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Mel woke with a ragged gasp, as if dragged from the bottom of the sea. Her chest heaved, her breaths scraping her throat raw. Sweat ran cold and hot down her skin, soaking her nightclothes, gathering at her collarbone. The chamber swam in moonlight and shadow, but she barely saw it. Her eyes were wide, locked on nothing.
Her body burned.
The gold etched into her skin glowed in the dark, every sigil alive, pulsing in erratic rhythm with her racing heart. Molten veins across her arms, her collarbone, her throat. Too beautiful. Too cruel. Too alien. Like chains carved into the seams of her flesh. Mel’s trembling hands hovered over the markings. Light crackled beneath her fingers, leaping like sparks. A golden wisp broke free and curled upward before dissolving in the air.
The sound of her own breath shook her.
Six months of this. Six months of torment and illusion — mother’s tests, Kino’s silly jokes, Elora’s thorn marked face, Jayce’s smile, lady Binan’s wide yes. Their faces broke and re-formed inside the illusions: her mother’s lifeless eyes, Elora dissolving into black roses, Jayce’s voice twisting into something sinister. Sometimes the voices felt more real than silence. Sometimes the silence was worse.
Mel’s tattoos flared brighter. The air shivered. A flickering dome of light burst around her. It was fractured, unstable, thrumming to her ragged breaths. Her bedframe rattled. For a heartbeat she saw herself as something else: radiant, armored, almost divine. A weapon. Monstrous. Her reflection flashed against the light, warped by her shield’s glow, her twisted features consumed in gold, no longer entirely hers.
“No,” she rasped. She clenched her fists clenched in something familiar; restraint
Mel’s eyes flickered to the light from the corner of her eyes. At her bedside rested a single object: a Hexgem.
Blue light pulsed, calm, steady. It contrasted against the oscillating gold surrounding her, the two energies responded for the briefest shimmer before parting again. With trembling hand, Mel reached for it, and the magic threatening to turn rampant stilled. The cool surface of the Hexgem grounded her. For a second she closed her eyes.
Memory intruded anyway: Jayce’s face, his voice, angry, then soft, then gone. The lines blurred. Had she truly heard him apologize… spoke words of encouragement to her, or had she invented it? Did it matter? What lingered was absence. His forever absence and everyone else’s. Mother. Kino. Elora.
Mel’s throat tightened. She pressed the Hexgem harder to her palm until her hands hurt. Slowly, the energy leaking from her markings dimmed. The hum in the air subsided.
A knock at the door. “General. We approach the shores.”
Mel inhaled once, slow. Her breath was steady now. She set the Hexgem into her pocket, close enough to feel against her. She rose from her bed, drew her cloak around her shoulders, and straightened until she felt steady. Cool. Untouchable. Her body still shook faintly, but no one would see it. Not the soldiers outside. Not whatever family member, if she were lucky, to welcome her in Noxus. Definitely, not the Black Rose.
This curse was hers to bear.