Chapter Text
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the look in your lover’s eyes said it all despite your protests.
you didn’t even need to hear her speak.
you saw it there already — the fear. the grief. the disgust.
“I SWEAR—!!!”
the honmoon trembles.
the air cracks with the echo.
“I SWEAR i’m not like them!!!”
it breaks. your voice breaks. your soul cracks open like porcelain dropped on marble.
“i’m not— not like them—”
but your appearance said otherwise.
the horns, proud and sharp, curling out from what used to be a tidy braid — now a tangled bird’s nest, sticky with blood and sweat. the light catches on their ridges. they gleam.
your hands — once gentle, soft, human — now end in claws. blackened. trembling.
the same hands that once brushed Mira’s hair from her eyes.
the same hands that once traced Zoey’s scars in the moonlight.
grotesque.
your tail flicks and lashes behind you, betraying your panic. you can’t make it stop.
why won’t they understand!!! i didn’t do anything wrong! nothing—
your voice hiccups. it sounds like a sob. like laughter.
it doesn’t matter. neither of them move.
shrkk—
metal.
you hear it before you see it.
and your gaze snaps toward them — your beloveds.
Mira’s eyes burn, not with hatred, but with something worse.
grief.
why grief—
her gok-do materializes in her hand with a shimmer of light. it trembles, only for a heartbeat, before she steadies it and raises it — directly at your chest.
“Mira—”
“Mira, look! i can explain—”
but she lowers her gaze. she won’t look at you. she can’t.
the girl who once kissed your fangs and said they made you unique now won’t even meet your eyes.
her eyes instead trace the glowing patterns creeping up your arms. the sigils pulse like veins of molten gold beneath skin that no longer belongs to you.
“you were… always one of them…” she whispers, voice shaking.
“you lied to me…?”
yes.
you did lie to her.
but—
“i feel like such an— SUCH AN IDIOT!” she screams suddenly. “i let you in! i loved you!”
“i—”
“DON’T! i’ve had enough of your lies!”
you flinch at the sound. her grip tightens around the gok-do.
your stomach sinks.
she’s going to kill you.
but… isn’t that what you want?
no.
no, no, no.
you want to die loved. not hated.
you turn to Zoey, desperate, pleading. she’ll understand. she always understood. she—
oh.
her shin-kal gleams faintly in her shaking hands. trembling, yes, but her stance is firm.
solid.
like stone.
you feel the panic start to rise up your throat, choking you.
they will kill you.
they will hate you.
your lovers.
your partners.
your everything.
why?
what did i do wrong?
why should they turn on me like this—
how could they hate me?
when all i ever gave them was love—
Mira’s voice cuts through the silence. sharp. trembling.
every word like a blade.
“you… destroyed what we’ve worked for ages! the honmoon — it’s in tatters! demons swarm and feast on souls! all because of some selfish— SELFISH desire you had?! celine is dead! hundreds are dead! what was worth it, rumi?! making a deal with gwi-ma?! selling your soul?! why—”
you can’t breathe.
you can’t move.
they really think that.
they really think you chose this.
“no! i—”
“SHUT UP!”
you freeze.
her scream echoes.
you want to tell them everything. you want to scream it until your throat bleeds.
that your mom fucked a demon.
that you didn’t make a deal.
that you didn’t choose this.
that you were born cursed.
but Mira’s gok-do moves faster than your words.
it pierces straight through your chest — clean. final.
you see gold light burst from the wound, splashing against her trembling hands.
for a second, she looks at it — in shock.
you think she almost says your name.
and then the world folds in on itself.
your tail falls still.
your claws uncurl.
your eyes fade from gold to gray.
and you die.
;3