The Landon Manor was still draped in midnight silence when the heavy front doors groaned open.
Maika stood in the foyer, barefoot and wide-eyed, her hair loose around her shoulders. She'd felt him before he arrived. A pull, a tremor in the blood—a mother always knows.
"Caveen?" Her voice cracked the silence like glass.
He stood in the doorway, bathed in moonlight, looking like a ghost.
His shirt was soaked in blood—not his. His hands trembled. His eyes were hollow.
"Mother" he croaked, and then, like a dam breaking, he ran to her.
She caught him just before he fell.
He clung to her like a lost child, arms wrapped tight around her waist, burying his face into her neck. His shoulders heaved with ragged sobs. Not the strong, composed Caveen she knew—but a boy again. Broken. Fragile. Shattered.
> "It's gone," he wept. "She's gone. The baby's gone."
Maika's heart plummeted.
She wrapped him in her arms tighter, rocking slightly, her own tears already falling. "Tell me, sweetheart… tell me what happened."
He couldn't speak at first—his throat was raw from screaming, his heart barely whole. But slowly, between sobs, the truth unraveled like a bleeding thread.
"The Council… the arrow… it was too close to my heart… I was dying. She—she didn't wait… didn't listen…"
His voice cracked again.
> "She used the Resurrection Spell, the one from the Moonwell grimoires. The one they always warned about…"
Maika stiffened. "No… she wouldn't…"
> "She did," he whispered. "She gave up our child. Our baby. My daughter… alive. Kicking. Almost… and she gave them up for me."
Maika pressed a hand over her mouth, struggling not to crumble with him.
> "She looked at me like I was worth more," Caveen said through clenched teeth. "Like my life mattered more than our child. She took that choice away from me. She chose for both of us. And now—"
He broke again.
> "Now, I hate her. And I hate myself for it."
Maika leaned her forehead against his. "You don't hate her," she said softly. "You're grieving. But I know, Caveen—I know—if she did that, it's because she loved you so much it made her foolish. Grief turns lovers into monsters. And sacrifice... it doesn't always feel noble."
He didn't answer. Just wept harder.
They sat there on the cold marble floor, tangled in silence and sorrow, the ghosts of what could've been surrounding them.
After what felt like hours, Caveen's sobs slowed, but his grip on Maika never loosened.
> "I can't stay here," he whispered.
Maika looked at him, her breath held.
> "Everywhere I go, I'll see them. I'll see her, and what we lost. I'll never forgive myself if I stay in this world. This realm—it's too full of death, war, power games. It destroys everything I love."
She cupped his face. "Then where will you go?"
His eyes, still red-rimmed, held a strange calm now. A man rising from the ashes of heartbreak.
> "The human realm."
Maika blinked. "Caveen…"
He nodded, firmer now. "I'll go back to the hospital I trained in… Dr. Lira said they still need trauma specialists. I'll… I'll live as a doctor again. I'll help people. I'll build something simple. Something real. Maybe I'll never be whole again—but I can do good. Maybe that's what I need."
She pressed her forehead to his once more. "You'll always have a home here, you hear me? Whether you're a doctor in the human realm or a lost boy at my door—you are my son. Always."
A tear slid down his cheek. "Thank you, Mother."
She kissed the top of his head.
And in that moment, she knew: Caveen had outgrown the shadows of magic and bloodlines. He had been carved by grief into something more.
---
By dawn, Caveen stood at the edge of the estate's forest, dressed in civilian clothes. A black duffle bag slung over his shoulder. His hair pulled back. His face calm, but his eyes—their fire was different now.
He didn't say goodbye to Lysandra. He didn't leave a note.
He'd already said everything that mattered.
Maika stood with Carl a few feet behind, watching her son vanish into the trees and toward the human realm.
Carl put a hand on her shoulder. "He'll make it."
Maika nodded. "But he'll carry this wound forever."
Carl's jaw tightened. "We all do."
She turned to look at her husband.
> "We need to protect what's left," she said. "Because the next time the Council moves against us… Caveen won't be here to help."
Carl nodded. "Then we fight smarter."
They stood in silence as the first rays of sun stretched across the estate.
Far beyond them, Caveen crossed through the veil—into the mortal world.
Where he would not be Caveen the heir. Not Caveen the half-lycan, half-witch prince.
But just Dr. Caveen Landon, a man who once loved, who once lost…
…and who would heal, one soul at a time.
Even if his own never truly healed.
-----
Meanwhile in the Ravenshade Manor.
Seraphine walked alongside Elda, her maid, chatting lightly about the new kitchen herbs being planted.
Just as she turned the corner near the stables, her steps halted.
A man stood near the forge, adjusting thick leather gloves as he inspected the tools arranged before him. He was tall and broad-shouldered, with dark brown hair tied loosely at the nape of his neck. Sweat clung to his sharp jawline, and his blacksmith's apron was already marked with ash and soot. Despite the rough work, he held a natural charisma—his aura drawing eyes without trying.
Seraphine's heart skipped. "Carlos?"
The man turned.
His eyes softened immediately. "Seraphine."
Without a second thought, she rushed across the courtyard, her smile blooming like sunlight after a storm.
"Carlos!" she called again, arms flinging around his neck in a joyful embrace. "You're here!"
Carlos caught her easily, his strong arms wrapping around her waist. He chuckled. "Still as impulsive as ever."
"I can't believe this!" she said, pulling back just enough to look into his face, her hands resting on his shoulders. "What are you doing here?"
Carlos gave her a boyish grin. "Hired as the estate's blacksmith. Guess fate brought me here again."
"That's amazing!" she beamed. "I was beginning to think I wouldn't have anyone from my old life to talk to here. You don't know how happy this makes me."
"I think I have an idea," he said, his smile softer now, eyes lingering on her a beat longer than necessary.