Page 54 of Cursed By the Dawn

I pressed my hand to my chest, as if to hold something steady inside me. “I watched Mother catch fire after I struck her with a torch. I watched darkness erupt across Father’s face, marking him as Corrupt. And Eden…” Her name caught in my throat. I couldn’t bear to voice how I still remembered the vermin blood dripping from her chin. Or how she looked in her coffin, feet bare and lips upturned in the mockery of a smile. “She loved dancing. Do you remember that? She used to sneak into the wildflower patch near our house and spin like the wind, laughing like nothing could ever touch her.”

“And then they all died.”

I stepped closer, nodding. Tears burned at the corners of my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. “Yes. They died. Not because they were weak, but because theyloved. Because they tried to protect the people they couldn’t bear to lose. Even Eden just wanted to make me happy. And I…” My voice wavered. “I was too late to save them. But that doesn’t mean I stopped caring. Or loving them.”

“They made you soft,” she replied. “Look at where that softness led.”

“No. Their memory is why I fight so strongly. And Elliot is still out there, alive. I fight for him, too.”

She arched her brow. “Even if he’s changed? Even if he hates what you’ve become?”

“Even then.” My voice grew warm, wistful. “And Erebus has only made me stronger. I was made to be his, and he was made to be mine. He is no chain meant to be broken, and neither am I.”

Future Esmer’s expression shifted, sharpening. A promise of judgment.

“So prove it.”

We clashed, her shadows lashing out with an expertise that felt insurmountable. Every move was a display of mastery. I struggled to keep up,my defenses crumbling under the sheer brutality of her attack. I was fighting a reflection of my worst fears, a manifestation of everything I might become if I let the darkness consume me. Her attacks were relentless, swift as lightning, calculated to shatter any shred of hope I might hold on to. She was condemning me for caring. For wanting to believe in anything beyond raw, ruthless power. And in some ways, that powerwasalluring.

It was safety. It was an assurance, too.

Not only would this woman effectively command the full respect of the Weavers, but she would surely be powerful enough to destroy the demons. This version of myself needed no one; she didn’t need to rely on the dreamers, on the Weavers, on Erebus.

But I wasn’t just here for myself.

I’d come to prove my strength to the dreamers, to Elliot, to Erebus—to be the leader they deserved. They needed me to be more than just powerful; they needed me to have a purpose beyond my own survival.

They believed in me.

And I wouldn’t betray that belief, not even to save myself.

I raised my hands, calling forth shadows so thick they coated the air, a tangible wall between us. My future self slammed against it, relentless, her face twisted into a scornful sneer.

“You think this will protect you?” she spat. “You’ll lose them all. And when they’re gone, you’ll see that your friendship, your love”—she gestured to the silhouettes swirling around us—“were meaningless. You must stand alone.”

“No,” I said, my voice containing a steely edge I barely recognized as my own. “I stand with them.”

I drew in a breath, focusing on that connection, on each face I’d come to care about, each life that made my abilities more than just a weapon. My shadows pulsed, shifting from pure darkness to something richer, warmer—a tide of starlight that radiated from within. Shadows wrapped around me, a cocoon of strength and resolve, pushing back against her assault.

She stumbled, eyes widening in surprise, and in that moment of hesitation, I struck.

My shadows shot forward, not to harm her but to engulf her, to reach out with every ounce of compassion, of hope, of trust I had cultivated in myself. She screamed, a sound that echoed like the crack of lightning, and then she cried, sobbing into her hands.

When she dissolved into the darkness, the void immediately faded.

I couldn’t believe it.

I’dwon.

When I staggered to my knees, I was back in our castle’s courtyard. Dreamers began materializing one by one, rising to their feet around me. I counted the threads as they appeared, the invisible ties that anchored me to every dreamer.

They all made it.

Erebus, Ceveon, and Sorren, too.

The emotional weight of the third trial had rattled me, but I was more than I’d been before. I was ready to lead not because I had power in my veins but because I had something worth fighting for. I was more than my chaos, my darkness, and my selfish desire to prove myself. I’d absolve the sins of my past. I’d rise above the darkness in my present.

And I’d rewrite my future.