King of Scars

Nikolai, Zoya, and Yuri wait on the sands with Elizaveta and Grigori. Juris is absent. It is time for the ritual. Elizaveta raises the thorn wood, and stalks twist around Nikolai and Zoya. Yuri chants the ancient ceremonial text. Sap pools and forms a sphere around Zoya, and Nikolai unleashes the monster while cutting a thorn to use as a stake; he must pierce both his and the monster’s heart with the thorn. Only one will survive. Nikolai grapples with the monster, who sows doubt in his mind, trying to convince him of his worthlessness. Nikolai rises above the taunts and stabs his own heart. The monster flees his body and hovers as a shadow before him. Nikolai tries to stab it, but his arms are pinned by the thorn wood. Zoya is still trapped inside the sap sphere.

Elizaveta comes forward. She hoped he would just let the monster take over; she intends to raise the Darkling. The Darkling’s corpse appears on a bier. The monster will inhabit the corpse, and the Darkling will be reborn. Yuri approaches the monster to remove the thorn stake; Yuri, too, is a traitor. Nikolai closes his eyes letting himself go—and when he opens his eyes, he is the monster floating before him.