Asher woke up to the sound of rain.
Not Hellfire.
Not screaming.
Just rain tapping softly against glass.
For a moment, he didn't understand what that meant.
Then he felt it.
Cold.
Weight.
A heartbeat.
His.
He gasped and sat up, clutching his chest as pain and warmth flooded through him. His skin was no longer glowing. His wings were gone. No fire, no shadows—just a thin hospital blanket and the faint smell of antiseptic.
A human room.
"Welcome back," a familiar voice said.
Lena stood in the doorway, eyes red from crying, smiling anyway.
"You're late," she added softly.
He stared at her. "I'm… alive?"
"Technically you were never alive before," she said. "Now you are."
He looked down at his hands. They shook. They were real.
"What happened?"
"The contract rewrote itself," Lena replied. "When I stopped being afraid of disappearing… Hell lost its claim on me. And you lost your leash."
Asher swallowed. "So what am I now?"
Lena walked closer. "Free."
Outside, the rain kept falling—washing away algorithms, demons, expectations.
Asher reached for her hand, hesitant. "I don't have power anymore."
"I know."
"I don't have eternity."
"I know."
"I don't even know how to be human."
She squeezed his fingers. "Neither do most people. You'll fit right in."
For the first time, Asher smiled without shadows.
A new contract had been written.
Not in blood.
In choice.