it’s here my friends 🤠 I know my readers have been waiting a good long time for this, but I do need to warn you this is an especially dark chapter of old wounds and new, lots of tragedy, but lots of answers too. thank you as always for being on this ride with me 💙 until one remains 🗡️👀

“I think…” Her voice softened. “I need to find her first.” For a moment, nobody spoke. Then Kassandra glanced once more at her sister's stomach, at the tiny lives growing there. And for once, the future didn't feel like something to fear.

“But I want to do it right this time. Be myself.” Not as the woman Kian had shaped. Not as the monster she'd convinced herself she was. Just 𝐾𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑟𝑎. Whoever that turned out to be.

“I'm coming back.” The words surprised even her because she realized she meant them. A small, fragile smile touched her lips.

“I need to figure out what comes next.” Her eyes lifted to Celaena's. For the first time, there was no darkness in them. No madness. No desperate need to flee. Just exhaustion and hope.

“There's a few things I need to take care of first.” Things she'd ignored. Damage she'd left behind. Graves she needed to visit. People she owed answers to. Maybe people she owed apologies.

Silence settled between them. Not uncomfortable. Just heavy. Kassandra let out a shaky breath. “I need time.” Not years. Not forever. Just time.

“For years, every decision I made somehow came back to him. Every choice. Every plan. Every thought.” Even after everything he'd done. Even after she had been the one to kill him. The truth of it remained. “I don't know who I am without that.”

“I'm not.” She paused. “I just…” The words were harder than she'd expected. After so long, she wasn't even sure how to explain it. “Kian is gone.” Her gaze dropped briefly to the floor.

Slowly, she took a step back, then another. Not retreating, just creating enough space to breathe. Celaena's expression immediately fell, & Kassandra was quick to shake her head. “I'm not running.” The reassurance came instantly, as though she needed her sister to understand that more than anything.

Home. Come home. The words hung between them, unspoken but painfully obvious. Kassandra's chest tightened. For the first time in years, the answer wasn't no.

Kassandra knew the question was coming before Celaena asked it. She could see it in her sister's eyes: 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑝𝑒. The fear that if she didn't ask now, Kassandra would disappear again.

She hadn't asked where Levi had taken him, and she didn't intend to. Death was Levi's domain. It always had been. Whatever became of Kian now was between him and the Lord of the Dead.

Kassandra was only vaguely aware that Kian's body was gone. She hadn't seen Levi move, hadn't seen him cast a spell or summon one of the countless horrors that answered to him. One moment it had been there. The next it wasn't.

So he stood watch from the shadows, saying nothing, offering the rare gift of his absence while still remaining close enough should either of them need him.

Levi remained silent, lingering at the edge of the room as the sisters spoke. This wasn't his moment. It wasn't his grief, his guilt, or the years of distance stretching between them. It belonged to the two women in front of him.

Her eyes lifted back to Celaena. “I'm sorry I wasn't here.” It wasn't an apology for what had happened tonight. It was for all the time in between.

For so long, she'd convinced herself that none of it mattered, that she didn't need anyone. That leaving had been easier. Standing here now, hearing those tiny heartbeats and seeing her sister alive in front of her, she realized how much of herself she'd lost trying to believe that.

Kassandra swallowed the lump in her throat. “I hate that I missed this.” Not accusing. Not angry. Just mourning. The birthdays she'd missed, the holidays, watching Asher grow. The ordinary moments that seemed so insignificant until they were gone.

“I wanted nothing more than to tell you. You were there when I found out about Ash.” The memory surfaced easily. Celaena at her side. The laughter. The tears. The overwhelming joy of sharing that moment with her sister.

“I would've wanted to be excited with you.” Her gaze dropped to the floor.

Her throat tightened. “I didn't know.” Her hand lifted slightly, gesturing toward Celaena's stomach. A sad smile flickered across Celaena's face. Kassandra shook her head, struggling to find the words. “I– I would've wanted to know." The confession came out raw.

The realization settled heavily in her chest. Not because anyone had blamed her. Not because Celaena had asked her where she'd been, but because she suddenly understood just how much time had passed. How much life had kept moving without her.

She didn't run from the guilt this time. Her eyes drifted to Celaena's stomach, and she heard them again—two tiny heartbeats fluttering steadily beneath her sister's ribs. 𝑆𝑎𝑓𝑒.

But she forced her feet to stay planted. Forced herself to remain standing there beneath her sister's unwavering gaze.

Every instinct screamed at her to put distance between herself and them. To escape the weight crushing her chest. To disappear before they looked at her and saw all the damage she'd brought with her.

“𝑁𝑜𝑛𝑒 of this is your fault, Kass.” The reassurance hit harder than any accusation could have. She nearly flinched. Nearly turned and ran; she wanted to... god, how she wanted to.

She couldn't meet either of their eyes. “I'm sorry,” she finally choked out. The words barely rose above a whisper. “I didn't know he'd—”

Kassandra swallowed hard and nodded. A stiff, broken smile tugged at her lips. “I will be.” Silence settled between them, the kind that felt impossibly loud.

She took a few tentative steps back toward them. “A-Are you okay?” Celaena lifted a hand toward her, the gesture instinctive, before stopping herself and letting it fall back to her side. “I am.” Her voice was gentle despite everything. “Are you okay?”

The roar in Kassandra's ears had dulled to a distant hum by the time she reached the elevator. Her finger hovered inches from the call button, frozen in hesitation. Then she turned, just in time to see Levi carefully peeling the mask from Celaena's face.

Tomorrows a queue day strap up Tis another long one 🩷

Gen 3 my beloved.... so close yet so far ❤️‍🔥

The force holding him upright vanished and he dropped without ceremony. She didn’t look back. She simply turned away, as if he had already stopped mattering the moment he hit the floor.

She stepped closer and uttered just one word. “𝑊𝑒𝑎𝑘.” Her hand tightened, and the shadows snapped inward. His body went rigid— then still.

Kass stared at him through a haze of fury. The limbs writhed around him and the blood in his veins danced to her will. A smile of satisfaction threatened to curl across her lips as fear finally pierced the heart of Kian Laswell.

They erupted from the shadows and latched onto him. His wrists, ankles, shoulders, throat. Kian thrashed wildly, but the hands held firm. More crawled upward, locking him in place and pinning him upright like prey caught in a spider's web.

Her hand clenched, and his body seized. A scream ripped from his throat as the shadows beneath him stirred. Darkness pooled across the floor like spilled ink. Long fingers emerged first. Then hands. Dozens of them— black and skeletal.

She didn't answer; she wasn't entirely sure she could. The pounding of his heartbeat drowned out every other sound. 𝑻𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒑. 𝑻𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒑. 𝑻𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒑.

His body jerked backward. Blood thundered through ℎ𝑖𝑠 veins but answered to ℎ𝑒𝑟. His knees hit the floor. A horrified sound escaped him. “What are you doing to me?!”

Her fingers flexed, and Kian choked. His body twisted against an invisible force. The harder he fought, the more violently he shook.

Slowly, impossibly, his hand began to curl inward. Not by his choice. “What—” His knees buckled as Kassandra rose. Every muscle in her body screamed in protest. Something had awakened inside her. Something vast. Something hungry. Something entirely her own.

She could hear every pulse. Every contraction and somehow she knew exactly where it was. Kian's fingers stretched toward the gun. Then stopped. His body jerked violently; confusion flashed across his face. His arm trembled, the tendons in his neck strained.

Kassandra's gaze snapped toward him. Toward the frantic rhythm hammering inside his chest. Toward the blood surging through his veins. The sound consumed her a rushing river beneath skin and bone.

Kian staggered upright, breathing hard. Blood poured from his broken nose as his eyes found the gun lying a few feet away. Hope flashed across his face and he lunged.

Again, again and again. Blood sprayed. Kian cursed and finally caught her by the shoulders. For a heartbeat, they struggled. Then he threw her. Kassandra slammed into the far wall hard enough to rattle the room—the impact hard enough to shatter some of the windows.

Bone snapped, and the gun clattered away. She kept going. A fist. An elbow. Her nails. Anything she could use. She wasn't fighting. She was tearing him apart. “Kassandra!” Someone was shouting. Levi, maybe; she couldn't tell...couldn't hear. Blood roared in her ears. 𝑩𝒊𝒕𝒆, 𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉, 𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒅, 𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒕.

The gun discharged... The shot went wide as Kassandra slammed into him with enough force to drive them both through the desk. Wood exploded. Kian screamed, not in pain, but in surprise. Kassandra barely heard it as her hands found his wrist.

Kian blinked, and for the first time, uncertainty flickered across his face. “Kass...” Levi started. She moved. One second she was across the room. The next she was on him faster than even Levi’s eyes could track, faster than he could move.

Something inside her shattered. A growl ripped from her throat. The sound didn't sound human.