Talarion's blade clashed against his father's with a resounding shriek which reverberated up his arm. He only bared his teeth in a snarl, and Roshan mirrored it. He knew his father was beginning to falter, but he would fight until his last breath rather than surrender. Not that he would be given the option anyway.

    Talarion managed to shove the male back several paces and gave a quick shake of his hand, loosening his aching muscles so he could retighten his grip. He also spared a fraction of a second to heal his chest wound just enough to keep him from bleeding out now. He wouldn't let Durga's Harbingers come for him until Roshan was dying alongside him.

    Talarion sucked down a few measured breaths and risked a glance back at his sister. She was still hunched over Azael, trying desperately to heal the wound on his head. The male's eyes were open, but vacant. Worry threatened to strangle him, but if Azael were already dead, Tissaia would be a feral, heartbroken mess. Right now, she was just angry and worried, judging by the look on her face.

    He brought his attention back to his father as the male renewed his attack. Talarion ducked beneath one blow and sent a bolt of magic spearing through his father's side. He doubled around the male before he could recover and sliced his dagger up his spine. Roshan gave a pained and enraged shout, rounding on him.

    Talarion caught his dagger against his own and fed only rage and defiance into his gaze. Memories of words spoken long ago filtered through his ears, stoking the fury smoldering in the pit of his stomach. Every time he'd been called worthless. Every time he'd been called a failure. Every time he'd been ordered to murder some innocent, unsuspecting victim. All of their terrified screams.

    All of Tissaia's screams, and all of the silent ones he knew she'd held back. Every tender word Kaius had spoken to him, even knowing about the things he'd done. Even knowing who, and what he was. Still, his mate had loved him. Still, his sister loved him. They had never held any of it against him, even when pain befell them for his sake.

    Now, he was paying all of it back. Every drop of blood that had been shed because of him, he was wringing from his father's flesh. Every life he had ever taken would be avenged by his father's death, and his own after that. Kaius's life would be avenged.

    And when he entered the afterlife, even if he was unworthy of the Eternal Haven and was flung down to Hel...even if Kaius hated him for everything that had happened, he would know that he had done all he could to avenge and atone. And he would bear the consequences of everything else for eternity.

    "Even if you kill me, Son, you'll never escape what I turned you into," Roshan seethed. "Hadeon will have your soul, and you will never see your mate again. You'll spend eternity without him. How long before you forget about the short time you had together in life?"

    "No amount of time could make me forget him," Talarion hissed in response. "And if Hel is my fate, then so be it. I'll meet you there and spend eternity wiping away every trace of your soul. I will find a way to make it so that it's like you never even existed." His lips peeled into a smirk. "Perhaps Hadeon himself will aid me. After all, you are responsible for the death of one of his Heirs. I don't envision the god of war and destruction, the ruler of Hel, as being very merciful."

    Something flickered through his father's gaze and satisfaction filled his own. It was fear that was flooding his father's face now. For Roshan had never considered a time when he might not be alive, and what fate would have in store for him then. He had always thought himself invulnerable. Unkillable. But now, he was staring at his own doom. Roshan gave a frantic thrust of his dagger but Talarion dodged it.

    And while his father's arm was still outstretched, he revealed the strange, dark shackles that he had carried out of the temple, and clamped an open cuff around Roshan's wrist. The seams fused themselves together, creating the unbreakable lock that had prevented him from removing them from Kaius himself. Roshan gave a horrified cry, and Talarion lunged.

    Their blades clashed one last time, and as Talarion peered into his father's depthless onyx eyes, he saw only his own wicked face looking back at him. "Go to Hel, Father," he spat. "I'll see you there." His dagger shrieked away from Roshan's and cleaved straight through his throat. He barely even registered the pain that flared through his chest once more. Talarion only twisted his dagger and ripped it out the side of Roshan's neck.

    His father's hands went limp around the hilt of his own dagger and he sank to his knees, retching on the blood that gushed down his neck and chest. Talarion could feel a cough of his own welling up, but he swallowed it. He wouldn't allow his father one more glimpse of his pain. Roshan clutched at his throat, desperately trying to staunch the bloodflow, but already, his movements were growing weak.

    His gaze slipped past Talarion a moment before Tissaia joined him. "My mate will live," she whispered to the male. "And we will make sure that everyone knows the truth of who you were and all that you have done." Then she fell silent, and they both watched as Roshan continued to struggle for breath, until at last, his body sagged with one final exhale.

    When their father's gaze dulled, Talarion loosed a shuddering breath. Centuries of suppressed emotion welled up within him and tears pricked at the corners of his eyes. He didn't stop them from falling. Tissaia gripped his arm when he turned and limped away from the male's body.

    "Oh gods," she gasped suddenly. He glanced at her to her gaze fixed on the dagger still embedded in his chest, and his first wound which had begun to bleed once more. "Oh gods, hold on."

    "Tissaia," he began.

    "You'll have to help me seal these until we can find Kahari. I don't think I have the energy to heal this on my own," she continued, as though she hadn't heard him.

    "Tissaia," he tried once more.

    She just shook her head, pressing her fingers around the edge of the dagger's blade. "Why didn't you heal yourself better?" She scolded, even as her voice began to shake. "You've only made it worse, letting it tear open so many times."

    "Tissaia." This time, his voice was hard, demanding acknowledgement. Tissaia squeezed her eyes shut, refusing to give it to him. "I don't want to be healed."

    Her features caved with a terrible agony and she began shaking her head again. "No," she rasped. "No, you don't get to do this to me."

    He wrapped his hand around the dagger's hilt and wrenched it free. Instantly, his skin was warmed by a rush of blood, and Tissaia choked on a sob. Her eyes opened and she reached for him with glowing hands, but he stepped out of reach, even as a heavy exhaustion settled in his limbs.

    Talarion didn't fight it. He simply followed it down, until he was kneeling on the floor. Already his lungs ached and his heart had begun to beat faster in an effort to replace the blood he was losing. "Please," Tissaia pleaded, dropping down beside him. "You have to help me heal this. I'm not going to let you bleed out. Not now, when we've finally won."

    "It's because we've won that I want it to happen," he admitted. The pain in her eyes gouged through his palpitating heart, but it wasn't going to be enough to dissuade him. Talarion lifted a hand to her cheek, his lips parting as he began to pant for air.

    "You're safe," he breathed. "Our father can't hurt you anymore. You have Azael, and a life to build with him. He'll take care of you now, and you will take care of him. You can leave this place and be free of all that happened here."

    Tissaia was still shaking her head even as she pressed her cheek into his palm. "You can have that freedom too," she wept. "We can leave, both of us! You can come back to Arcan with Azael and I. He needs a male like you at court to support him. You can still have a future." Talarion swallowed a grunt of pain as her features blurred before his eyes. He didn't answer until she was mostly clear once more.

    "What future, Tissaia?" He asked gently. "I can't spend the rest of my life watching you live yours. I love you, and Azael has become like a brother to me, but how can you ask me to spend the next thousands of years watching the two of you get to be together? Watching you raise your son. Watching you have a future, one that you deserve, but one I can't have for myself."

    "Kaius wouldn't want you to let yourself die like this," Tissaia hissed, anger briefly replacing the pain in her gaze.

    Talarion smiled at her attempt at a low blow. "He wouldn't, and if I get to see him again, I'll likely hear about it for the rest of time. You know how special you were to him. But..." he couldn't hide the catch in his voice, "But he can fuck right off with that."

    "Every moment since he died has been agony like you couldn't fathom. I can't spend the rest of my life searching for fleeting moments of joy in an effort to escape unending misery. I can't wake up every day and feel this deathly coldness. I can't let you see the person that torment would turn me into." His body was trembling now, an even deeper exhaustion tugging at the corners of his mind. A worse shudder had him slumping towards Tissaia and she caught him at once, her fingers shining again.

    Talarion snatched her wrist before she could attempt to heal anything. "If you heal me now," he whispered, "you will spend the rest of your life fighting to keep me alive. Because I will keep trying to die. Again, and again, until I eventually succeed. I don't want to live, Tissaia. I wish I did, for your sake, but I don't." He closed his eyes, drinking in her warm scent. "I want it to be over. Let it be over, please."

    "I can't lose you too," Tissaia sobbed against his hair. "I don't know what a world without you looks like. You've always been here. You're all I ever had."

    He smoothed his hand across her arm in what he hoped would be a soothing gesture. "You have more than me now." He hated how his voice shook, both with exhaustion and with emotion, but he didn't have the strength to pretend anymore. "You have a mate, and you have friends. You have people who are counting on you to make a change."

    "You're going to be a Queen someday, my Sister. To me, to Azael, and even to Kaius, you already were long ago." Tissaia only wept harder as he hooked his arm around her. He knew she could feel his now uneven and struggling heartbeat. "I am sorry that I won't get to meet your son," Talarion murmured. "You know Kaius and I would've loved him like our own."

    "Can I name him after you?" The words were slurred with the force of her sobs.

    Talarion managed a smile and nodded. "I would be honored. But you should shorten it. I've always hated how long my name is."

    "I shouldn't listen to you," she spat, although she didn't sound all that angry. "I hate you for this, you know."

    "I know." Darkness flickered at the edges of his vision, and his eyes were closing of their own accord. "But I love you." He brushed a light kiss to her temple before his head grew too heavy to keep upright.

    "I love you too." Tissaia embraced him tighter as his own grip loosened. "Please," she whispered once more. "Talarion, please don't do this. Please don't leave me."

    "It's going to be all right." He wasn't sure his words were even audible. "You're going to be all right, and so am I." His fingers managed to stroke her hair. "This is what I want. Let it be over. I'm so tired, Tiss."

    Her body trembled against his own and her tears continued to fall onto his skin, but he no longer felt them. There was no longer pain coursing through his body. Only a cold, calming numbness. And he knew that meant the Harbingers were approaching.

    Talarion's lips tilted into a faint smile. It was going to be over. Finally, it would be over. No more suffering. No more fear. No more sorrow. No more icy bond smothering his every waking moment. Even if he wasn't worthy of the Eternal Haven, perhaps he would be allowed to see Kaius, just once more.

    "I love you," he whispered to his sister with his last breath, and then that gentle, ebbing darkness carried him away.