017. HIS DYING BREATH

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Alina pressed her hand against Mal's wound before looking up and trying to find the Heartrender, um aware Aleksander was slowly pushing himself up onto his feet. "Nina! Nina!"

"Alina. Look at me." Mal gasped out through strangled breaths. "I don't have much time. Please." He handed her his dagger and Alina took it numbly although she refused to wield it.

"I can't."

He wrapped his hand on top of hers which held the dagger, guiding the tip of the dagger over his heart.

"Make them redraw all the maps."

Alina stifled her cry's as Mal's other hand gripped the dagger to force her to force her to stab into it to him.

"I love you." Alina whimpered as the familiar red glow began to return to her face and form around them.

"You know where to find me." Mal whispered.

Alina nodded, sniffling and blinking away the tears before she pushed the dagger into his chest. As Mal's life faded away, his energy went into her and just like that she saw his last moments which were of only her and their fond memories together.

In rage, Alina yelled from the bottom of her throat and thrusted her free hand into the sky above, her light of blue and red mixed together stormed the darkness surrounding them. Mischa had to place a hand over her eyes to protect them from the life.

The barrier of her light began to spread until the Fold had completely disappeared and in its wake left dry sand cascading right down the border of Ravka. Once it the Fold was all gone, Alina fell on top of Mal's lifeless corpse.

But, the fight was far from over. Four nichevo'ya formed from thin air, all growling with anger. There was only so much Zoya and Inej could do now with a missing Nina Zenik.

As if Alina's crys of help of help were heard, Nina came running back to her and knelt down beside Mal.

Inej managed to kill two nichevo'ya with the blade before the blade was knocked out of her hands and far away from her reach, the tip of the blade dug into the sand. Zoya used her wind to try and help but the last two nichevo'ya only pushed back harder.

Mischa saw their struggle and pushed herself to her feet. She wiped the sand off her dress before she closed her eyes.

Her hands rose in front of her, folding around in intricate patterns along with her fingers as her eyes moved from under her closed eyelids. Her lips pressed together to create a straight line as she envisioned what she needed in order to find the monsters.

And as her shadows began to crawl towards her, coming to aid from hearing their mother's call, they moved in spirals around her body before resting in a big blob behind her. The more her hands moved the more the shadows began to form into a shape.

Three large wolves made up of pure shadow towered over her from behind, about the same size as the monsters her father created. The wolves stood behind their Mother protectively, waiting for her to command them.

Mischa thrusted her eyes back open and with a loud shrilling scream, her hands were thrown towards the last two nichevo'ya. The wolves growled as they jumped around her and broke out into a sprint towards the monsters. Zoya and Inej stepped away from the fight when seeing three wolves of pure darkness began to run towards them. But, the wolves eyes were only on the monsters, not them.

The wolves wouldn't be able to kill them, but it gave Mischa enough time to run over to where the blade was stuck standing up in the sand. She ripped it out of the ground and raised it above her head as she too broke out into a sprint towards the monsters.

She used a large boulder nearby to step onto and when she jumped off, she glided through the air above the nichevo'ya before the blade came straight down on it, effectively killing the shadow.

For the next nichevo'ya she simply ran towards it, and with her wolves aiding her, she swung the blade a single time and it was a kill shot. Now, all the shadow monsters had been killed.

Mischa breathed heavily as she let the arm that held the heavy blade fall to her side.

"Uh, why... wolves?" Zoya inquired calmly as her and Inej flanked Mischa's sides.

" I am no bird. And no cage ensnares me." Mischa spoke bravely, gesturing to her old alias The Black Bird. "Plus, I met a wolf as dark as my shadow wolves not too long ago, gave me an idea."

Mischa threw Zoya a tiny little smirk. The Squaller matched it in return.

She was unaware of her Father's eyes watching her the entire time, widening in fixation as he mumbled, "Extraordinary."

Reality struck Mischa as she turned back turned to where Alina was crying over Mal's dead body with Nina next to her, trying to save him.

Mischa's eyes slid behind them to where Aleksander stood, clutching the wound on his abdomen with his iron hand. "Now... you know sacrifice."

Alina stood to her feet, sniffling as fresh tears poured from her eyes and she looked in hatred at the man. "Beyond anything you've ever known. And look what it did."

"Indeed." Aleksander's gaze shifted to the dead boy on the steps. "Look what it did." Alina's lips quivered more as she too followed his gaze.

Alina shook her head, voice breaking as she addressed the Darkling. "Mal and I changed the world. We tore down your Shadow Fold."

"You have my sympathies for what comes next, when you realize that what you've done solves nothing. The world doesn't need a Saint to protect it, Alina. It needs a monster. And while I remain —" He was cut off by his own violent coughs which only irritated the wound even more. Aleksander began to creep forward once recovered, eyes darkened. "Let me be your monster."

"You think that after everything, I'd still stand by you?"

"Not you." Aleksander shook his head, his eyes moving towards his daughter who wielded the only blade that could cut shadow. Alina followed his gaze and when Mischa noticed as well, she began to walk forward, joining Alina's side.

"Without me, you have no inspiration, no one to teach you how to summon darkness. Let me carry the hatred of this world, daughter."

"Hatred." Mischa scoffed, shaking her head. "Because of the choices you made."

Aleksander glumly glanced to the ground. "Choices you too will make... in time."

Mischa held her chin up towards the sky. "I will never walk your path."

Aleksander began to march towards her. "I know you believe that now." He stopped, groaning at the pain searing from the deep slash in his abdomen, the stinging only firing up whenever he attempted to move. He gritted his teeth as he tried once again to get closer to her, one slow step at a time.

"But soon... Soon you will have no equal." Aleksander now stood in front of her as Mischa kept her nose raised at him and pushed Alina back. Aleksander squinted his eyes as he spoke gloomily to his offspring. "The years spent alone will grind you down, they will harden you. And who will be there to shield you from it? Who will be there to save you?"

He reached his hand out to cradle her cheek, but, Mischa harshly and tightly grabbed his wrist with her own grip, stopping his action from progressing.

Mischa narrowed her eyes onto the man who gave her life, who groaned and whimpered as pain coerced through him again.

"I will save myself." Mischa responded as she stared into his dark and broken eyes. "Your legacy is already written. There is no redemption, not anymore."

She pushed his hand away from, not knowing he would fall to his knees and suck in a deep breath as for his last move, a nichevo'ya was created with shadows on his back. It was quick and grabbed her by the throat, rising her up off the ground, her feet kicking. She gasped for air she couldn't get, aware she had dropped the blade.

"Leave her alone! No!" Aleksander tried to run to reach her but the nichevo'ya had a kind of its own and backwards slapped him, causing him to fall onto his back.

Mischa croaked as she found the things eye, or what she thought it was. Making it look less suspicious, she dropped one hand that had been clutching the shadow fist around her throat to aim towards the ground. Her own shadows erupted out of her palms and pulled the blade back into her grasp where she quickly sliced the blade on the fist around her throat, releasing her and drooling her to the ground. She then proceeded to jab the sword once more in the center of the monster. The monster evaporated leaving a orange sizzle in the air.

Mischa clutched her throat as she gasped for breath, kneeling on the ground. She looked up as Aleksander stood up and approached her. "You can't control them, can you? You can't control any of it. "

Mischa stared sharply at the iron hand that he extended towards her in order to help her up.

"I thought I could control it all once. Find peace. And for a moment, I swear I did."

Aleksander shut his eyes as he relished in the memories of Mischa's first months at the Little Palace after he brought her from the orphanage. It was the good times when she was all smiles and giggles and adored Aleksander so much. He smiled in his memory of when she had dragged him to a flower field and made them roll over down the hill. She looked at him with the biggest grin on her face.

Aleksander was too caught up in his distant fond memories of the two of them that he didn't notice Mischa rise with the blade in hand until she had stabbed it into his stomach.

His eyes flew open and black blood spilled from his mouth. He looked down to see the blade glow a yellow as she pulled it out of his stomach, his black blood staining the sword.

He looked at her in shock, and hurt as he glanced back up to her, his black corrupted blood running down his chin. His eyebrows furrowed as he looked at his daughter before he grunted and fell backwards onto the ground.

He had labored breathing as Mischa came to stand by his side, her shadow towering over him as he took in every last detail of her face.

"Mischa..." He mumbled with open eyes, gesturing her to come closer. Knowing he wasn't able to harm her, she knelt down by his side. "You make sure there is nothing left of me. Please. Please."

He choked. In a blink, he had sat up and ripped the blade from her hand. Mischa knew this was her end, her mistake for thinking he wasn't harmful in this state.

So, she waited. She waited for the blade to strike her.

But, it never came. Instead, Mischa watched with wide surprised eyes as he brought the blade to his good hand and sliced his pointer finger off, along with the ring still attached to it. He cried out in pain as he picked his separated finger up and forcefully pushed it into Mischa's hands along with the blade.

Mischa's jaw fell open at his finger which now rested in her palm.

   "At least I am able to leave this world with leaving you something behind, even if it is...with my dying breath." Aleksander dropped his head back onto the sand as he let his arms fall limp next to him, accepting that this was his fate. "Embrace what you are, what you will be. Be better. Be better than I ever was. And show them what it means to be... a Morozova, daughter."

Mischa didn't even realize her eyes pricked with tears and a few rebellious ones slid down her cheeks.

Aleksander sighed out in content as his eyes never left his daughter that silently mourned his death. "My little Bird..."

Mischa couldn't help the small sob that left her lips abruptly when his breath ceased and his eyes became a void, his chest falling and staying there. He might have been the villain in this story, but he was still her father, and she would mourn him like one.

This whole time everyone had been watching her until Mal let out a gasp of new life, returning back to the living. Alina cried over his body in glee.

Zoya came from behind Mischa who still knelt and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder from behind.

As the world looked to him as if he was the villian, Mischa's eyes flooded with tears looking to the man dying with blood on his hands, her father.

And that's when Aleksander Morozova died with Mischa's face as a reminder he was never entirely heartless.

authors note.

   i cried writing this bc although he was an evil terrible man, he was still her father and loved her till the end. but... if you've read the king of scars duology you know what's coming up in the far future ;)

if you've read a court of thorns and roses series you know where the shadow wolves idea came from.

   anyways, I've just realized there is like two chapters left then this is fic is over! noooo! well, not over over, just completed until I've decided to start writing from king of scars, after i've updated my others books ofc.

i love you all, don't be a ghost reader!