The crimson glow of the ritual circle slowly faded, leaving only the dying flickers of candlelight to dance against the walls. I sat slumped on the cold, hard floor, my body racked with tremors from the sheer force of the pact.
Alaric didn't leave. He let out a long, heavy sigh—a sound that didn't belong to a soul-stealing devil, but rather to a weary, exhausted man. He adjusted the hem of his black coat and sank onto the floor beside me, his long arm pulling my shaking frame into his chest.
This time, his touch was unnervingly gentle.
"Does it hurt?" he murmured, his fingertips ghosting over the angry red mark on my nape. I didn't answer, only buried my face in my knees and sobbed.
"You looked into the mirror, so you saw the fire," his voice turned hollow, as if he were drifting back to that night ten years ago.
"Everyone thinks I perished in those flames. Even my father. They locked me in the cellar, hoping to burn away the 'Thorne Family Shame' because I was born seeing things no one was meant to see."
He took my hand, guiding it to rest over the center of his chest. There was no heartbeat. Only a vast, echoing silence.
"I did die, Evangeline. What you see now is merely a husk maintained by the forbidden arts of this estate. I have waited in this darkness for a decade, waiting for a soul strong enough to carry my curse."
He leaned down, pressing his forehead against mine. For the first time, those abyssal eyes weren't terrifying; they were filled with a raw, desperate yearning that bordered on a plea.
"I brought you here because you are the only one who can make me feel a flicker of life in this eternal cold. I should have let you hate me forever... but when you ran into the rain tonight, for the first time in a century, I felt fear."
His pale lips brushed against my ear, his voice trembling so slightly it was almost a ghost of a sound.
"Don't run again, my little sacrifice. If you leave, I will crumble into ash along with this manor. Stay with me, and I will give you everything your heart desires—everything, except your freedom."