Cassian's POV
She just stood there, staring at me like I was some kind of puzzle to solve.
Foolish girl. Didn't she understand? In minutes, I'd become a monster. And if she touched me after the transformation, she'd turn to stone forever. Another statue to add to my collection of mistakes.
"What happens at sunset?" she asked, her voice small but steady.
I laughed, harsh and cold. "You really want to know? I turn into stone. Living stone. I can think, feel, hear everything—but I can't move. Can't speak. And anyone who touches me joins me in that hell permanently."
Her green eyes widened. "That's horrible."
"Horrible?" I moved closer, trying to scare her into leaving. "It's agony. Six years of being trapped in my own body every single night. So forgive me if I don't want to watch another person die because they were too curious for their own good."
But she didn't run. Instead, tears started falling down her cheeks. Not from fear—I knew what fear looked like. These were different tears. Broken tears.
"Why are you crying?" The question came out harder than I meant.
"Because everyone keeps calling me worthless tonight," she whispered. "And now even a cursed prince thinks I'm too stupid to save myself."
Something in her words hit me like a punch. I looked at her—really looked. Her servant's dress was stained with wine. Her brown hair had fallen from its pins. Her face was blotchy from crying.
She'd been hurt. Badly.
"What happened to you?" I asked, my voice softer.
"Everything." She wiped her eyes roughly. "My stepsister announced she's been sleeping with my ex-fiancé. In front of three hundred nobles. My father disowned me. The Crown Prince had me thrown out like garbage. And I have nowhere to go. Nothing left. So maybe that's why I'm not running from your curse—what's one more terrible thing tonight?"
The pain in her voice was raw. Real. I knew that kind of pain. The kind that made you stop caring about consequences.
"You shouldn't have come here," I said, but gentler this time.
"I didn't mean to. I was just running and—" She gasped suddenly, her eyes locked on the window.
I turned. The last sliver of sun was disappearing behind the mountains.
No. Not enough time.
"Listen to me very carefully," I said urgently, gripping her shoulders. "When the transformation starts, do NOT touch me. No matter what you hear, no matter what you see, keep your hands to yourself. Do you understand?"
She nodded, her eyes huge.
"Promise me!"
"I promise," she whispered.
The first wave hit me like fire. I stumbled back, gasping. It always started in my feet—a cold, creeping sensation that felt like death crawling up my body.
I looked down. Grey stone was spreading across my boots, up my legs.
"Oh gods," the girl breathed.
The pain came next. Imagine being burned and frozen at the same time. Imagine feeling your blood stop moving, your muscles lock, your lungs freeze mid-breath. But your mind stays awake. Aware. Screaming inside a body that won't respond.
I fell to my knees. The stone was at my waist now, spreading fast.
"Stay back," I ground out through clenched teeth. My chest was hardening. Breathing became impossible.
The girl had backed against the wall, her hand over her mouth. Good. She was scared. She'd stay away.
The stone reached my shoulders. My neck. I had seconds left.
"I'm sorry," I managed to say. Sorry she had to see this. Sorry anyone had to witness what I'd become.
Then the stone covered my face, and the world went grey.
But I could still hear. Still feel. The curse made sure of that.
I heard her crying softly. Heard her whisper, "I'm so sorry this happened to you."
Minutes passed. Hours maybe. Time meant nothing like this. There was only pain and darkness and the crushing weight of being trapped.
Then—footsteps. Coming closer.
No. No, don't be stupid, girl.
"I know you said not to touch you," her voice said, right in front of me now. "But you're in pain. I can feel it somehow. And I just... I can't watch someone else suffer. Not tonight. I can't."
Don't do it. Please don't—
Warmth.
Sudden, shocking warmth exploded through my frozen body. Like sunshine breaking through ice. Like spring melting winter.
She was touching me.
I wanted to scream at her to stop, but I couldn't move, couldn't speak. This foolish, broken girl had just killed herself to ease a monster's pain.
But seconds passed. Then minutes.
And she didn't turn to stone.
The warmth from her hand spread through my chest, my arms, my whole body. The agony that had been my constant companion for six years... faded. Dimmed to something bearable.
What was happening?
I heard her gasp. "You're... you're glowing. We're both glowing."
Glowing? That was impossible.
Through my stone prison, I could feel something else now. Not just her touch—a connection. Like a thread of gold linking us together. It pulsed with warmth and light and something that felt almost like... hope?
"I don't understand," she whispered, her hand still pressed against my stone chest. "Why aren't I turning into stone?"
I didn't understand either. In six years, no one had survived touching me during the curse. Not one person.
Who was this girl?
Her breathing slowed. The warmth of her hand remained steady against me. Minutes stretched into an hour. Then two.
"I'll stay," she murmured sleepily. "You shouldn't be alone in the dark."
And despite everything—despite being trapped in stone, despite the impossibility of what was happening—I felt something I hadn't felt in years.
Gratitude.
Hours later, I felt the change. Dawn was coming. The stone would release me.
But would she still be alive when it did?
The grey prison began to crack. First my fingers could move. Then my arms. The stone fell away in chunks, piece by piece.
Finally, my lungs filled with air. I gasped, stumbling forward—
And saw her.
She was asleep in the chair beside me, her hand still resting on my arm. Her chest rose and fell steadily.
Alive. She was alive.
I stared at my hand where hers touched me. No stone. Just warm, living flesh.
"Impossible," I breathed.
Her eyes fluttered open. Those green eyes focused on me, and she smiled—actually smiled.
"You're back," she said softly. "You're human again."
"You touched me," I said, my voice raw. "You shouldn't be alive."
"But I am." She pulled her hand back slowly, studying it like it was something new. "I felt your pain. And when I touched you, something... happened. Like warmth flowing from me to you."
Before I could process this, footsteps thundered in the hallway outside.
My door burst open.
Sir Elias, my oldest friend and only visitor, stood in the doorway. His eyes went wide as he saw the girl.
"Cassian," he said slowly. "Please tell me she didn't—"
"She touched me during the curse," I said. "And she lived."
Elias went pale. "That's impossible. No one survives—"
"I know what's impossible!" I snapped. "I've lived with this curse for six years. I know the rules. And she just broke every single one of them."
The girl looked between us, confused. "Is that... bad?"
"Bad?" Elias laughed, but it sounded slightly hysterical. "Girl, do you have any idea what this means?"
"No," she admitted.
"It means," Elias said carefully, "that you're either the luckiest person alive, or the most dangerous. And when the Crown Prince finds out..." He looked at me, his expression grim. "He'll never let her leave."