AN: Sorry for the delay everyone. I know I said Christmas but some medical stuff has come up and it's just been really hard to focus on anything other than that. This is officially the final chapter of this story, though I will almost certainly be writing an epilogue if/when I receive a clean bill of health.

As always, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Please let me know what you think and thank you for reading!

The air left Sofia's body as she and Cedric landed rather roughly on the floor of the palace library. It felt as though the room was spinning around her and there was a loud ringing in her ears, though she could still hear the faint sound of her children fussing and calling out for her. She wanted to tend to them but more urgently, she knew their father needed her help.

She pushed herself up on quivering limbs to look down at him, his face still bloodied and beaten. His eyes were swollen shut and several of his bones appeared to be broken. She lowered herself back over him and willed the amulet to heal his physical injuries, hoping beyond hope that it wasn't already too late to reverse the damage.

"Cedric..." She gulped worriedly against his shoulder. "Cedric, are you still-"

"Yes." Cedric breathed out as best he could. "But for how much longer, I can't be certain. Wh-where are we?"

"The Avaloran palace." She answered softly.

Cedric shook his head and tried vainly to push his wife up so that he could look her in the eye. "Sofia, please listen to me. You aren't safe here. I was only able to bind the dark entity dwelling inside Grimtrix to the earth, not Grimtrix himself. Once he realizes that he'll relinquish the entity and free himself to come after you and the boys. You have to leave Avalor."

Sofia pulled back to look at Cedric with tear-filled eyes, questioning him despite that she was certain she already knew his response. "What about you? You're going you come with us... aren't you?"

Cedric let out a heavy sigh and reached up to thumb away a tear that had begun rolling down his wife's cheek. "Sofia, my love-"

"Why, Cedric?" Sofia managed past the lump in her throat. "Why didn't you just let him break the encroachment charm?"

Cedric offered his wife a sad smile and shrugged. "It's like you told him... magic doesn't care about semantics. Even though you were willing to give over the amulet, I would have never allowed it to happen. The charm wouldn't have broken because there was no outcome where I let him get his hands on you."

"There has to be some other way we can stop it." Sofia pressed hopefully, though she knew that their chances of breaking the charm were unlikely. "Mateo is a wizard. Maybe he-"

"Sofia, it's okay. I can go like this. I don't mind." Cedric continued to smile at the woman, fighting the tears that were now rising in his eyes. "Our time together here has been everything I've ever wanted in life. You've given me more in this past year than I could have ever hoped to gain in the years I wasted grabbing for power. I can't thank you enough for all you've given me, my dear. I love you so much."

"I love you too, Cedric." Sofia rasped out with a sorrowful sigh. "More than I think I can ever express."

"I know that you do." Cedric whispered, taking up his wife's left hand in his own. He noted that the appendage was covered in his blood, a willing sacrifice for her and their children. His eyes fell to the ring upon her finger. It was a symbol of their unity, though that unity was tainted by the ring itself, for it also represented the bitterness and distrust initially shared between them. He couldn't leave it there for the rest of eternity. "That's why it's time..."

"Time?" Sofia repeated, her brow furrowing in confusion.

Cedric lifted his wife's hand delicately and moved it to bury in his disheveled locks. Her face was contorted in uncertainty until he shifted his grip to the ring, slipping it from her finger with the simplest of gestures. He clasped the adornment tightly against his palm and cast an affectionate smile at his wife. "I know I should have done this long before now. Truth be told, I've thought about doing it every day since I first arrived here but I've always been so afraid. What if the charm didn't break? I couldn't stand the thought of it even though deep down I knew, I knew it would. Turns out I was right... I'm only sorry it took me so long to do something about it."

Tears began anew in Sofia's eyes as she placed her hand over her husband's. Despite the pleasant expression on his face she couldn't bring herself to return it with even half a smile. Her heart felt as though it was collapsing in on itself with grief knowing that Cedric was growing weaker with every second but still focusing his concern on her. "Cedric, i-it can't end like this. H-help me think of something we can do to stop this."

"Sofia, there's nothing." Cedric countered. "Really, it's alright."

"No it isn't." Sofia insisted. "Wh-what about the amulet? Maybe if I could just-"

Cedric silenced his wife by placing a frail finger against her lips. "No more what-ifs, my love. I don't have much time left. I don't want to spend it fretting. I just want to spend it with you and the boys."

Sofia nodded in solemn understanding and pulled back from Cedric to cast a glance over her shoulder at Elena and Mateo who were watching from a distance with her children in their embrace. She stood on shaky limbs and started toward them with her arms open.

Elena hurried forward and passed the fussing toddler she was holding into his mother's arms. "Sofia... is there anything we can do? Anything at all?"

Sofia shook her head regretfully as she pulled Rhys close before accepting Rowyn from Mateo's hands. "I don't think there's anything anyone can do at this point."

"Would you like us to summon a priest?" Mateo offered.

"That's kind of you but I doubt one would make it in time." Sofia declined quietly as she turned her gaze back to her husband. "Truth be told, he's never really been the type anyhow..."

Mateo nodded in acceptance and wrapped an arm around Elena to pull her close in this heartrending moment. The King and Queen of Avalor watched, disheartened, as the young woman before them stepped back over to her husband and knelt with her children to bid farewell to their dying father.

Sofia handed her sons to Cedric one at a time, the look of joy and relief on his face doing little to ease her sorrow over the entire situation. He was struggling to sit upright so she did her best to assist him by wrapping her arms around him to keep him in position. He appeared so grateful as he looked from her to their children and back again, placing a delicate kiss upon each of their heads. The lump in her throat was almost suffocating at this point. It was all she could do to hold tight to her family in that brief bestowal of time.

Cedric coddled his boys in his arms, the two babes seemingly sensing that something was amiss with their father. Rhys was whimpering and fussing while Rowyn was clinging tightly to him, silent as the grave. He could feel himself slipping now, flickering in and out of consciousness. The warmth and nearness of his family provided him with comfort in the face of his inevitable end. He could feel his wife's arms around him. Her embrace brought him a peace he had never known before this moment. It made it all the easier for him to drift from one plane to the next as he left the world of the living.

Sofia's heart sank as she felt Cedric's body slump the instant his life left him. Inside she could feel herself breaking down but outwardly she did everything within her power to remain calm for her children. They were too young to understand the severity of the situation before them and they would need her to remain level headed in the immediate thereafter.

Rhys was now whimpering much louder as Sofia eased Cedric's lifeless form carefully back to the ground. She picked the youngest of the twins into her hold before reaching for Rowyn, though the first born would not ease his grip from his father's corpse. "R-Rowyn sweetheart... P-Papa is... resting. Come now. W-we should let him rest." She tried again, pulling in vain with one hand at her child who was refusing to release himself from his father. Rhys' whimper had grown into a wail as he began struggling against her, making it all the more difficult for her to remove her eldest son from Cedric's motionless body. The tears and desperation she had been trying to hold back were now flowing out of her as she struggled with her sons, neither one wanting to leave their father's side. She choked back a sob as she grasped at both boys in frustration and agony. "Rowyn, Rhys... please!"

Elena shuffled forward in an effort to assist Sofia with the children but she was stopped in her tracks as the room around them grew darker. For a moment it seemed to be a trick of her eyes but then she saw what appeared to be a bright light escaping from the form of the motionless man on the floor; his soul, she had to assume. This spirit didn't behave like others she had encountered in the past, however. It seemed not to be in control of itself and its movements were very jarred as though two forces were playing tug of war with the wayward essence. Her eyes remained fixated on the sight in uncertainty until at last the spiritual light snapped back downward with such force it caused the lifeless body to jolt. The queen stood with breath held tightly in her chest and eyes fixed upon the family in the center of the room. No one was moving at that point, save for the slight twitch of a foot.