The engine roared, but inside the car everything felt strangely quiet.
Emerald slumped in the back seat, trembling, every muscle aching as if she'd been wrung out and left to dry. The green glow that had burst from her hand lingered only as a phantom warmth beneath her skin now fading, leaving behind a cold, metallic throb.
Sam's hands tightened around the steering wheel. Her jaw was set, but her eyes kept flicking to the rearview mirror.
"You okay back there?" she asked, voice brittle.
Emerald forced a nod. "I'm… alive."
"That's not what I meant."
Sara reached back and gently cupped Emerald's cheek. "Talk to us. Please."
Emerald swallowed. Her throat felt raw, scraped by the earlier burst of magic. "When my power broke free… it wasn't just energy. It felt older. Like it belonged to something bigger than me."
Sam, driving, inhaled sharply. "That burst lit up the whole yard. If the assassin wasn't dead before."
"He wasn't," Emerald whispered.
Sam tightened her grip on the wheel again. "Then that means he'll report back."
"And when he does…" Noah said quietly, "our window closes."
The car sped through a stretch of dark road lined with skeletal trees. No streetlights. No traffic. Nothing but the hum of the engine and the distant throb in Emerald's skull.
Sara broke the silence. "Where are we going?"
Sam hesitated. "There's a cabin about thirty miles east. My grandfather used it when he was hunting. No electricity. No cell service. It's off the grid."
"That's good," Noah muttered. "Because we can't risk being tracked."
Emerald frowned. "Tracked?"
Sam glanced at her. "Magic leaves signatures. You don't have to be human to know that."
Emerald shut her eyes. Her pulse thudded in her temples.
"And my aunt," she murmured, "doesn't need technology."
Noah exhaled sharply. "We'll cross that bridge when we reach it."
"What exactly is your aunt trying to do?" Sara asked softly. "If she cursed you… then why send people after you now? You've been living here for years."
Emerald opened her eyes. "Because the curse is failing."
Sam's eyebrows lifted. "Failing?"
"Yes." Emerald's fingers curled into the seat fabric. "It wasn't meant to last forever. It was meant to suppress me long enough for my aunt to take the throne and solidify her control. Once she had everything… I'd be forgotten."
"And now you're waking up," Noah said gently.
"And now," Emerald whispered, "I'm dangerous."
"Or powerful," Sara said.
"That doesn't make it safer," Emerald muttered.
A long silence followed. Then, a vibration. A low hum.
Sam frowned. "Do you hear that?"
Noah lifted his head. "Yeah… it's not the engine."
The hum grew sharper, like a distant tone tuned just below hearing.
Emerald stiffened. "That's not normal."
"Stop the car," Noah barked.
Sam slammed the brakes.
The car jerked, skidding slightly before coming to a halt on the empty road.
All four of them froze.
The hum was now unmistakable.
A pulse.
A rhythm.
Something moving. Something following.
Emerald's breath caught. "It's a tracking weave, but not human… it feels."
"Emerald," Sara whispered, "don't."
"It feels like the curse," Emerald said. "Like it's reacting to something."
Noah turned in his seat. "Emerald. Can you block it?"
"I can't even control my magic right now," she whispered. "Every time I try, it tears at me." Sam stared out the windshield. "We shouldn't sit here."
"Then we move," Noah said.
"Wait," Emerald murmured.
The hum stopped.
Everything fell still.
Then, a soft click, like a metal piece snapping into place.
Emerald's eyes widened. "No. No."
A beam of pale blue light flashed across the road, sweeping in a slow arc.
Sam gasped. "That's not a weapon!"
"It's a scanner," Noah finished.
"Meaning?" Sara whispered.
"Meaning they're looking for her," Noah said.
Emerald's chest tightened. "Then they know."
"They know you broke the curse," Sam muttered.
"And they're hunting you," Sara whispered.
Emerald closed her eyes. She felt the cold presence again the curse, no longer restrained, no longer obedient.
Not gone…
Just awake.
"Start the car," she said softly.
Sam didn't argue. She hit the gas.
The car lurched forward.
Behind them, the blue beam flickered and vanished.
Emerald exhaled shakily.
"That was close," Noah whispered.
"No," Emerald whispered back. "That was nothing."
Sara reached forward and squeezed Noah's arm. "Then what happens when they actually catch up?"
Emerald stared at the dark road ahead. "Then I stop running."
Noah frowned. "You'll be dead."
"That's not what I meant."
Sam stole a glance at her in the mirror. "Then what did you mean?"
Emerald hesitated.
Then spoke with a calmness that chilled the entire car.
"I meant… I'm done hiding."
Noah swallowed. "Emerald?"
A crack of thunder, though the sky was clear.
Then, a sharp, electric pulse coursed through Emerald's body.
She gasped, clutching the edges of her seat.
Her skin glimmered faintly with green light.
Sara screamed. "Emerald!"
"No, no, no!" Emerald hissed through clenched teeth. "It's not controlled!"
Noah reached back. "Emerald, breathe!"
But her breathng had already slipped.
Her eyes rolled back.
The glow flared.
Then, everything went dark.
When Emerald opened her eyes again, she wasn't in the car.
She wasn't even in the world she knew.
She stood in a vast chamber carved from black crystal, glowing veins pulsing through its walls like a giant, sleeping heart.
And a voice—cold, amused, unmistakably royal—echoed around her.
"So… the little princess finally awakens."