Kaelen collapsed to his knees. The violet veins were gone from his body. In their place was a single, black scar over his heart. The curse was gone. But so was most of his power. He was just a man now. A pale, exhausted, broken man.
Kaelen closed his eyes. He saw Lyra’s face—the way she used to laugh at his dark jokes, the way she trusted him when no one else did. He still had the arrowhead she gave him as a token of their bond, though he had blackened it with shadow to hide its shine. dark hero party save
Now, Kaelen survived on the fringes. He was a monster, yes, but a sentient one. He could raise the dead, command shadows, and rot flesh with a touch. But he used it to hunt worse things. Rogue vampires. Plague spirits. The things that lurked in the deep woods where the light of the Radiant Five never reached. He was the dark hero the world needed but would never thank. Kaelen collapsed to his knees