(Zander's POV)
The Veil Woods are trying to kill me.
Not through the curse—though that's doing a fine job on its own. No, the forest is using something worse. It's showing me visions of Aria.
We've been walking for six hours since she saved my life again. She hasn't looked at me once. Hasn't spoken to me. She walks with Lyric at the front of our group, laughing at something he says.
And it's killing me more than the curse ever could.
Through our broken bond, I feel her emotions. She's not as cold as she pretends. Underneath the anger, there's confusion. Hurt. And something that might be longing.
The vision the forest showed her—I felt echoes of it through our connection. She saw our life together. The one I destroyed when I rejected her.
"You're staring again," Cassian says quietly beside me.
I tear my eyes away from Aria. "I'm not—"
"You've been staring at her for the past hour." The old man smiles sadly. "The mate bond may be broken, but your feelings aren't."
"It doesn't matter what I feel," I say bitterly. "She hates me. She should hate me."
"Perhaps." Cassian studies me with those violet eyes so like Aria's. "But hate and love are closer than you think. Both require caring deeply."
Before I can respond, the forest shifts.
One moment we're walking through glowing trees. The next, I'm standing alone in complete darkness.
"Aria?" I call out. "Lyric? Cassian?"
No answer. Just echoing silence.
Another vision. The forest separated us.
A light appears ahead—golden and warm. I walk toward it, knowing it's probably a trap but having no choice.
The light grows brighter. I step into a clearing and my breath catches.
It's the Lunar Temple. The night of the Claiming ceremony. Everything looks exactly as it did.
And there's Aria, standing at the back in that borrowed gray dress, looking small and hopeful and so beautiful it hurts.
"No," I whisper. "Not this. Please not this."
But the vision continues. I watch myself walk across the temple floor. Watch Aria's face light up with joy as I approach.
Watch myself destroy her.
"I, Zander Corvus, Alpha Prime of the Shadow Realm, reject you as my mate."
Aria collapses. The sound she makes—broken and dying—echoes through the clearing.
"Stop it!" I shout at the forest. "I know what I did! I don't need to see it again!"
But the vision rewinds. Plays again. And again. Each time, I watch Aria's hope shatter. Watch her fall. Watch myself walk away.
"This is what you are," a voice whispers through the trees. "A coward who destroys the precious to protect the worthless."
"I know!" I fall to my knees. "I know what I am!"
The vision shifts. Now I see Aria at the sanctuary, training with Lyric. She's smiling—really smiling, the kind of joy I never gave her. Lyric says something and she laughs, bright and free.
They're standing close. Too close.
Jealousy burns through me like acid.
"She could love him," the forest whispers. "He valued her from the beginning. He never hurt her. He's everything you're not."
"Stop."
"Why should she choose you? You rejected her. Called her worthless. Broke her soul." The whispers grow louder. "Lyric would never do that. He'd cherish her. Protect her. Love her the way you couldn't."
I watch vision-Aria lean into Lyric's embrace. Watch her look at him with trust and warmth.
The bond between us screams in agony.
"She deserves better than me," I admit to the empty forest. "She deserves someone who saw her worth from the start."
"Then why fight for her?" the forest asks.
"Because I'm selfish." The truth tears out of me. "Because even knowing she'd be happier without me, I can't let her go. Because the thought of her with someone else makes me want to burn the world down."
The vision vanishes. I'm alone in darkness again.
"Pathetic," the forest whispers. "You'd condemn her to a bond with a man who destroyed her, just to satisfy your own obsession."
"Yes." There's no point lying. "I'm pathetic. Selfish. Unworthy. But I love her anyway."
Light floods the clearing. I shield my eyes.
When I can see again, Aria stands in front of me. The real Aria, not a vision. She's staring at me with wide eyes.
"What did you say?" she whispers.
My blood runs cold. "How long have you been here?"
"Long enough." Her voice shakes. "The forest separated us. Then it brought me here right as you were talking to yourself." She steps closer. "Did you mean it? What you just said?"
Through our bond, I feel her emotions spiraling—shock, anger, confusion, and underneath it all, something that might be hope.
I could lie. Protect myself. Maintain some dignity.
But I'm done lying to her.
"Yes," I say quietly. "I love you. I've loved you since the moment our bond formed. That's why I rejected you—because loving you terrified me more than anything in my life."
Aria's breath hitches. Tears shine in her violet eyes.
"You don't get to say that," she says, voice breaking. "You don't get to reject me and then claim you love me. Love doesn't work that way."
"I know." I stay on my knees. "What I feel doesn't matter. It doesn't change what I did. It doesn't earn your forgiveness."
"Then why tell me?"
"Because the forest demanded truth." I meet her eyes. "And because you deserve to know that when I destroyed us, I destroyed myself too. Every day without you has been torture. Watching you laugh with Lyric, seeing you grow stronger, knowing I could have had that if I'd just been brave enough—it's worse than this curse could ever be."
Aria wipes her eyes angrily. "You're trying to manipulate me."
"No." I shake my head. "I'm trying to be honest. Finally."
She stares at me for a long moment. Through the bond, I feel her warring emotions. Part of her wants to believe me. Part of her wants to hate me forever.
"The vision the forest showed me," she says finally. "Our life together. Our daughter." Her voice cracks. "Was that real? Could we really have had that?"
"Yes." The word comes out broken. "If I hadn't been a coward, that could have been our future."
"But you were a coward."
"Yes."
"And now it's too late."
I want to argue. To fight. To tell her it's not too late, we can still have that future.
But she's right. I killed that possibility when I rejected her.
"I'm sorry," I whisper. "For everything. I know it's not enough, but I'm so, so sorry."
Aria closes her eyes. A tear slides down her cheek.
Then the forest shifts again.
The ground beneath us cracks open. Aria screams as she starts to fall. I lunge forward and grab her wrist, but we're both falling now, tumbling into darkness.
We hit the ground hard in a cavern deep below the forest. Glowing moss provides dim light.
Aria scrambles away from me, checking for injuries. "What just happened?"
"The forest." I struggle to my feet. The curse flares painfully—that fall accelerated it. "It's testing us. Separating us. Trying to break us."
"Well, it's working." Aria looks around frantically. "Where are the others?"
"I don't know." I try to sense them through my Alpha connection but feel nothing. "The forest has us trapped."
A low growl echoes through the cavern.
We both freeze.
Something moves in the shadows—something big. Multiple somethings. Eyes glow in the darkness. Dozens of them.
"What are those?" Aria whispers.
The creatures step into the light. They're made of shadows and nightmares—wolf-like but wrong. Twisted. Their mouths open to reveal too many teeth.
"Shadow beasts," I breathe. "The forest's guardians. They hunt anyone who fails its tests."
"Did we fail?" Aria asks, voice tight with fear.
Before I can answer, the beasts attack.
I shift into my wolf form despite the curse screaming through my body. Aria's hands glow violet. We fight back-to-back, just like during the battle with Morrigan.
But there are too many. And I'm too weak.
A beast's claws rake across my side. I howl in pain. The curse accelerates, shadows consuming more of my body.
"Zander!" Aria blasts the beast away, then grabs my arm. "We have to merge our powers again!"
"It'll accelerate the curse—"
"You're dying anyway!" She pulls me close. "Either we do this together or we die here separately!"
Through the bond, I feel her determination. Her fear. And underneath it all, something that might be—
Our powers merge.
Violet light and curse shadows explode outward in a massive wave. The shadow beasts disintegrate, screaming as they vanish.
Aria and I stand together, our combined power swirling around us like a storm. Through our connection, I feel everything she feels. Every emotion. Every thought.
Including the truth she's been hiding from herself.
She doesn't hate me. Not completely.
Part of her still loves me too.
"Aria,"
I whisper.
She looks up at me, eyes wide with the same realization.
And then the cavern collapses.