Mira's POV
I froze, my ear still pressed against the cold stone wall.
"The prophecy is a lie."
The whispered words hung in the air like smoke. My heart slammed against my ribs so hard it hurt.
"Who are you?" I whispered back, my lips almost touching the crack in the stone.
Silence.
Then: "Someone who knows what Evangeline really is. Listen carefully—you don't have much time. The execution isn't in three days. It's tomorrow at dawn."
The words hit me like a punch to the stomach. "What? No, the guards said—"
"The guards say what they're told to say. Evangeline wants you desperate but not prepared. Tomorrow morning, they'll drag you to the execution grounds before you can think of a way out."
My legs gave out. I slid down the wall, my whole body shaking. Tomorrow. Not three days. Tomorrow.
"Why are you telling me this?" My voice cracked.
"Because you're not the first soul she's murdered, and you won't be the last unless someone stops her." The voice paused. "There's a loose stone at the bottom of your cell's back wall. Three stones from the left corner. Behind it is a small space. If you want to live, you need to—"
Footsteps.
The voice cut off abruptly.
I scrambled away from the wall just as torch light flooded the corridor outside my cell. Multiple guards this time, at least five, all carrying weapons.
And walking in the center of them, glowing like a saint in her white robes, was High Priestess Evangeline.
She smiled when she saw me huddled in the corner. That same warm, motherly smile that made my skin crawl.
"Good evening, child," she said softly. "I hope you've been reflecting on your sins."
I pressed myself harder against the wall, trying to look terrified. It wasn't hard—I was terrified. But I needed her to think I was broken, not planning.
"Please," I whispered, letting my voice shake. "Please, I don't want to die."
Evangeline's smile grew wider. "Of course you don't. The human will to survive is such a persistent thing." She gestured to the guards. "Open the cell."
The door screeched open. Two guards entered and hauled me to my feet roughly. I didn't fight. Fighting would only make them watch me more closely.
Evangeline approached me slowly, like she was approaching a scared animal. She reached out and cupped my face with both hands. Her touch was gentle, almost loving.
It made me want to throw up.
"Do you know why I summoned you specifically?" she asked, her pale blue eyes searching mine. "Out of all the souls in all the worlds I could reach?"
I shook my head, not trusting my voice.
"Because you were dying already," she said simply. "Alone in your apartment, working yourself to death for dreams that would never come true. I saw you there, collapsed at your desk, your heart struggling with its final beats. I thought: here's a soul that won't be missed. Here's a death that's already happening. Why not make it useful?"
Tears burned my eyes. Not because she was wrong, but because she was right.
Nobody had missed me. Nobody had even known I was dying.
"You're a monster," I whispered.
"I'm a savior," she corrected gently. "The Dark Lord Caspian Nyx is the real monster. Seven years ago, he tried to overthrow the kingdom using forbidden magic. We stopped him, barely, and exiled him to the Shadowlands. But the prophecy says he'll return to destroy us all—unless the villainess dies first."
"But I'm not the villainess!" The words burst out before I could stop them. "Seraphina is dead! I'm just—I'm just someone you kidnapped!"
Evangeline's smile never faltered. "The prophecy doesn't care about souls, dear. It cares about bodies. Seraphina Blackwood's body must die. The soul inside it is irrelevant."
She released my face and stepped back, clasping her hands in front of her like she was praying.
"I've been doing this for twenty years," she continued conversationally. "Pulling souls from dying humans in other worlds, placing them in bodies that need to be sacrificed. You're number forty-three."
The number hit me like ice water. "Forty-three people? You've murdered forty-three people?"
"I've saved a kingdom forty-three times," she corrected. "Each time the prophecy threatened us, each time we needed a sacrifice, I found a soul that was already departing its world and gave that death meaning. Purpose. You should be grateful."
"Grateful?" I nearly screamed the word. "You're insane!"
The guards tensed, hands moving to their weapons. But Evangeline just laughed, a soft, tinkling sound like bells.
"Perhaps," she agreed. "But I'm an insane person with the power to pull souls across dimensions. And you're just a girl in a cell who's going to die so that thousands can live. Which of us do you think history will remember kindly?"
She turned to leave, her white robes swirling.
Panic clawed up my throat. The mysterious voice had said the execution was tomorrow. I needed more time. I needed to find that loose stone, needed to see what was hidden there, needed to figure out what the voice meant about the prophecy being a lie.
"Wait!" I lurched forward, but the guards held me back. "At least tell me—why the Dark Lord? What did he actually do?"
Evangeline paused at the cell door. For the first time, something flickered across her perfect face. Something cold and sharp.
"He discovered the truth about the prophecy," she said quietly. "He learned that I've been using it as an excuse to harvest souls for my own immortality spell. He tried to expose me, to tell the kingdom what I really am. So I framed him for treason, had him tortured and exiled, and made sure everyone believed he was the villain."
My blood turned to ice. "You... you're the real villain. The Dark Lord is innocent."
"Innocent is such a strong word," Evangeline said with a small smile. "He certainly isn't innocent anymore. Seven years of exile, of being hunted and hated, of watching his name become synonymous with evil—that changes a person. The man who returns for revenge won't be the hero he once was. He'll be the monster I painted him as."
She stepped through the cell door, then looked back at me one last time.
"Which is why you must die before he arrives. Tomorrow at dawn, Seraphina Blackwood will be executed. And when Caspian Nyx learns that his last hope of exposing me is dead, he'll either give up and hide forever—or he'll attack in blind rage and prove to everyone that he really is the monster I claimed. Either way, I win."
"What hope?" I demanded. "What does Seraphina have to do with the Dark Lord?"
Evangeline's smile turned into something sharp and cruel.
"Oh, didn't you know? Seraphina Blackwood and Caspian Nyx were engaged to be married before I destroyed his life. She was the love of his life, his fated mate, his everything. I killed her three days ago specifically to use her body for this final sacrifice. And tomorrow, when he comes to save her—because he will come, he always does—he'll watch her die for the second time."
The cell door slammed shut.
The guards marched away, taking their torchlight with them.
I stood in the darkness, Evangeline's words echoing in my head.
Seraphina and the Dark Lord were engaged. In love. Fated mates.
The novel had never mentioned that. Never even hinted at it.
Which meant everything I thought I knew about this story was wrong.
And tomorrow at dawn, the man who'd loved Seraphina would come to rescue her, only to find me—a stranger wearing his dead fiancée's face—being executed by the woman who'd destroyed his life.
I had to find that loose stone. Had to see what the mysterious voice wanted me to find.
I dropped to my knees and felt along the back wall in the darkness, counting stones from the left corner.
One. Two. Three.
My fingers found it—a stone that shifted slightly when I pushed.
I pulled it free, my hands shaking.
Behind it was a small hollow space. And inside that space was something wrapped in cloth.
I pulled it out carefully and unwrapped it.
Even in the darkness, I could feel what it was.
A key. Cold metal, intricate design.
But not a key to my cell. The shape was wrong.
I turned it over in my hands, my mind racing.
Then I felt the engraving on the handle.
I couldn't see it, but I could trace the letters with my fingertips:
FOR THE BRIDE OF SHADOWS
- C.N.
My breath stopped.
C.N.
Caspian Nyx.
The Dark Lord had left this key for Seraphina before she died.
Which meant he'd known she was imprisoned. Known Evangeline was planning to kill her.
He'd left her a way out.
But Seraphina had died before she could use it.
And now the key was mine.
A key that would open... what? What door? What lock?
I clutched it to my chest, my heart pounding.
Tomorrow at dawn, I would be executed.
But tonight, I had a key from the Dark Lord himself.
And somewhere in this prison, there was a door that key would open.
I just had to find it before the sun rose.