Chapter Nine: The Choice Between Us
The forest was quiet again.
Not peaceful—waiting. Holding its breath, as if the trees themselves leaned in to hear what Elara would say.
Kairo stood still as stone, his violet eyes dimmed with something worse than fear—regret. Merra, radiant and dangerous, watched Elara like a flame eyeing a match.
Elara didn't move.
She felt as if she stood at the edge of something sharp and final—like a ledge. If she took one more step forward, the world she knew would fall away completely.
And maybe that was exactly what it needed to do.
"You said I could rewrite the rules," Elara said finally, her voice steady despite the chaos inside. "How?"
Merra's smile deepened. "I can teach you magic older than blood. Spells that don't obey the laws of covens or curses. You have the blood. I have the knowledge."
"And the cost?" Elara asked, narrowing her eyes.
"Everything worth having has a cost, little witch," Merra replied. "But unlike him—" she nodded to Kairo, "—I won't lie to you about it."
"I never lied," Kairo said, quietly but firmly. "I just didn't want your first truth to be this."
"And yet, here we are," Merra said sweetly.
Elara looked at him then—really looked. The monster boy. The cursed soul. Her accidental tether.
He had saved her. Protected her. Trusted her before she even knew her own strength. But he'd also kept this truth locked away, hidden beneath those burning violet eyes and soft silences.
He wasn't her enemy. But he wasn't her answer either.
Not yet.
Elara stepped forward—toward Merra.
Kairo flinched, just slightly.
"I'll go with you," Elara said. "But only to learn. To understand what I am."
Merra raised a silver brow. "And if I offer more?"
"I'll decide then."
The witch tilted her head, amused. "Smart girl."
She extended a hand, fingers wrapped in silver rings. Magic shimmered around her like heat off pavement. Elara hesitated.
Then she turned—to Kairo.
"Will you come with me?" she asked.
His eyes widened. "To her?"
"To me," she said. "I don't want to walk into this alone."
For a long moment, he didn't speak.
Then he nodded once, like something inside him cracked—but he'd already chosen to follow her through whatever storm came next.
"Always," he said.
So Elara took Merra's hand—and Kairo's too.
The bond between them sparked, tugged, shifted. Elara felt the ripple run down her spine. Not pain. Not power.
Possibility.
Merra smiled like a queen who had just crowned her heir.
"Good," she said. "Then let us begin."
---
They walked through the forest for what felt like hours, deeper than Elara thought possible. The air grew colder, the shadows thicker, until the trees no longer whispered—they watched. And just as Elara began to wonder whether Merra's promises were nothing but illusion—
—they reached the Spiral Hollow.
It wasn't a place Elara could describe. It was a place she felt.
Stone arches rose from the ground like broken ribs. The sky overhead flickered between stars and storm clouds. The ground itself pulsed faintly beneath her feet. Ancient magic, buried and breathing.
Merra turned to her. "Welcome to the place between. This is where you will unlearn everything."
Kairo didn't speak, but his hand hovered near Elara's wrist, as if silently asking: Are you sure?
She didn't answer aloud.
But inside, her voice was iron.
I have to know who I am. I have to learn what they were afraid I'd become.
And if that meant dancing with monsters?
So be it.