"NANCY!"
Kai lunged forward instantly.
Too late.
The shadows yanked her backward so hard her shoulder nearly dislocated. Black tendrils coiled around her torso, throat, wrists—binding her in place above the abyss.
The fracture to the real world began sealing itself shut immediately.
Leo swore loudly.
"No no no NO—"
Evan grabbed the edge of the crack desperately as silver light slipped through his fingers.
"Kai!"
But Kai wasn't listening anymore.
Because Nancy was smiling.
Not happily.
Not peacefully.
Just… resigned.
And that terrified him more than anything else.
"Nancy," he said sharply, voice breaking at the edges, "don't you dare do this."
The Veil pulsed around her.
Satisfied.
Ancient hunger echoed through the darkness like distant thunder.
One remains.
Balance restored.
Nancy's breathing shook.
Inside—
Nyra was furious.
You cannot trust it.
"I know."
Then why—
"Because I couldn't let it take him."
The words came out smaller than she intended.
Honest.
Kai's expression shattered completely.
The shadows dragged her farther away from the fracture.
He fought violently against Leo and Evan holding him back.
"KAI STOP—" Leo yelled.
"She's doing this on purpose!" Evan shouted. "If you jump in there she'll kill us herself!"
"I DON'T CARE!"
That silence afterward—
it hit harder than screaming.
Because Kai meant it.
Nancy stared at him.
The Veil went strangely still around them, almost studying the moment.
Kai's chest heaved unevenly as he looked at her like losing her was physically tearing him apart.
And suddenly—
Nancy understood something she'd been avoiding for a very long time.
Oh.
Oh no.
It wasn't just attachment.
Wasn't just survival.
Wasn't just trust built through chaos and fear and shared trauma.
It was him.
It had always somehow become him.
The realization hurt.
Because she discovered it at the exact moment she might lose him forever.
The Veil whispered softly against her thoughts:
Love makes mortals easy to break.
Nancy almost laughed weakly.
"Yeah," she whispered back. "I noticed."
Kai stepped toward the closing fracture again.
Slowly this time.
Carefully.
Like approaching something wounded.
"Nancy."
Her eyes met his instantly.
"I'm getting you out."
The certainty in his voice nearly destroyed her composure.
"You can't."
"Watch me."
Despite everything—
despite the terror clawing through her chest—
she smiled a little.
God.
He was impossible.
The fracture shrank smaller behind him.
The Veil's shadows tightened around Nancy possessively.
Time was running out.
Nyra's voice suddenly cut through the chaos.
Wait.
Nancy frowned internally.
What?
The Veil made a mistake.
The shadows paused.
Then Nyra said something that changed everything.
It accepted a bargain without naming terms.
Nancy's pulse stopped.
The Veil had been so focused on claiming her—
it hadn't completed the binding conditions.
Ancient entities.
Ancient rules.
And rules mattered.
Realization flashed through Nancy instantly.
A loophole.
The Veil sensed it a second too late.
The silver light inside Nancy surged violently.
The darkness around her recoiled.
"You said," Nancy whispered carefully, "that one remains."
The Veil trembled.
Yes.
Nancy's eyes sharpened.
"You never said where."
Silence.
Then—
the Veil exploded in rage.
The shadows around her lashed wildly as the ancient presence realized exactly what she meant.
Nyra laughed.
Actually laughed.
Brilliant.
Kai looked deeply confused.
"…Should I be concerned when the creepy dimension goes silent like that?"
"Yes," Nancy and Nyra answered simultaneously.
The Veil attacked immediately.
Too late.
Nancy slammed both hands against the black restraints holding her.
Silver light detonated outward.
"I ACCEPT THE BARGAIN," she shouted, voice echoing across the abyss, "BUT I CHOOSE WHAT STAYS!"
The Veil screamed.
Reality cracked again.
And behind Nancy—
something separated from her shadow.
A figure.
Humanoid.
Dark.
Silver-eyed.
The entity inside her.
Nyra's prison.
The thing the Veil had been feeding on since the beginning.
For the first time—
it was outside her body.
The Veil froze.
Because Nancy had not offered herself.
She had offered the darkness that lived within her.
And the Veil—
bound by its own rules—
had no choice but to take it.