The Hollow Keep burned.
Its towers, once symbols of unbending law, collapsed beneath the weight of love's rebellion. Vampires who had long forgotten freedom looked on in silence as the Council's rule crumbled.
Dorian held Aria close as they stepped into the rising sun.
Yes—the sun.
She blinked, stunned. "We're not burning."
"You drank my blood," he whispered. "And you changed… but not fully. You're not a vampire."
"Then what am I?"
He smiled. "Something new."
Her skin shimmered faintly in the light—not with fire, but with life.
The bond had rewritten the rules. They hadn't just survived the Council—they had shattered the oldest law.
❖
Days passed.
They returned to Elmsvale, though nothing would ever be the same again.
Elias stayed long enough to rebuild what the Council had tried to destroy. Then, one misty morning, he vanished with a note on Dorian's desk:
You two broke the curse. I think your love did something mine never could.
I owe you both a lifetime of quiet. Don't waste it.
Aria smiled as she read it.
❖
One night, under a silver moon, Aria and Dorian stood at the edge of the forest where they'd first met. The cat was still there—older, fatter, still half-feral.
Dorian bent down, scratching it behind the ears.
"You never told me its name," Aria said.
"I never gave it one," he replied.
She knelt beside him. "Let's name him Hope."
He looked at her, then at the horizon, where the first hints of dawn painted the sky gold.
"Fitting," he said. "Since that's what you gave me."