"The thing about goddesses? They bleed, but they never beg."
---
NYRA – IN THE RUINS, BLEEDING
Fire. Smoke. Screams.
Kai's body was pulled out by Leo, coughing, barely conscious.
I didn't see the beam fall until it cracked across my back. My scream was swallowed by the explosion behind me. I fell hard, blood soaking into the concrete.
> "NYRA!"
I saw Celeste's face above me—hair wild, lips trembling, eyes furious.
> "You're not dying. Not now."
She lifted me as if I weighed nothing. Her arms wrapped around my waist like armor.
> "You're bleeding out."
> "Then stitch me with rage."
---
CELESTE – SAFEHOUSE, LATER
I cleaned her wounds.
Nyra didn't whimper. She bit her lip until it bled more than her back.
> "You're reckless," I muttered. "Charging into death like it's an old friend."
> "Sometimes it is."
> "And what about the thing growing inside you?"
She turned to me, weak but fiery.
> "You mean my child. I know whose it is. That doesn't mean I owe him anything."
I pressed a cold cloth against her side.
> "It means you fight smarter."
> "I fight the way I breathe."
I leaned in. My lips near her neck.
> "Then let me be your breath when you can't catch it."
She didn't stop me.
But she didn't lean in either.
> "Not now," she whispered. "Not while my enemies still breathe."
---
LEO – DARK CORRIDOR, UNDERGROUND BUNKER
I followed the scent of metal. And blood.
The clone was wounded. Dragging himself across the hallway, smearing red like an oil painting of war.
> "You're not him," I said, raising my gun.
> "No… I'm worse."
He pressed a button.
A child's voice cried through a speaker.
> "Mama…?"
Aarav.
I froze.
> "You touch him, I burn this place to the ground."
> "Then burn," the clone whispered. "But you'll never be free of him. I'm not just a copy… I'm the part of Ravian he wanted to live."
I shot him.
Once in the leg. Once in the arm.
He grinned through blood.
I pulled the trigger a third time.
This time, silence followed.
---
AARAV – SHADOW CORRIDOR
I held the child tighter.
He was like me. Created. Abandoned. A ghost in a world that didn't ask for him.
> "You're safe now," I whispered.
> "Do you have a mom too?" he asked.
> "Yeah."
> "Is she scary?"
I smiled.
> "She scares monsters into hiding."
---
NYRA – BACK IN BED, NIGHTFALL
I woke up to Sahir pacing.
> "You almost died," he said. "Again."
> "It's kind of my thing."
He stopped pacing. Sat beside me. Eyes dark.
> "I told you once I'd fight for you. But I can't watch you break yourself anymore."
> "Then walk."
He didn't.
Instead, he took my hand.
> "You don't have to choose me. Just promise me you'll live long enough to choose something."
I didn't answer.
Because what if the only thing I wanted was a world with no more choices?
---
CELESTE – ON THE BALCONY
I watched her from above. Always from above. Like a guardian. Like a sinner watching a saint sleep.
> "If she dies," I whispered, "I will gut this world and build her throne from the spines of men."
---
UNKNOWN LOCATION – RAVIAN'S TRUE BODY
He opened his eyes.
Alive.
Intact.
Somewhere in the depths of the mountain labs.
> "They burned the clone."
> "Expected."
He sat up slowly. Every movement like a shadow stretching.
> "Time for resurrection."
---
TO BE CONTINUED…