Junie didn't give up.
Even after I had chosen Pain - after I had stepped through the veil into his world, a kingdom sculpted from mist and memory, darkness and light - Junie still came.
He found his way to the edge of realms, a place where mortal hearts shouldn't linger. He called my name into the silence between stars.
"I still love you," he whispered across the wind. "Even if you've chosen him."
But I was already beyond the veil, beneath an endless sky the color of stormclouds, surrounded by dancing lights and impossible creatures. The world of Pain welcomed me not as a prisoner - but as a queen.
Pain stood beside me, radiant and terrible. The people - spirits cloaked in gold, shadows crowned with fire - celebrated. Music unlike anything human rang through the sky as they lit lanterns that floated without flame.
They rejoiced.
Pain had won.
But joy was short-lived.
The sky shuddered. A crack split the air, dark and violent. From it poured a figure cloaked in blood-red mist, his presence like a blade through silence.
Hate.
Pain's twin. His opposite.
His curse.
"I smell prophecy," Hate sneered, circling us like a storm. "So the little god thinks he can change fate?"
Pain moved in front of me. "You're not welcome here."
"Is she worth it?" Hate spat. "The mortal who carries your undoing?"
I stood frozen as the truth settled in.
A prophecy.
The son of Pain and a mortal… would one day destroy Hate.
Hate bared his teeth. "I won't let that future come. I'll burn this world before that child takes breath."
Pain's voice rang like thunder. "Then you'll have to go through me."
Behind Pain's fury was something deeper - fear. He hadn't told me. But I understood now. I wasn't just his choice. I was the beginning of something destined.
And the end of something evil.
"I chose him," I said aloud. "And I'll keep choosing him."
Hate turned toward me, eyes glowing. "Then your fate is sealed."
The wind screamed.
But I did not flinch.
The battle for us had only begun.
And I was no longer afraid.