Eliza sank to her knees, the dagger slipping from her fingers and clattering onto the stone floor. The cavern was suffocating, the air heavy with tension and the weight of countless generations' worth of pain and sin.
Her mind spun with memories of what she had just seen—the bargains struck by her ancestors, the betrayals, the deaths. Her family had been complicit in feeding this curse, yet they had also been its victims.
"Why me?" she whispered, her voice barely audible. "Why does it have to be me?"
Daniel crouched beside her, his face etched with worry. "Because you're the only one left, Eliza. The Watcher feeds on your family, but you're also its greatest weakness. You have a chance to break the cycle, to make sure no one else suffers because of this."
Eleanor knelt on her other side, her weathered hand resting on Eliza's shoulder. "The choice is yours, child. No one can make it for you. But remember—this curse has lived too long. It has taken too much. If you let it go free, it will find another way to consume."
Eliza looked between them, her eyes glistening with tears. "What if I'm not strong enough?"
"You are," Daniel said firmly. "You've already faced more than anyone else could. And you're still standing."
The Watcher stirred again, its voice cutting through their conversation like a blade. "They ask you to sacrifice yourself for them, for a family that betrayed itself over and over. Do you really want to die for their sins?"
Eliza clenched her fists, her nails digging into her palms. The Watcher's words struck a chord of truth that she couldn't ignore. She thought of her grandmother, of the secrets she had kept. She thought of Victor Ravenswood and his selfish greed.
"No," she said finally, her voice steady. "I don't want to die for their sins. But I also won't let you win."
Eleanor and Daniel exchanged a glance, their relief palpable.
Eliza picked up the dagger again, its weight somehow lighter now. She turned to the Watcher, her jaw set. "You've taken enough from my family. It ends with me."
The Watcher screamed, a sound that shook the very foundation of the cavern. The air grew colder, the darkness pressing closer, but Eliza didn't flinch.
Eleanor began chanting again, her voice steady and strong, while Daniel placed a protective circle of salt around the altar. Eliza raised the dagger, its blade catching the faint glow of the symbols on the stone.
The Watcher's voice turned desperate, pleading. "Stop! You don't know what you're doing!"
"Yes, I do," Eliza said, her voice filled with resolve. "I'm taking back my family's freedom."
With a single, deliberate motion, she brought the dagger down.
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