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have you lost the same things i have lost?
He stands on the edge of the world, staring down into space when he should be staring up.
“Ryan.”
He frowns, won’t turn around.
“You killed her.”
I had no choice.
“Would you kill me right here, if I gave you this sword?”
He stands on the edge of the world, and he steps off of it.
The portal blinks out with him, the betrayed too late to stop him from jumping. For a moment, everything is peaceful; for a moment, he only sees the stars. He hears a child screaming.
Then everything slips away and he’s falling, falling, falling-
static in his eyes, in his heart, in his veins-
nothing but silence and regret and a looming shadow and life slipping through his hands like smoke-
and then nothing at all.
He opens his eyes to stone under his hands and the taste of blood on his tongue. Ryan Haywood stands and opens his eyes to freedom.
He watches as wings spread impossibly wide and as the world lights up with purple fire. For a moment, he feels true fear, and then he smiles. This shadow promises him home.
They told him he would reach his end chasing a legend.
They were wrong. The End has reached for him.