the camp blurred into a haze of faces—some screaming, some frozen. Aria felt time stretch and splinter; somewhere, a clock stopped. She could feel Icarus's heartbeat, slowing, then fluttering, then thinning like a candle guttering in wind. Her soul-thread thrummed frantically—reaching, begging.
"Stay with me," she sobbed into his chest. "Hold on—please—"
Icarus's fingers twitched once against her wrist.
Icarus's eyes closed. A single tear tracked down his cheek, then he drew one last breath. Aria held him to her, body trembling as she felt that small, failing life slip away. She cried into his shoulder, the sound raw and endless.
Her gaze slid across him to Lilly. The betrayal there had been a wound; what came next was worse than any blade. Lilly stood pale, the dagger still slick in her hand, her face collapsing into a terrible, exhausted peace. "What is the point of living without him?" she whispered—and with no pause, she drove the blade to her throat. Her yellow gown flamed red. She crumpled to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut.
"Lilly…" Aria's voice broke, barely more than a breath. She tightened her arms around Icarus as if by pressure she could will him back, but the world had narrowed to the clamour of her own grief. Her sobs rose, spilling out until the forest itself seemed to answer, a keening that shook birds from the trees.
"Why… why am I so useless?" she howled into the sky, clutching at air and memory. "Why couldn't I save them?" Her voice broke against the canopy—an accusation flung at gods and fate—"God, please… bring them back."