The day I was supposed to be married was bright and cloudless. What a cruel, beautiful irony.
In the eyes of the pack, I was supposed to become Kael's bride, yet on this very same day, my soul would lose its home.
The castle's great hall was draped in white silk and winter roses. The air was buzzing with excited chatter and laughter.
Every wolf in the territory had gathered, waiting for their Alpha and his Luna.
I was not there.
I stood at the edge of the Underworld, in the realm of eternal twilight where the veil between worlds was at its thinnest.
The fierce wind howled, a bleak, desolate sound that whipped my pristine white gown and unbound hair into a frenzy.
I stood barefoot on the freezing, lifeless earth.
Before me lay the Abyss—a tear between worlds, leading to the Void from which no soul could ever return.
It was strangely peaceful here.
A hoarse, desperate roar ripped through the air. "Elara!"
Kael. He burst from the treeline, his face contorted with sheer panic. His eyes swept the cliff's edge before finally locking onto me.
He lunged forward, only to slam into an invisible wall.
The Underworld's ward—the boundary between worlds—held him back.
He was only a step away from me, yet we were separated by an entire universe.
He was deathly pale, his eyes wide with a terror I had never seen before. "Elara, what are you doing? Stop! Step away from the edge! Now!"
My gaze drifted down to his neck. The bite mark was still there, stamped into his skin. The undeniable proof of his betrayal.
It was absurd. Now, right at the moment he was about to lose me forever, his eyes finally held the fear of losing me.
I gave him one last, faint smile.
Goodbye, Kael.
I stepped into the Void.
The fall was instantaneous, yet endless.
But the moment I crossed the threshold, the Abyss erupted.
Countless vengeful spirits, the angry souls of the unavenged, surged from the depths.
But they didn't tear at my flesh; they tore at Kael's essence within me. Every drop of blood he had fed me over three hundred years turned into a searing brand.
Three centuries of devotion morphed into three centuries of venom, ripping me apart from the inside.
The sweetness of his sacrifice turned to scalding fire, burning my soul to ash.
I curled in on myself, a silent scream ripping from my throat as my very existence felt as though it was being ripped to shreds.
Above, I could faintly see Kael, a tiny figure standing at the edge, pounding his fists helplessly against the barrier, his roars of rage and despair swallowed by the winds of the Abyss.
Three hundred years ago, those were the same hands that had wiped the blood from my lips. "Does it hurt?" he had whispered, his eyes overflowing with love. "I will never let you get hurt again."
Then, his voice shifted, turning sharp and dismissive: "She is dying, Elara. Stop being jealous."
It was over.
The first shudder wrecked through me. It felt like a fissure cracking open deep within my core. It was excruciatingly painful, yet it brought a strange sense of release.
Love, joy, hope, and the blistering agony of betrayal... all of it began to fade, ultimately returning to nothingness.
As the fires of the Abyss raged, I felt my soul shatter. The sound was like a crystal glass breaking in a perfectly silent room.
And then... there was nothing.
I was no more.
