Chapter 114

• Kylian’s POV
• The nights have been anything but kind to me. Sleep has become an uneasy truce, bought only through heavy doses of sedatives to fend off the hauntings that began the night I spilled Damaris’s blood on the altar. Every time I closed my eyes, her face would emerge, bloodied and battered, whispering curses that burrowed into my bones. Her eyes, wide and unyielding even as her life drained away, have been seared into my mind, her spirit hanging over me, unshakable, relentless. Her silent accusation echoes in every empty corner, a reminder that she clings to me, haunting my every thought. I had done everything in my power to escape her memory, but each night, as I drift off, she is there, waiting.
• It’s only in the moments after I swallow a fistful of pills that I find any semblance of peace, allowing me the clarity to pursue my goals—goals that Damaris’s death should have made possible. And so, I tolerate the dreams, the hollow places they carve into my mind, because I know the reward waiting at the end of it all.