🔁 Previously…
Since the Fifth Ritual, Lynx has been haunted by an unseen force.
A presence slithers through his dreams. A voice lives in his skin.
The Seer screamed of a faceless woman. Kaethe called her a curse.
And in his dream of shattered mirrors, she whispered:
"I am not one of your lovers.
I am one of your consequences."
The Sixth is not someone to seduce.
She is someone he once abandoned.
And she has returned.
🌑 Shadows of Memory
They camped in silence that night.
Lynx could feel her presence growing—like a second heartbeat in his chest. He sat alone, staring into the fire, when Kaethe approached, pale as snow.
"She's not just a curse, Lynx," she whispered. "She's someone you loved. Or… someone who loved you. Once."
"How would you know?"
"I don't. But she hates you too intimately to be anything else."
That night, Lynx took the Seer's hand.
"Send me back," he said.
"To the moment I forgot."
Her blind eyes opened. And the world turned black.
🕯️ Memory Unsealed
He awoke in chains.
Not real ones—chains made of memory, guilt, fear.
He was younger. Unmasked. Drenched in blood.
And she was standing in front of him.
The Sixth.
But now, she had a name.
"Thalia," he whispered.
She smiled, broken and beautiful. Hair wild, eyes filled with tears.
"You remember now?"
He nodded slowly.
"You were the healer. The one I left behind in the siege."
"I begged you not to go."
"And I went anyway. With the sword."
"You never came back."
"I died."
Thalia stepped closer. Her body was no longer entirely human. Her skin shimmered with necrotic magic. Her eyes bled shadow. Her mouth trembled as if stuck between weeping and grinning.
"I waited for you. I died waiting."
💔 What Lynx Forgot
Thalia had been his first love.
Before Kaethe. Before Rika. Before the sword chose him.
She was the only one who ever saw him without ambition—without rage.
And she had died during the Siege of Ovrin, the night Lynx abandoned his unit to hunt the cursed artifact that would become Nyxfang.
He had told himself her death was collateral.
But now he knew the truth:
He didn't forget her.
He buried her.
🩸 The Sixth Ritual — Let Her Speak
"You've performed five rituals," Thalia said, circling him.
"Each one left a scar. Each one gave you power."
She stepped close, breath cold as winter.
"If you want the Sixth… you don't get to take me."
"You must let me take you."
Lynx stood silent.
And dropped his sword.
Thalia kissed him.
But it wasn't passion.
It was punishment.
Her mouth was cold. Her hands trembled. Her magic seeped into his veins—not burning, but freezing.
She moaned not with lust… but with grief.
"You're not a god," she whispered against his lips.
"You're a graveyard with a crown."
And then she entered him—not his body, but his soul.
Pain. Memory. Regret. All of it flooded back.
He screamed.
She didn't stop.
When it ended, he collapsed.
And the mark carved itself onto her back: a heart wrapped in thorns, bleeding black fire.
The Sixth Ritual was complete.
But Lynx no longer felt whole.
A part of him now belonged to her.
🕷️ Aftermath
The Seer watched him wake.
"You went back."
"I did."
"You brought her with you."
"Yes."
From the trees behind them, the others sensed it.
A presence now walked among them. No longer a ghost. Not quite alive.
Thalia had returned.
And she wasn't leaving.
🌒 Next Chapter — "When Ghosts Sleep Beside You"
Lynx's harem is no longer a collection of passion and loyalty.
There is tension. Fear. Envy.
Thalia does not love the others.
And she does not forgive.
In the shadows of night, old memories stir…
And someone plots betrayal.
❤️🔥 Feeling haunted yet?
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