I wake up to sunlight cutting through the cracked windows of the abandoned house like it's got something to prove. Warm, gentle. A lie.
Ren's still asleep beside me, one arm flung over his eyes, chest rising and falling with the kind of peace I've never really had. Not in this life. Not in the dozen before it.
I sit up slowly, trying not to disturb him. My fingers instinctively touch the pendant around my neck. Cold metal. Still. But something in me… isn't.
That vision in the mirror; it won't leave me alone. I was smiling. With the God of Death. Holding his hand like he was my whole world. Like I loved him.
But I know I didn't. I hated him. I remember pain, chains, cold rooms with no doors. I remember his voice twisting around my name like it was something he owned.
So why was I smiling?
I slip off the bed, the floorboards creaking under me. I walk over to the mirror again. It's cracked now... maybe from the chaos we caused last night, maybe from something deeper. But when I look into it, I swear the reflection pauses before moving like I do. Like it's thinking.
I stare at myself. "You're not lying," I whisper. "But you're not telling the truth either."
Behind me, I hear the soft rustle of blankets.
"You okay?" Ren's voice is hoarse, laced with sleep.
I nod, but he can see the storm in my eyes. He always does.
"That vision," I say. "The one in the temple. With the God of Death. I was smiling."
Ren's eyes narrow. He sits up. "I saw you too, remember? You weren't smiling."
My breath catches. "What?"
"You were crying," he says, voice low. "You looked... broken. Like someone who lost everything. You were holding his hand, yeah. But you didn't want to."
I sit down beside him, heart thudding like it's made of war drums. "Then why would I see something different?"
Ren shrugs, but it's a helpless kind of gesture. "Maybe he's messing with you. Or maybe... you're not remembering everything."
And that's when the thought hits me—ice water to the soul.
What if part of me did love him?
Not me now. Not the girl who escaped the curse. But another version. One that never got away. One that still belongs to him.
A split soul. A broken god. A love story rewritten in chains.
The pendant feels heavier around my neck, like it's waiting for something. Or someone.
Ren watches me, his expression unreadable. Then, without a word, he reaches out and unclasps the pendant.
Before I can ask what he's doing, he slips it over his own head.
And the moment it touches his skin; he jerks back like he's been stabbed.
"Ren?" I reach for him, but he's already gone still, eyes wide and unfocused.
Then he speaks. But it's not to me.
It's to the memory.
"You betrayed me."
The air in the room drops. Cold. Heavy. The walls shimmer, ripple.
And behind Ren, where the shadows used to be empty—
A figure stands.
Not fully formed. Just shape and shadow and power. But I know exactly who it is.
The God of Death has found us again.