After the lovely day at the lake park with Stephan and Jaden, the stillness of the late night returned, bringing back the inescapable reality.
Jaden was fast asleep down the hall in his bedroom, his face serene and completely free of the worries that used to haunt him.
Stephan and I had retreated to our master bedroom, but the light, serene air of the sunlit park had quickly faded into an almost unbearable tension.
The System had begun pinging relentlessly in the back of my mind, its soft, persistent chimes constantly reminding me that with Henry finally defeated and stripped of his dark power, the conclusive chapter of my journey had arrived.
The time window to make my absolute final choice was narrowing by the second, and I knew deep down that I could no longer run or hide from it.
