The Choice I Carry
1104 Words
CHAPTER 13: The Choice I Carry
The stars were gone when I woke.
Not faded gone. The light that once danced across the ceiling of Velorith’s starlit chamber had vanished, swallowed by a sky I could no longer see. I sat up slowly, the soft sheets clinging to my skin, my body aching from magic and memory.
Lucien lay beside me, eyes closed, one arm slung across his chest. Peaceful, for once. But I could feel it the tension in the air. The weight of the dagger wrapped in cloth beneath my pillow. The choice Velorith had forced into my hands.
Kill the bond.
Or let it kill us.
I rose quietly, my feet cold against the obsidian floor. The moment I touched the cloth-wrapped blade, it pulsed faintly in my palm, as if it recognized me knew me. The sigils carved along the hilt shifted like they were alive, rearranging into a message only I could read.
One life. One death. One choice.
My fingers curled tighter around it.
I wasn’t ready.
But the world wouldn’t wait.
We left Velorith at dawn.
The doors unsealed the moment we stepped toward them, as if satisfied the trial had been endured. There were no more illusions. No whispers. Just a long, silent walk back through the cliffs and forests that had once felt full of danger but now seemed eerily calm.
Lucien didn’t ask about the dagger.
And I didn’t offer.
There were no words left, only silence and glances that lingered too long. A part of me wondered if he already knew if he could feel the weight of the choice pressing against my skin, beating where my heart used to be.
When the castle came into view, I expected relief.
But what I saw instead… was chaos.
The front gates were broken. Black smoke curled into the morning sky. Banners had been ripped from the spires, and the guards at the entrance were bloodied and bruised, barely holding their ground.
Lucien cursed. “They attacked again.”
My stomach twisted. “While we were gone?”
He nodded grimly and dismounted. “Stay behind me.”
But I pushed past him, the dagger still hidden in my cloak. I wasn’t just some girl being protected anymore. I had walked through fire. Seen the truth. Stared into the eyes of the ancestor who had started it all.
I was the end of Lysandra’s curse. Or the beginning of a new one.
We crossed the gates, and the air hit me like a wall.
Something had shifted here. Not just power but trust. The guards stared as I passed, their gazes wary. One even bowed but not out of respect. Out of fear.
I found Zara in the hall of healing.
She had a long cut across her cheek, a sling around her arm, and a stubborn fire in her eyes.
“You’re back,” she said, then paused. “But something’s different.”
“I found Velorith,” I said softly.
She looked past me to Lucien, then back. “You found something else, too.”
I didn’t answer.
Because there were no words strong enough for the storm building inside me.
The Council convened within the hour.
Lucien had called the emergency session the moment he learned of the attack of Malthas slipping past the outer wards and whispering prophecy into the ears of frightened noblemen. Seeds of doubt had been planted in our absence. And they were growing fast.
I stood at the center of the chamber as thirteen vampire lords stared down at me from their thrones.
Elder Varion rose. “Lady Aria Blake. The bloodbound bride. Do you bring us a solution to the curse… or the weapon that will doom us?”
I unwrapped the dagger slowly.
Gasps echoed across the room.
“The Blade of Severance,” one councilor hissed. “It exists.”
“The girl cannot be trusted with it,” another snapped. “She’s too bound to the prince.”
“She’s too human.”
Lucien stepped forward, voice like steel. “Enough. She has earned the right to speak.”
Elder Varion’s eyes locked onto mine. “Tell us the truth, child. Can the curse be broken without blood?”
I stared at the dagger.
Then raised my voice so the whole chamber could hear.
“I don’t know.”
Gasps again. Lucien turned sharply to me.
“But I do know this,” I continued. “If I cut the bond, I lose the only person who’s ever fought beside me instead of against me. If I don’t… the curse might destroy us both. I didn’t ask for this fate. But I’ll carry it. On my own terms.”
The room fell silent.
Then Elder Varion stepped forward.
“You have one week,” he said. “One week to decide. Or the Council will decide for you.”
Later, I stood in the quiet of the old library, staring at the painting of Lysandra hanging high above the hearth. Her eyes were so much like mine now—filled with fire and fear.
Zara found me there.
“You should rest.”
I shook my head. “I can’t. If I sleep, I’ll dream. And if I dream, I’ll see her again.”
She stepped closer. “What happens if you… if you choose to keep the bond?”
“I don’t know,” I whispered. “Maybe the curse kills me. Maybe it kills Lucien. Maybe it turns me into something worse than Malchior.”
“Would you risk that?”
I touched the dagger at my side.
“I’d risk everything to never feel alone again.”
That night, I stood in Lucien’s room, the dagger on the table between us.
We didn’t speak for a long time.
Then finally, he asked, “Do you want to let it go?”
I met his eyes. “No. I want to fight it.”
His shoulders relaxed, just barely. “Then we’ll fight. Together.”
“I don’t want to die,” I whispered. “But I’m scared if I keep holding on to this bond, I’ll lose myself.”
He stepped forward slowly, cupping my face.
“Then I’ll remind you of who you are. Every time. Every day. Even if the whole world turns on us.”
My eyes burned. “You make it hard to let go.”
“Then don’t.”
I fell into his arms.
And for a moment, the world outside the room the war, the curse, the blood didn't’t exist.
There was only us.
- Writer
