DAGON MANSION

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX: RYAN'S FEELINGS

Stone walls breathed cold in the prison visiting chamber. A single lamp hummed above, its glow pale and merciless. Rowena sat across from Ryan, their hands separated by the scarred wooden table — and a gulf of sins.

His eyes were distant, fixed not on her but on ghosts.

"I left the door open," Ryan murmured, voice brittle as frost. "So he would hear. So he would know."

Rowena held still, listening with the gravity of a priestess receiving last rites.

"When he arrived... he saw us. His son. His mistress."

His laugh was hollow. "I thought vengeance could feel holy. But it was only fire — consuming, joyless."

Rowena's voice was barely breath.

"What happened then?"

"He dismissed her on the spot. Fired her like a servant who'd broken a vase."

Ryan's jaw clenched, a flicker of the boy he once was visible beneath the mask.

"But he never degraded me again. He looked at me as if I were a beast who had torn through his kingdom. A wolf in his lineage of kings."

He paused, exhaling years of bitterness.

"When I turned eighteen, I left. Two years later, he died in the crash. His empire fell to me like a curse disguised as inheritance."

Silence settled between them — not empty, but heavy.

Rowena finally spoke, forcing her voice into the present.

"Enough ghosts. Tell me about the living. About Mia. And Theolinda."

A flicker of warmth — anguish wrapped in devotion — passed across Ryan's face.

"Mia is fire. Madness. Devotion forged in suffering. Loving her is standing in a storm knowing lightning seeks me."

A tremor crossed his lips. "If she dies, I will follow. That bond — that curse — binds marrow to marrow."

Rowena watched him with aching tenderness — compassion for a man undone by the ferocity of his own heart.

"And Theolinda?"

Ryan's gaze softened — a river after wildfire.

"Theo is calm after agony. A harbor. A warmth that heals rather than scars."

He breathed out. "With her, I am not a monster. I am a man."

Rowena smiled sadly.

"Epic love and healing love. Both sacred. Both dangerous in their own way."

Ryan's eyes hardened again — decision cutting through them like steel.

"I must choose. The Dark Dimension demands payment for the life I built from ashes and blood."

Rowena's fingers tightened around the edge of the table.

"What sacrifice?"

A shadow crossed his face — acceptance masquerading as resolve.

"I will give myself to Alexandra."

His voice dropped to a prayer of surrender. "If someone must pay for the sins and wounds of our world, let it be me."

Rowena's breath stilled. For a moment, she saw him not as a warlock nor a broken heir, but as a tragic knight stepping into the jaws of the beast.

"This is a terrible grace, Ryan," she whispered. "And I will keep your secret."

He met her gaze with a tired, grateful half-smile.

"Thank you for seeing the human in me. Even now."

She rose, sorrow weighing her steps.

As Rowena left the prison, dusk swallowed the horizon. The world seemed to exhale twilight, heavy with omens. She clutched her tarot deck beneath her coat.

If fate must choose, let it choose mercy...

But in her heart, she feared mercy had already been spent.