The fire was dying.
They had camped at the edge of the forgotten woods. Even the moon dared not follow them here. All around, branches reached like black fingers, and the wind spoke like ghosts.
Haken sat apart, near the embers, his body tense.
His claws had returned.
> "It's too early," he muttered. "It's not the moon yet."
His breath came in bursts. Sweat ran down his spine.
He felt his bones shift, just beneath the skin.
I'm losing time.
Vivi knelt beside him. She had seen this before—once, as a child.
A boy trembling under a tree… then fur, fangs, blood.
But this was worse.
Because now, she knew him.
"Let me help," she whispered.
No," he growled. "You shouldn't see me like this."
"I already have. And I'm still here."
She brought out the scroll. The one they'd taken from the ruins.
A ritual. Ancient. Dangerous.
One that could break the curse inside him.
"It says the blood of the sealed can cleanse the cursed," she said, voice shaking.
"If I use my name—Virelya—it might be enough."
Haken stared at her, eyes wild and glowing.
"No. If you break the seal, Viper gets through. You die."
And if I do nothing?" she snapped. "You turn. You kill. We lose everything anyway."
A long silence.
Then Haken looked at her not with fear, but with clarity.
"If you speak your true name," he said, "there's no going back. You won't just lose the seal. You might lose you."
She reached for his hand. It trembled in hers.
"Then let me lose what I was," she said, voice fierce, "and become who I need to be."
She spoke.
"I am Virelya last flame of the old blood. In fire, I remember."
Light poured from her mouth. From her chest. From her eyes.
It wasn't pain it was memory.
She remembered being born under stars that screamed.
She remembered her mother crying with a ring in hand.
She remembered the wolf boy who never hurt her, even when he could.
And she remembered her oath—to never let the world burn again.
Haken collapsed. His breath returned. The claws retracted.
But his eyes
They weren't gold anymore.
They were silver.
What happened?" he whispered.
Vivi smiled, exhausted.
I broke the curse."
"But the seal…"
"Is cracking," she said softly. "And Viper will feel it."
She stood on shaking legs.
"We just started a war."
Far away, in the Queen's chambers, the cursed ring began to glow.
In the ruins of the garden, ash rose like snow.
And deep in a forgotten realm, Viper opened his eyes…
"So... the girl remembers."