I could barely breathe as I ran—each step scraping against the earth, each heartbeat screaming one desperate truth: I need to survive.
Not here.
Not in their hands.
Ten years of suffering would not end like this. I would rather die by my own hand than let him be the one to kill me.
"Xena!"
His voice tore through the night like thunder splitting the sky, chasing me through the shadows. My pulse hammered in my chest, fear devouring what little strength I had left. I didn't know where I was going anymore—all I knew was that I had to run. Away from them. Away from him.
He knows.
And once he knows, his father and brother will too. My secret will be no secret anymore. I cannot let them catch me.
When my lungs finally gave out, I stopped. The air stabbed through my throat like needles. Two meters ahead, the world fell away into darkness—
a cliff.
My dead end.
I peered into the abyss, hoping for a way out, but the moment I saw the depth below, I knew—there would be no surviving the fall.
So be it.
If I cannot escape, then I will not be taken alive.
I drew a trembling breath and tightened my grip around the pistol slick with sweat and blood. Tears carved paths down my dirt-streaked face as I turned.
"Xena!"
He stopped a few meters away, the fury in his voice enough to tell me the truth I had long prepared for—this was the end.
A bitter laugh slipped past my cracked lips. Slowly, I turned to face him, to meet his wrath head-on, and end the story that should have ended long ago.
"Poor me," I whispered, my voice trembling with hatred and heartbreak. "There's no escaping hell, is there?"
His eyes darkened—cold, lethal, burning with everything I once mistook for love. Even from where I stood, I could feel his anger cutting into me like shrapnel.
"Don't move. I'll walk closer."
He took one step forward—so did I, backward.
"I said stop right there, Xena!"
His voice echoed into the night, heavy and raw. I was terrified—but I would rather fail together than fail alone.
My eyes softened despite myself. Somewhere beneath the fear, beneath the rage, was something gentler—something that still remembered how to love him. I forced a smile, weak and trembling, before it twisted into the mad grin of a woman who has lost everything.
"You'll never touch me," I said. "Not even in death."
"Stop this, Xena! I won't hurt you—"
"Don't treat me like a fool!" I screamed. "You wanted me dead from the start! I should have killed you when I had the chance! But I didn't—because I was stupid enough to love a monster like you!"
My voice broke. The tears came again, burning hot. For years, I'd lived on vengeance alone, swearing to destroy his father, his brother—his entire family.
And yet… I had fallen in love with one of them.
I raised the gun, the barrel trembling as it found his chest. "I won't let you kill me—or anyone else. I'd rather die than fall into your filthy hands!"
My finger hovered over the trigger. I had killed before, without hesitation. But this time, my hand refused to obey. It shook violently—caught between fear and something far worse: doubt.
He was alone. One pull of the trigger and I could be free.
But my heart… refused.
"Xena, don't! Please!"
I smiled faintly through the blur of tears and took one final step back. "I didn't win," I whispered. "But neither did you."
Our eyes locked for the last time.
And then—
the ground disappeared beneath me.
His face was the last thing I saw before the wind swallowed me whole.
"Xena!" he shouted—his voice shattering with something that almost sounded like grief.
I closed my eyes as the cold air rushed around me, the roar of the sea rising to meet me below.
And in the final breath before the fall ended, I whispered into the wind—
"I love you, Leo."
Then the world vanished into black.