The creature stood beneath the crumbled dome of the forgotten sanctuary.

Tall. Shadowed. Breathing like a storm barely contained.
 Its golden eyes fixed on Edrick—not as prey,
 but as something far more dangerous.

As memory.

Edrick didn’t move.
 He had seen nightmares.
 He had spoken to corpses.

But this…

This was the past, returned with claws.

The beast growled again.

“You wore the name Vow.
 I wore the name Hunger.”

“You left me in chains.”
 “And I howled for centuries.”

Edrick stepped forward.

“What are you?”

The answer came as thunder:

“I AM WHAT YOU PROMISED TO CONTAIN.”

The creature reached toward the broken silver bars.

But didn’t cross them.

Not yet.

“Where is your pair, Oathbreaker?”
 “Where is the Heart who sang you to sleep?”

The air turned sharp.
 And Edrick understood—

The wolf didn’t want revenge.

It wanted balance.

And that balance had been broken.

Meanwhile, Lira stood before the mirror.

The girl in the reflection had begun to weep.
 Not tears.
 But threads.

Silver strands, unraveling from her chest.
 Pulling her backward—toward the past she’d buried.

The Harlequin’s voice, still behind her:

“What happens when the one who binds forgets?
 The curse awakens.
 The Vow breaks.
 And the play resumes.”

Lira closed her eyes.

And when she opened them—

She was no longer in her apartment.

She was back.

Back in the garden of grey stone.

Back where the Pact had been sworn.

Two children.

Two masks.

One wolf, asleep in a silver ring.

And a voice repeating:

“Repeat the Vow.”
 “Until one forgets… and one forgives.”

The vision shattered like glass.

She screamed.

And across the city—
 Edrick heard it.

So did the Wolf.

And for the first time…

It bowed.

Not in fear.
 Not in worship.

In recognition.

The beast whispered:

“The Vow sleeps within her still.”

“And you… you carry the Key.”

Edrick clenched his fists.
 The truth hit him like a knife to the ribs.

They hadn’t just been victims of a ritual.

They were its authors.
 And now the ending had returned to collect its price.

The Wolf looked at him one last time.

“You have one night left.”

 “One night… before I remember everything.”