Alex felt like all the life had been wrung from his body. His thoughts were fractured and distant. His limbs wouldn't respond to his mind. His lips burned — and he wasn't sure if it was from the kiss or getting bit.

It took every single scrap of energy he had left just to look up at Claire. She stood above him, the coiling mists of the Cracked Steps twisting around her body like a crackling cloak. Her eyes had turned the same jet black as the tattoos crawling up her neck and reaching toward her face.

The tattoos clenched around Claire's neck so tightly that he could see the deepening indents forming in her skin. Blood poured in rivers from where the drawn thorns dug into her skin. Even though she wasn't speaking anymore, every passing second saw the tattoos tightening further.

Her Trial was trying to kill her. And, this time around, it didn't look like it was going to back down. It must have sensed that she was trying to destroy or remove it, and that was triggering some kind of failsafe. The thorns continued to drag their way farther up her face, clawing past her chin and rising up to her ears.

Alex desperately tried to push himself to his feet. His arms trembled desperately as they fought against gravity. It was fruitless. Claire had ripped every scrap of power from within him. He couldn't feel his magic, much less gather the strength to rise.

What are you doing, Claire?

The Dhampir wheezed, each breath stiff and slow. Her airway was slowly but steadily constricting. She reached for her neck, clawing for the tattoos as if to try to physically tear them away.

But, no matter how sharply the thorns dug into her neck or how tightly they constricted, they were still tattoos. Her fingertips found nothing but skin.

Alex was pretty sure that a Trial was something far too be powerful to be pulled away like some stray string. Nobody could just manhandle magic like that — but Claire wouldn't have done something so drastic for no reason.

She had to have a plan.

Right?

He groaned, pushing harder against the magnetic ground. His limbs trembled in defiance. Their resistance proved insufficient. He managed to shift himself forward, bracing a hand against his knee as he slowly fought to rise.

Claire's eyes locked with his. The tattoos had cut all the way up to the sides of her face. Thorns had almost completely swallowed her features — but there was no fear within her gaze. There was only fury and determination.

Her claws pressed deeper into her neck. Blood welled as she dug into her own skin, running down her fingertips and dripping from her palms as she pressed them even deeper. Claire's lips pulled back into a pained grimace.

"Claire," Alex wheezed, somehow finding the strength to speak. "I don't mind waiting. We don't need answers now. Don't kill yourself and waste everything you fought for. You can't take revenge on the Nightmarch if you're dead. Aren't you close to beating your Trial anyway?"

Claire paused for an instant. Her grimace pulled into a pained smile as she shook her head. Then, with a hiss of pain, she shoved her claws even deeper into her own neck before ripping her hand free.

Blood sprayed from her neck and she staggered, nearly falling to the ground but managing to catch herself at the last second.

Stinging droplets splattered across Alex's face. He flinched despite himself as some fell into his eye — and then he froze, lips parting in surprise.

Clutched in Claire's bloodied hand was a writhing black vine. It ran back into her skin, connecting to the tattoos writhing along her face. Her palm was so soaked with blood that the thorns digging into it didn't even seem to make a difference.

Her tattoo.

Claire let out another scream of pain as she yanked the tattoo away from herself. There was a sickening, slicing squelch. And, as Alex watched in stunned disbelief, the tattoo buried beneath her skin peeled back.

But it didn't all come out at once. The thorns dug into her, clinging on for dear life. Claire grabbed the writhing strand with her other hand. Then, as her breath came in ragged and pained gasps, she pulled it again.

And again.

And again.

Every single pull dragged the thorned tattoo out a few inches farther. It was like she was raising an anchor by herself — but in reverse. And yet, it couldn't have been farther from that. The jagged vine tearing through her insides couldn't have ever been compared to a mere rope.

That didn't stop her. Hand after hand, pull after pull, Claire tore the vile curse from within herself. The black vine thrashed and twisted in the air around her like a strangled snake. It scored across her arms and ripped into her clothing.

Claire didn't even seem to notice. She just kept pulling. The tattoos covering her face slipped back, traveling back down past her ears and winding toward the exit point in her neck.

Alex could barely believe his own eyes. For that matter, he couldn't believe that Claire was still standing. The amount of blood she'd lost should have been enough to kill a man twice her size. It didn't look like her magic was still holding her together, either.

The only thing keeping her going was some mixture of sheer dumb willpower and spite.

And it was working.

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She pulled until the tattoo was nothing but a single black line at the edge of her neck, a few final thorns gripping onto what little they had left to hold.

Then, with a final scream of defiance, Claire ripped the final remnants of the tattoo free.

The last of the tattoo tore out from her body, leaving Claire holding a long length of bloodied thorn. What had once been pitch black was now stained red with her own lifeblood. It still thrashed, but the fight within the curse was weakened.

It had lost.

Claire gulped desperate breaths in as she stared down at the vine clutched in her grip. The thorns thrashed and jerked in a desperate attempt to escape. It was fruitless. The tattoo was no longer the one in control.

She held it out over the edge of the colorful pathway as the last of the fight left the thorned vine and went slack. It had lost. For a moment, it looked like she would drop the thorned curse over the edge and into the twisting storm that filled the skies of the Cracked Steps.

Then her lips twisted up into a tired smile. Her hand relaxed. The black vine lurched back to life.

No!

But the thorns didn't shoot up for Claire's neck. Instead, it snapped around her right wrist, digging deep into her skin as it bound around it. Like a slurped piece of spaghetti, it wound around her arm and vanished beneath her torn sleeve.

And then it was reduced to nothing more than a tattoo once more. This time, it showed no signs of fading. The black thorns remained clear along Claire's arm and made no signs of trying to fade away.

Claire's eyes sharpened. She flexed her fingers, then flicked her wrist. The thorned vine slithered free from it in a blur, cracking like a whip as it snapped through the air. She then snapped her wrist again. The vine slithered back, returning to nothing more than a tattoo upon her skin.

Alex's eyes widened.

Wait. She… took control of the curse?

Claire stared at her hand. Her fingers trembled for a moment. They clenched into a fist. A gale howled past them, blowing the thick clouds of Riftwarped mist away.

And then Claire started to laugh.

She fell to her knees, still laughing, as blood poured in rivers down the sides of her neck and dripped off the edges of the shimmering bridge they both sat on. Then her wounds began to seal. Their bleeding stopped as blood reversed in its course, flowing back into her.

Claire dragged herself over to Alex.

He was still fighting to regain control over his weakened, worthless muscles when he felt a trickle of power suddenly light deep within his soul. His attention waned for an instant. And, in that instant, Claire leaned forward and pressed her lips to his for the second time.

An electric jolt akin to if he'd stuck a fork into a power outlet shot through Alex. Magic poured back into his body. His Qi returned to him in an enormous wave of relief as he felt his reserves rapidly replenish. Strength returned to his limbs and his mind unscrambled itself — for the most part.

Claire pulled away a second later. Her face was still bloodied and hair was matted to her forehead with sweat from the pain she'd just endured. Despite that all, her lips sported a grin that held a lightness that Alex had never seen within the Dhampir.

"I did it," Claire whispered between her laughter. "I'm free."

"You beat the Trial?" Alex asked, his voice finally working properly once more. All the power that Claire had taken had returned. He had so many questions that he didn't even know where to start — and at this very moment, none of them mattered.

"No," Claire said, grabbing Alex by the shoulders as she continued to laugh. "I tore it out. I took a bet. I figured your Title would be enough to let me resist the Trial while I took over the magic fueling it — and I was right. The class was always mine. I just had to get rid of the Trial to unlock it."

"So you can talk about it?" Alex asked, a grin spreading across his own lips. "You don't have any more restrictions?"

"The Nightmarch family sent three branches to Ayrin. I killed Vanessa Nightmarch, who was trying to get strong enough to fight an Heir in the Gentle Shadow family." Claire's grin grew wider. "No restrictions. I'm completely free."

"Holy shit. So not only did you steal their class—"

"Nightwhisper," Claire said. "That's the name of my class. Nightwhisper. When we're alone, use the name."

"Nightwhisper, then. You stole the goddamn Trial as well?"

Claire grinned. "The System registered it as mine and transformed it into a magical construct once I ripped it free of myself. I've trained with a whip before. I didn't have one on me when I fell into the Mirrorlands… but I think this new one will do quite well by me."

"Fucking badass," Alex said with a relieved laugh. He pushed himself to his feet and held a hand out to Claire. "We should probably get moving before this thing fades on us, though. That would be really unfortunate."

"That's a very good point." Claire accepted his hand and let him pull her up. Tо rеpоrt еrrоrs, plеаsе visit thе оriginаl pоst оn

The two of them paused there, standing an inch away from each other, hands clasped.

Alex found his cheeks reddening. He cleared his throat.

"So… if you don't have secrets anymore… what was that ability? You can steal someone's magic by kissing them?"

"Oh, no. I can temporarily borrow someone's strength by drinking their blood. It's easier the more willing they are to let me use the power. You were pretty willing. Thanks for that, by the way."

"I… yeah. I didn't even know what you were doing, though."

"Didn't have to. It's a mental thing."

"Ah," Alex said intelligently. "Then… please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm going to go ahead and assume you kissed me for an entirely different reason. Twice."

Claire shrugged. "I figured there was a solid chance I got myself killed doing this. I wanted to leave without regrets. You'd already expressed interest, after all. The second time was because I survived."

"Right, right." Alex nodded. "Makes sense. Well, you survived."

"I did."

"So… you want to date?"

"Wow. That was blunt." Claire crossed her arms in front of her chest and arched an eyebrow. "No flowers?"

Alex scratched the back of his head. "I can probably find a flower monster somewhere in the Mirrorlands if you wait a bit."

"You know what? I should have expected that." Claire snorted and rolled her eyes. "I'll think about it."

He blinked. "What?"

She turned on her heel and started back along the glowing path, leaving Alex staring at her back in disbelief.

You can't be serious. Are you kidding me?

Claire turned back to Alex, a huge grin on her lips. "Okay. Thought about it. Sure thing."

"Sure thing?" Alex exclaimed, trying and failing to fight back a smile. "Now who's being blunt?"

"I'll be romantic when you get me my flower monster."

Alex couldn't help it any longer. He burst into laughter, and Claire joined him.

Even though it wasn't Alex's shoulders from which the weight had been lifted, he still felt lighter. The Nightmarch had been a threat at Claire's neck for so long that it was hard to believe it was over.

Of course, the Outworlder family was still a threat. They'd kill her in an instant if they discovered what she'd done. Hell, they were still searching for Claire. But their Trial had been defeated. Their restrictions over what she could say had been torn away.

Claire was free.

And for the time being, that was enough.