The chamber's eerie silence stretched between them, broken only by the distant echoes of unseen whispers. The air was thick with an unnatural chill, the kind that made the skin crawl as if unseen fingers brushed against bare flesh. Evelyne tightened her grip on the dagger, its cold surface burning against her palm, sending a sharp pulse of energy up her arm. It was almost as if the blade itself recognized the weight of her decision. The thought unsettled her.
She looked at Kael, his emerald eyes darkened with something unreadable—was it fear, or was it something else?
"Every bride who tried to kill me… died instead."
Kael's words from earlier still echoed in her mind, twisting around her thoughts like a serpent coiling around its prey. The sheer certainty in his voice made her uneasy, as if he knew something far beyond what he was telling her. If what he said was true, then the curse wasn't just about her marriage to him—it was about something far more sinister. Someone else was manipulating her.
A slow, shallow breath escaped her lips. Her fingers trembled slightly, but she forced herself to hold steady.
"Evelyne."
Kael's voice was quiet, but firm. He had moved closer without her realizing it. There was a softness in his expression, something bordering on concern.
"You're still hesitating."
She exhaled shakily, her chest rising and falling with uneven rhythm. "Because nothing makes sense, Kael. You say the dagger isn't meant for you, but the spirits—"
"The spirits have been deceived," he interrupted. His tone was sharp, final. "They were once brides like you, trapped in the same cycle. They believed killing me was the answer, and the moment they tried, the curse took them instead."
Evelyne's pulse quickened. Her gaze flickered to the dagger, then back to him. "Then who am I supposed to kill?"
A sudden gust of wind swept through the chamber, cold and unnatural. The torches lining the walls flickered wildly, casting erratic, shifting shadows that danced across the stone. The temperature plummeted, and the distant whispers grew louder, as if something unseen was drawing closer.
Kael's posture stiffened. His muscles tensed beneath his dark coat, his hand twitching toward the sword at his hip.
"We're not alone," he muttered, voice low.
Evelyne barely had time to react before a voice slithered through the darkness.
"You ask the right question, Moonlit Bride… but are you ready for the answer?"
The voice was not human. It was layered, distorted, as if multiple beings spoke at once, their words overlapping in a chilling symphony of torment. The shadows along the walls twisted and converged, forming into a shape—tall, cloaked in darkness, its face obscured by a void of emptiness.
A suffocating presence filled the chamber, pressing down on them like an unseen force, thick with malevolence. Evelyne's breath hitched in her throat. Her instincts screamed at her to run, to flee, to escape this entity that did not belong in the world of the living. But her feet remained rooted in place, trapped by a force stronger than fear.
Kael stepped in front of her, shielding her with his body. His hand rested on his sword, fingers tightening around the hilt. "Show yourself," he demanded, his voice a controlled growl.
The shadow figure let out a slow, hollow chuckle. "Oh, but I already have."
The moment it spoke, Evelyne's mind pulsed with pain. A sudden, blinding pressure filled her skull, forcing her to her knees. A flood of visions erupted before her eyes—ghostly images of past brides, each standing in this very chamber, holding the same dagger. Their faces were blurred, their eyes empty, their bodies trembling as they raised the blade toward Kael.
And then, as if a cruel joke played on repeat, they collapsed lifelessly to the ground.
Evelyne gasped, her hands clutching at her temples. The realization struck her like a cold wave of truth, stealing the breath from her lungs.
"They were never meant to kill you," she whispered, her voice barely audible.
Kael glanced at her sharply. "What do you see?"
Evelyne barely heard him. She turned to the shadow, her heart pounding in her chest. "The dagger… it's not meant for Kael. It's meant for you."
The entity shifted, its form flickering as if unstable. For the first time, it hesitated.
Then, with unnatural speed, it lunged toward her.
The darkness moved like liquid, rushing toward her with impossible force. Kael reacted instantly, drawing his sword and slashing at the entity in a single, fluid motion. But the blade passed through it like smoke, harmless, ineffective. The shadow let out a sharp, crackling laugh, the sound reverberating unnaturally against the stone walls.
"Clever girl… but knowing the truth is not enough."
Evelyne barely had time to react before an invisible force wrapped around her throat. A crushing grip, cold as death itself, lifted her off the ground. Her body convulsed, her fingers clawing at her neck, but there was nothing to grab—no hands, no physical form to fight against. The chamber around her blurred, her vision darkening at the edges.
"Evelyne!" Kael's voice was distant, desperate, but she could no longer focus on him.
Her mind screamed for air, her lungs burning. The dagger in her grip pulsed with energy, a desperate call, a reminder of what she needed to do. In that moment, clarity cut through the haze of suffocation—this was the moment where every past bride had failed.
This was why they had died.
With the last of her strength, she tightened her grip and plunged the dagger into the shadow's core.
A piercing, inhuman scream erupted, shaking the very walls of the chamber. The entity writhed, its form splintering into a thousand fragments of darkness, each piece dissolving like smoke caught in the wind. The crushing force around Evelyne's throat vanished, and she collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.
Kael was beside her in an instant, gripping her shoulders. "Evelyne! Are you—"
She coughed violently, her chest heaving. "I think… I did it."
Kael exhaled, his expression still tense as his eyes scanned the chamber. The suffocating darkness was gone. The unnatural cold had lifted. The torches burned steadily once more.
But something still felt wrong.
Then, a voice—soft, broken—whispered through the air.
"You have only begun to see the truth."
Evelyne's breath hitched. She looked up, eyes darting to the shadows along the walls.
They flickered.
A slow, chilling realization crawled up her spine. The entity she had just destroyed… it wasn't the only one.
Kael's grip on his sword tightened. "It's not over."
The chamber trembled. From the darkness, the whispers rose again, louder this time. Countless voices, layered and broken, chanting a warning.
Or a curse.
Evelyne clenched her fists, the weight of the dagger still lingering in her palm.
She had won this battle.
But the war had only just begun.
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