Mira's POV
"I need to see him. Now."
I pushed past Raven, heading for the door of Caspian's study where he'd disappeared an hour ago with his commanders to plan their defense.
Raven caught my arm. "My lady, he gave strict orders not to be disturbed—"
"I don't care about his orders!" I yanked free, spinning to face her. "Evangeline is planning to consume my soul, there's apparently a dead girl's essence living inside me, and your Dark Lord has bound me to him with magic I don't understand. I think I've earned the right to some answers!"
Raven's scarred face softened slightly. "You have. But storming in while he's strategizing won't—"
A massive explosion shook the castle.
We both stumbled. Dust rained from the ceiling. Somewhere below, people screamed.
"What was that?" My heart hammered against my ribs.
Raven's hand flew to her sword. "We're under attack. Already." She cursed under her breath. "Evangeline must have sent advance forces. She's not waiting three days."
Another explosion, closer this time.
The door to Caspian's study flew open. He strode out, dark magic crackling around his hands like lightning. His silver eyes found mine immediately.
"Raven, get her to the safe room. Now."
"No!" I stepped forward before Raven could grab me. "I'm not hiding while you fight my battle!"
"This isn't a discussion." Caspian's voice was cold, final. "You're the target. If they capture you—"
"They'll consume my soul, I know!" My hands clenched into fists. "But I'm not going to cower in a room while people die protecting me. I'm not useless!"
His jaw tightened. "I never said you were useless. I said you were the target, which makes you a liability on the battlefield."
The word hit like a slap. Liability.
He was right, of course. I had no magic training, no combat skills, nothing that would help in a fight. I was just a burden wearing a dead girl's face.
The thought made something hot and bitter rise in my throat.
"Fine," I said, my voice shaking. "I'll hide. Wouldn't want the liability getting in your way."
I turned and started walking—anywhere, I didn't care—just away from him and his cold logic and the truth that I was completely powerless here.
"Mira—" Caspian started.
But another explosion cut him off, this one so close the floor cracked beneath our feet.
Through the windows, I saw them—soldiers in white armor with the Temple's sun symbol, pouring over the castle walls like ants. Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands.
"How did they get past the wards?" Raven demanded.
Caspian's expression went dark. "They didn't. Someone let them in. We have a traitor."
The words hung in the air like poison.
Before anyone could respond, the wall beside us exploded inward.
I hit the ground hard, my ears ringing. Debris rained down. When I looked up, Temple soldiers were climbing through the hole, their weapons drawn.
And leading them was someone I recognized.
Lady Celestine, still in her pristine white dress, stepped delicately over the rubble. Her soft brown eyes found mine, and she smiled.
"Hello again, Seraphina," she said sweetly. "Did you really think you could escape your fate?"
Caspian moved faster than my eyes could track. One second he was standing beside me, the next he was in front of Celestine, dark magic forming a blade in his hand.
"You," he growled. "You're the traitor. You poisoned Seraphina, and now you've betrayed the Shadowlands."
Celestine's smile never wavered. "I didn't betray the Shadowlands. I was never loyal to begin with." She gestured, and the soldiers behind her spread out, surrounding us. "Evangeline placed me here six months ago, knowing you'd eventually find a replacement for your precious Seraphina. We just had to wait."
My blood turned to ice. "Six months? You've been a spy here for six months?"
"Longer, actually," Celestine said pleasantly. "I've been feeding Evangeline information about the Shadowlands' defenses for years. How do you think she knew exactly when and where to strike?"
Raven lunged at her with a snarl, but Celestine raised her hand and white magic exploded outward. Raven flew backward, slamming into the wall with a sickening crack.
"Raven!" I scrambled toward her.
"Stay back!" Caspian commanded, dark magic swirling around him like a storm. But I could see the calculation in his eyes—he was outnumbered, and with Raven down and me defenseless, he couldn't fight them all without leaving me vulnerable.
Celestine saw it too. Her smile widened.
"Here's what's going to happen," she said. "You're going to let us take the girl, or we're going to kill everyone in this castle. Every single person who's given you shelter, who's fought for you, who's believed in you. Their blood will be on your hands."
"Don't listen to her!" I shouted. "She's lying!"
"Am I?" Celestine gestured again, and magical images appeared in the air—showing other parts of the castle under attack. People fighting. People dying. "My forces have already breached the inner walls. Your people are losing. And they'll keep losing until you surrender the girl."
Caspian's hands clenched, dark magic pulsing. I could feel his rage through the binding mark on my wrist—hot and fierce and barely controlled.
But I could also feel something else.
Fear.
Not for himself. For his people. For me.
He was actually considering it.
"No," I said firmly, stepping forward. "Caspian, don't. If you give me to her, Evangeline wins. She gets the soul essence, she becomes unstoppable, and everyone dies anyway."
"At least this way, some people live," he said quietly, not looking at me.
"You don't know that!" My voice cracked. "Please. Don't give up. There has to be another way—"
Pain exploded through my skull.
I screamed, dropping to my knees. It felt like someone was drilling into my brain, trying to tear something out from the inside.
Through the agony, I heard Celestine laugh. "Oh, this is perfect. The soul essence is trying to separate. The stress of combat is forcing it to the surface."
"What are you doing to her?" Caspian's voice was pure murder.
"I'm not doing anything," Celestine said. "Seraphina's soul is trying to protect the body it died in. It knows I'm here. Knows I'm the one who killed it."
The pain intensified. I couldn't breathe, couldn't think. Everything was white-hot agony.
And then—
Something shifted inside me.
Like a door opening. Like another presence waking up.
Suddenly, I wasn't alone in my own head anymore.
Get up, a voice said. A woman's voice, cold and furious. Get up and fight.
"Seraphina?" I gasped.
I said GET UP!
Power flooded through me—not mine, but hers. Ancient, familiar magic that knew this body better than I ever could.
My hand moved without my permission, slamming against the ground. A shockwave of golden light exploded outward, throwing back Celestine and her soldiers.
I stood, but it didn't feel like me standing. My body moved with a grace I didn't have, a confidence I'd never possessed.
When I spoke, my voice had two tones—mine and someone else's layered together:
"You killed me once, Celestine. You won't get the chance again."
Celestine's face went white. "That's impossible. You're dead. I watched you die!"
"Death," I—we—said, "is more complicated than you think."
Then Seraphina's consciousness slammed to the front, taking full control.
And suddenly, I was a passenger in my own body, watching through my own eyes as someone else moved my hands, channeling magic I'd never learned.
Golden light poured from my palms—pure, ancient magic that made Celestine and her soldiers scream and fall back.
Caspian stared at me—at us—with shock and something that might have been hope.
"Seraphina?" he whispered.
The consciousness controlling my body turned to him, and I felt tears stream down my—our—face.
"Caspian," Seraphina's voice said through my mouth. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I left you. But I'm not completely gone. Not yet. And I won't let them hurt her. She tried to save me. She deserves—"
The magic cut off abruptly.
I gasped, feeling control of my body snap back to me. But my legs wouldn't hold me anymore. I collapsed.
Caspian caught me before I hit the ground, his arms wrapping around me.
"Mira? Seraphina? Who—"
"Both," I managed to whisper. "We're both here. But she's—she's fading. I can feel her getting weaker."
Celestine was back on her feet, her pretty face twisted with rage. "It doesn't matter. Weak or strong, dead or alive—Evangeline wants that soul essence. And she'll have it."
She raised both hands, white magic gathering.
But before she could attack—
A bell tolled.
Deep, resonant, shaking the very air.
Everyone froze.
"No," Raven breathed from where she'd pulled herself up against the wall. "That's the Eternal Bell. It hasn't rung in seven years. Not since—"
The ceiling above us shattered.
Something massive crashed through, landing between us and Celestine's forces with enough force to crack the floor.
When the dust cleared, I saw it.
A wolf. But not just any wolf—a creature the size of a horse, with fur as white as snow and eyes that glowed silver like the moon itself.
The Moonwolf. The sacred guardian of the old kingdom, the beast that only appeared when the rightful ruler was in danger.
The creature turned its massive head toward me—toward us—and I felt Seraphina's consciousness stir again.
Finally, she whispered in my mind. You're here.
The Moonwolf dipped its head in acknowledgment.
Then it threw back its head and howled, and the sound carried across the entire battlefield—a call to arms that made every fighter stop in their tracks.
Because that howl meant one thing:
The true heir had returned.
Celestine's face went ashen. "That's impossible. The royal bloodline died out. There is no heir!"
But the Moonwolf didn't lie. It only appeared for one person.
And it was bowing to me.
To us.
To Seraphina's soul, which apparently carried a secret that could change everything.
Caspian looked down at me, his silver eyes wide with shock.
"You never told me," he breathed. "All this time, and you never told me you were—"
The world tilted.
Seraphina's voice whispered one last time in my mind: I'm sorry. I'm sorry I hid the truth. But now you'll have to carry it for me. You'll have to become what I never could.
Then her presence faded completely, leaving me alone in my head again.
But the Moonwolf remained, standing guard over me.
And somewhere in the Temple, Evangeline stopped mid-ritual, her hands trembling.
Because she'd just felt it too.
The awakening of the true royal bloodline.
The one thing that could destroy her permanently.
The war had just begun.
But now, the stakes were so much higher than anyone had imagined.