Soul has sighed, and the pain disappeared. The chest has crushed invisible chains, and the breath came easy for the first time in years. Fingers painfully gripped Demian. If she would release him and he disappeared, she would not survive. Blue flames have died out, and her heartbeat evened. But she could not bring herself to release him.

Demian's lips were kissing her forehead, cradling her trembling figure.

"Why did I act so childish? Why was I so stubborn?"

"You were only 16." She felt how Demian shrugged, hugging her even tighter.

"It's so easy to breathe."

"I know."

"Turns out, it's so hard to out-fight yourself."

"You struggled to give up." She felt Demian's chest vibrating with a muffed laugh. "You were out-fighting yourself for years."

Elvein still could not believe it. She lifted her head to face Ekrizdis.

"How can you forgive me?"

"What about you forgiving me?" Answered Demian.

"I have betrayed you."

"I have forced and violated you."

"I have killed you."

"You have revived me." He smiled at her the same way as the day they met.

A new stream of tears descended from emerald eyes, and she reached for his thin lips. They have wasted so much time! And for what?! She needed Demian as much as her next breath. His touch, his scent, his voice!

Link in her chest sang loudly, encouraging her every action. Loving him could not be wrong. Deep down, she always knew it. But roaring thoughts were not letting her listen. What they kept doing was drowning each other. Dragging themselves into the abyss. Knowingly or not, they kept destroying each other, while they existed in this world for one another and were lucky enough to stumble on each other. No more punishing herself! No more restricting herself.

Sweaty bodies were cooling with a cold stone floor when they returned to their senses. Elvein's bare body sat up. Demian rose too, hugging her back, kissing slender shoulders.

"I hate this place."

"Me too." Answered Demian, who helped her up, pulling his robe on her naked figure. Then, he stomped his foot on the stone floor. "And the hell with it. May the ground consume it."

Remains of a terrifying and equally miserable castle started to crumble accompanied by the roar of pain and release of the stone gargoyles.

"Where are we going?"

"Place where it's always sunny."

"I love you, Demian."

"Since the very first day, till my very last breath." Was Ekrizdis' answer.

Draco stood at the cliff, at the very beginning of the maze, seeing how the castle groaned, how walls started to crumble, how Demian was hugging Elvein, how Even was kissing Demian, till transgression's twilight did not consume their bodies and his world has not collapsed with the remains of the castle.

...

"Two poles can never exist without one another. Facing away from each other contradicts their gist. No matter where one goes, gravity will always return it to the second one; thus light can never exist without darkness".

Prophesy of Sybill Trelawney