"Pietro, how long have we been doing this old song and dance?"

  "For far too long, Morgan," he said as he began drawing upon his power.

  All color drained from the world around them as the sun in the sky turned darker than black. The world itself could sense their power surging and had isolated them to protect creation from their might. No one would be able to interfere in their battle, but there wouldn't be any chance to escape either.

  "Serpente della notte, vieni fuori!"

  The long coiling bodies of countless serpents burst from his shadow ready to strike on his command. In a single attack she would destroy his shell of darkness and leave him vulnerable, so he would just have to make sure she never managed to land a hit on him.

  "What happened to your spells?!" she exclaimed as her eyes peered into his soul.

  "The truly powerful have no need for tools, Morgan!" he hissed as the snakes lunged towards her with their fangs bared.

  She flew into the air and raised one hand in front of her. A bright shimmering barrier formed around her and deflected the striking serpents. They retreated back to his side and remained at the ready, but until he could create an opening they would only be useful as a distraction.

  "You've changed, Pietro, what have you done to your soul?!" she howled as she unleashed her own power.

  Countless flickering orbs of light appeared in the air around her. They flashed menacingly before they unleashed countless beams of burning light upon the world. Large smoldering grooves were left in their path as they split the ground around him.

  He slipped into his shadow before they could converge on him and appeared in the air behind her as he burst out of the shadows cast by the fabric of her dress. With a quick hip rotation he delivered a fierce roundhouse kick to her side and sent her hurtling towards the ground.

  "Serpente della notte, cattura!"

  Two serpents erupted from her shadow as she struck the ground and latched onto her shoulders. Their fangs dug through her flesh until they struck bone and held her pinned to the ground as he landed a only few paces away and began running towards her.

  "Lēoht t?s sunne, fortfēon hīe," she chanted as a bright light burned away the snakes holding her pinned to the ground.

  She was no longer holding back. He had shown that he could hurt her and now she would no longer restrict herself to simple intent driven casting. It was clear her old english had suffered over the many centuries, but her magic on the other hand had only grown stronger with time.

  As she stood up, the searing light around her flared before unleashing a wave of burning radiance. The serpents hiding in his shadow swarmed him and wrapped themselves around him to protect him from the killing light heading right for him. By the time her attack had passed over him the serpents had been all but destroyed for the sake of their master.

  "To think you would actually try to kill me after all I've done for you, Pietro."

  "You've been nothing but a thorn in my side ever since I first met you," he declared as he conjured more serpents from the shadows around them.

  "I stepped up and gave you two beautiful children when your wife couldn't, and not once did I hear you complaining during the act," she cackled as a burning white light formed around her body once more.

  "The only mother they will ever know is the one that has loved them since they first came into her life, and not the horrid witch who happened to birth them!" he screamed.

  Light and darkness became one as rays of light and serpents of shadow collided between them. Darkness turned brighter than the sun and light became darker than the blackest night as their magic clashed. Within the twilight they inhabited all the colorless shades were inverted by the fallout of their powers struggling for supremacy.

  "Yet I still care for you," she whispered into his ear.

  How had she managed to get behind him? He threw himself to the ground just as a bolt of light flew from her finger. If he hadn't moved it would have been over, but somehow he had avoided what should have been certain death.

  He forced himself to his feet and reformed the shell of darkness that would shield him from her spells as he ran towards the mansion. Unbearable heat washed over him as searing light struck his back, but he had already reached his destination.

  With his hand raised above his head he called upon the power within and conjured forth a massive tendril of darkness from the shadows within the home. It whipped through the balcony above him and cut it free from the structure before wrapping itself around it.

  "Just die already!" he howled as the tendril threw the entire balcony at her.

  Another ray of searing light split the balcony in twain before it could strike her, but he had already moved through the shadows and emerged behind her. His serpents wrapped themselves around her limbs and stretched them out in different directions. She was immobilized and all that was left was to deliver the finishing blow.

  "You're too impatient, but you're young so I can forgive that," she said as a blinding light passed by his periphery.

  The serpents retreated as an unbearable burning pain shot through his right arm. He turned his head to the side, but there was no arm to be seen. Past the shoulder there was only a smoldering cauterized stump.

  He quickly fashioned a limb out of solidified darkness to replace it as he slipped into the shadows once more. It was foolish of him to even think he could corner her so easily and his arm had been the price he paid for his hubris.

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  When he stepped out of the shadow behind an oak tree she was already there waiting for him. The only option available to him was to charge her and he took it. He fed all the power he could into the shell of darkness around him as her burning light struck it. Just as the radiance burned away the last of his armor he caught up to her and drove his fist into her stomach.

  She retched as the wind was knocked right out of her leaving him plenty of time to continue his onslaught. A straight kick to her chest sent her back first into the ground. He pinned her arms with his knees as he mounted her and pushed his remaining hand against her forehead.

  "Just die," he mumbled as he reached for his power.

  The entire world turned upside down in an instant. Air rushed through his hair and he felt almost weightless. He could see the ground rapidly approaching beneath him heralding his doom.

  "Shit!" he exclaimed as he dove into his shadow before his body hit the cold hard ground.

  Warm blood was dripping from his belly, and as he looked down he saw a large crater where his intestines should have been. How had she even managed to land an attack on him when she should have been dead to rights?

  "Fuck," he stammered as his body was thrown out of the shadows and back into reality.

  "It's pointless, Pietro, you don't even stand a chance," she said as she lazily walked towards him.

  "Even if I die I'll still take you with me!" he screamed as he raised his fist and ran towards her.

  She grabbed his forearm and effortlessly stopped his feeble attack only for her eyes to go wide as the darkness hiding in the palm of his hand lashed out. A thin tendril of darkness flexed momentarily before whipping itself at her neck. It held the last of his power and would be strong enough to cut through concrete with ease.

  Color rushed back in all at once as their battle ended. The bright golden sun was shining in the sky above them and all the sounds of the natural world could be heard around them once more.

  "You almost got me," she muttered as he collapsed to the ground.

  There was a deep cut across the side of her face, but it didn't matter seeing as the attempt had failed in the end. His aim must have failed him due to the steadily dropping blood pressure and the growing vertigo.

  He leaned his head against the grass as he reached for the phone in his pocket and hit send. The message had already been compiled and now it was up to Lola to see to it that it was delivered to his family. One message for all of them, and one that only Al would get to read.

  "It's not too late, you can still be saved," Morgan said as she looked down at him.

  At any other point in his life he would have begged her to save him, but he had finally changed. No longer could he be swayed by her empty words and poisoned lips. If this was how he died, then that was how it was meant to be.

  "You may have birthed them, but their mother taught them something that you will never know," he wheezed.

  "Oh, and what is that pray tell?"

  "Love, Morgan, something you've never had and never will."

  "I loved you, didn't I?" she said slowly.

  "No to you love is nothing but a tool, and one you've wielded poorly at that."

  He had always thought he hated Al because of how similar they were, but as he was now he could accept that it was because Al had far too much of Morgan's darkness in him. However unlike Morgan he could actually experience love and constantly fought to protect the things he cherished. His son had conquered the darkness that made his birth mother who she was and always would be.

  "Al was always too much like you, but the humanity that the person he calls mother gave him makes him far more vicious than you will ever be."

  "What do you mean?" she blurted out as he grinned at her.

  "You took his father from him, Morgan, and even if he always hated me he will still avenge me."

  It was quite ironic really. His child, the son of the Autumn matriarch had fallen in love with the matriarch of clan Winters. By all accounts, the true heir to the Autumn clan had become the royal consort of clan Winters. Morgan's son had become a member of her oldest enemies and would one day hunt her down.

  If Pietro was lucky, Al would have a few peacful years before being caught in Morgan's machinations once more, but by then he would most likely be powerful enough to end the Autumn clan once and for all. In the end it was Pietro that had set in motion the chain of events that would finally end her many centuries long life. And it was all because Morgan had become infatuated with a promising young warlock five short decades ago.

  "Clan Winters is under overseer protection and the matriarch's consort is your very own son," he declared as he burst into a fit of laughter.

  "You can't possibly mean?!"

  "The warlock that has been killing your members was your son, and you can't even touch him with overseer watching your every move!"

  The remnants of her detached persona broke as an expression of pure rage overtook her otherwise fair features. Her eyes were burning with indignant fury and the surging power within crackled around her fingers like lightning.

  "I will destroy you, Pietro!"

  "And I can die happy knowing that your fate is sealed, Morgan."

  Pain shot through his chest as something searing hot tore a hole through his heart. There was no power within his body left to save him. He would die there, but he had already come to terms with that fact. The family that he loved dearly would live on, and Al would avenge him one day.

  The dark stain on the last eight decades of history that went by the name of Pietro was finally coming to an end. There were still plenty of regrets, but in time someone else would resolve them for him. His wife would miss him and he would miss her. Maybe they would see each other in the next life for even if his sins were heavy there was always hope that the world would show him mercy for her sake.

  His wife had been the light of his life ever since he first met her. Her inability to conceive had driven him into Morgan's arms, but through magic he had lead her to believe they were actually hers. The one thing he didn't take from her mind was the knowledge of his affair, yet she had forgiven him and loved him all the same despite it. He had never deserved her forgiveness and yet she still forgave him.

  Jennifer had been his perfect little daughter. Not a day went by without them spending time together. It didn't matter if it meant watching shitty television shows in the living room or going on expensive shopping trips because it always brightened his day when he spent it with her. She was caring and hopeful like the woman who raised her, but she had also inherited Morgan's obsessiveness and jealousy. Thankfully she was surrounded by amazing friends that would always steer her right in the end.

  Al on the other hand was an amalgamation of the worst qualities of both his birth parents, yet his mother had somehow managed to instill strong protective instincts in him despite the evil in his veins. He was already unimaginably powerful for his age and with time he would only get stronger. Few could oppose him if he ever reached his true potential and he was already well on his way to becoming unassailable.

  The light of the sun was blinding, his ears were ringing, and every sound left a muted echo as if he was at the bottom of a deep pool of water. Where there should have been pain there was only a gentle warmth flowing through his ruined body.

  "Maybe if I'm lucky we can be a real happy family in the next life, but without all the darkness of this life to drag us down," he whispered as tears fell from his eyes.

  "The perilous night is finally over, and the serpent shade is no more," he cried as his voice died for good.

  The neurons firing in his skull flickered out like dying stars in the night sky as his brain finally gave out. His eyes were blind but the world had never looked as beautiful before. His ears were deaf yet he could hear every sound as if it was the first time he had ever truly listened.

  Countless images flooded his vision as his mind died for good. There on the borderland between this life and the next he was finally at peace and the struggle was finally over. Soon he would once more draw breath for the very first time and open his eyes to a world of new experiences. It didn't matter how many lives it took because one day he would be reunited with his one true family.

  In his last moment he could see his entire life flash before his eyes.