Hearing that name he twitched. His whole body jerked like something inside him had been struck. But he didn’t say a word. His hands were already charging for a killing blow aimed right at my skull.

I didn’t care.

"She was everything to you, wasn’t she?"

His hand stopped midway. Frozen in the air between us. And then for the first time his voice came out carrying something more than just demonic rage.

"She betrayed me." The words were grinding through his teeth in that half-human half-demon sound. "She mocked me. She laughed at me... she called my love..."

His voice was cracking under the weight of its own fury and the pain buried beneath it.

"She left me to die. She called me a dog... a toy."

I laughed.

Not at his pain. At his stupidity.

"No. That was the lie you chose to believe because hate was easier than the truth. And those hateful eyes of yours couldn’t recognize the pain in the eyes of the woman you called your world."

My voice dropped on its own. Something deeper was pushing through.

"She loved you, Dorian. More than anything in this entire accursed world. And yet what did you give in return? A death before she could even complete her last words? A death before you could see what was buried in her eyes and understand what she was trying to tell you?"

Dorian was clenching his fists. I couldn’t tell what he was feeling right now but I was sure if I kept pressing he would eventually break. So I continued.

"You said she betrayed you? But tell me honestly. Do you really believe that?"

I laughed softly and shook my head.

"She never betrayed you. Everything she said that night. Every word. The toy, the entertainment, the laughter. All of it was a lie."

But the moment those words left my mouth his hands were reaching for me. He looked completely pissed. Whatever restraint the earlier conversation had built was gone.

From behind me Angelica’s voice tore through the air. "Deculein, watch out!!!"

I didn’t care. Instead of dodging I took a step forward. Toward him.

Even Dorian looked shocked. Because my eyes didn’t carry any fear. They carried a resolve he wasn’t expecting from someone standing this close to death.

But he didn’t hold back. His fist came at me with maybe even more force than before. The punch connected and then stopped. Inches away from my face.

My divine protection had activated. His fist shattered the invisible shield like it was made of glass. The fragments scattered and vanished.

And now I was left with nothing. No protection to use. No weapon to fight with. No backup plan.

But I didn’t give a fuck. Because I knew the real battle was already in my control.

Dorian was pulling his hair in frustration. Yanking at his own scalp like he was trying to rip the thoughts out of his head.

"No! You are the liar!" His voice was desperate now. Cracking at every edge. "She said it herself! She laughed! And she..."

I cut him off. "And she cried."

He froze.

"But this time there was no one left to ease her tears. Because she chose that path. She cried all alone because she couldn’t even show her pain to anyone."

The words hit him somewhere deep because his face twisted with a rage that was now fighting with something else entirely. He was already charging another punch while shouting. "What are you even saying?!"

Before his fist could reach me I pulled something from my coat.

A pendant.

Looking at it he stopped completely. His entire body went rigid. Those demonic eyes were analyzing what was hanging from my hand. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

"Where did you get that?"

My voice stayed flat. "Does it even matter? All that matters is for people like me, this is a cheap pendant worth nothing. But for someone like her, it was a treasury that Mirena held on to until her death."

I opened it.

And there it was. An image of Mirena and Dorian in their childhood days. Two kids smiling at the world like it was made just for them.

He snatched it from my hand instantly. His grey fingers wrapping around it as his eyes scanned every detail of that small picture.

"You gifted her this, didn’t you?"

He didn’t reply. But the flicker in his aura told me everything I needed to know. The demon part of Dorian was being pushed back. Losing ground against whatever was waking up behind it.

So I pressed harder.

"And the poor girl clung to it her whole life. You still think she didn’t care about you? Because all I can see is a completely different story."

He pressed the pendant in his grip. His rage wanted to crush it. But his mind refused to destroy this last moment of her he was holding in his hand.

"Stop with your games." His voice was shaking. "I will kill you."

"Then go ahead. But before you do, hear the complete story."

I pointed at the pendant in his grip.

"That pendant had a message hidden inside. Written by Mirena to her daughter. So that when the girl grew up she would know the truth. Mirena hid that message along with directions to find another treasure of hers."

I looked him in the eyes. "But before the girl could grow up, you killed her, didn’t you?"

His fist clenched but there was no strength behind it anymore.

"But no worries. I got you covered. I found the little treasury she mentioned in that hidden message. And I brought it along with me."

I reached into my coat and pulled out a diary.

His fist lost every trace of power the moment he saw it. His hands dropped to his sides.

"That’s... that’s Mirena’s diary." His demonic voice was barely holding together. "She used to write every good and bad moment of her life in it. Every single day. She told me she communicates with her mother through this."

I held the diary steady. "When she had no place to cry, no place to show her misery, she cried where she always cried. In the pages of a diary she wrote to her dead mother. The same diary you probably saw her writing in a hundred times."

I opened it to a specific page.

"This is her voice, Dorian. The one you never heard. Because you were too busy listening to the version that hurt."

I turned the diary toward him.

He came closer. Looking completely lost as to what was happening around him. His eyes found the page and he started reading where I intended him to.

"Mother, you know what? Today a boy saved me when I tried to sneak away and was caught by some bad guys. But the boy came to save me despite not knowing who I was. He wasn’t scared of two big guys and fought them with his bravery and a piece of firewood. But then he got beaten so badly that he wasn’t able to move. So I brought him home and treated him. But you know what? He didn’t ask for anything in return. He said he doesn’t take money from people who are suffering and need help. Mother, I laughed when he said it with such seriousness and swollen lips. He was acting like a little businessman."

Tears started forming in his eyes. Black liquid gathering at the edges as I was pulling his past back to the surface piece by piece. But I wasn’t done. I turned the pages forward.

He read again.

"Mother, I begged father to let Dorian stay and you know what? He agreed! I think he feels guilty about how the boy was treated. Or maybe he just can’t say no to me. Either way, Dorian lives with us now and I have never been this happy."

I shifted more pages ahead.

"Mother, me and Dorian snuck out of the palace today and we ran through the market. He bought me a pastry with the coins he had been saving for weeks. It tasted terrible. But I told him it was the best thing I ever ate because the look on his face when I said that was worth more than any dessert in the world."

The black liquid was streaming down his face now. Dripping from his hollow eyes onto the diary pages below. But I was in no mood to let him go. I turned a few more pages.

"Mother. I have decided something. When I am old enough I will marry Dorian. I don’t care what father says. I don’t care what the world thinks. He is the only person in my life who has made me happy to the point where I question if this is a dream or reality. He is the nicest person in the world and I won’t let him go. And that’s final."

His hand moved toward me again. But it wasn’t the same. No strength. No killing intent. It was weak and trembling and it stopped at the pages of the diary.

His grey fingers hovered over her handwriting. Tracing the words without touching them. Like he was afraid that even his fingertip would ruin what she left behind.

I watched him standing there. A demon crying black tears over the handwriting of a dead girl who loved him more than he ever knew.

Then I said with a flat tone. "Now here is where your fairy tale ends. And hers begins."