Seraphina's POV
"No way out?" I repeated, my voice rising. "What do you mean no way out?"
Cassian turned from the window, his silver eyes dark with worry. "Theron just became King. He controls the palace, the guards, everything. And he's looking for you."
"But I'm officially your servant now," I said desperately. "You said the papers would protect me."
"Papers only work if the person reading them cares about rules," Elias said grimly. "Theron just killed his own father. Do you really think he'll respect a servant assignment?"
My stomach dropped. He was right. I'd escaped one trap only to walk into a worse one.
"We need a plan," Cassian said, pacing now. "If Theron comes for me next—"
A knock at the door made us all freeze.
"Prince Cassian?" A woman's voice. Soft. Unfamiliar. "His Majesty King Theron requests your presence in the throne room. Immediately."
My blood ran cold. King Theron. Not Crown Prince anymore. King.
Cassian and Elias exchanged looks.
"Tell His Majesty I'll be there shortly," Cassian called out.
Footsteps retreated. We waited until they faded completely.
"It's a trap," I whispered.
"Of course it's a trap," Cassian said. "But I don't have a choice. If I refuse, he'll send guards to drag me there. At least this way, I go on my own terms."
"Let me come with you," Elias said.
"No. Stay here with Sera. If something happens to me..." Cassian paused, looking at me. "Keep her safe. Get her out of the palace if you can."
"Nothing's going to happen to you," I said, but my voice shook.
Cassian smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "You've known me less than a day, Sera. You don't know what I'm capable of surviving."
He left before I could argue.
The door closed. Silence filled the room like a heavy blanket.
"He's going to die, isn't he?" I asked quietly.
Elias didn't answer right away. Finally, he sighed. "Theron wants the throne secure. As long as Cassian lives, there's another heir. Another option."
"But Cassian's cursed. He can't rule."
"Curses can be broken," Elias said, looking at me meaningfully. "You proved that last night. You touched him and survived. What if you can do more? What if you can actually break the curse completely?"
I hadn't thought of that. "I don't know how."
"Neither do we. But Theron doesn't know that. He just knows you're dangerous to his plans." Elias moved to the window, watching the courtyard. "Which means he'll want both of you eliminated."
Fear clawed at my throat. "What do we do?"
"We wait. And we hope Cassian is as clever as I think he is."
Minutes crawled by. Each one felt like an hour. I tried to sit still, but my hands wouldn't stop shaking.
"Tell me about him," I said suddenly. "About Cassian. Before the curse."
Elias smiled, sad and distant. "He was... different. Warm. Funny. Everyone loved him—the servants, the nobles, even the kitchen staff. He'd sneak down to the kitchens at night and help them bake bread." He laughed softly. "A prince, covered in flour, laughing with servants. That was Cassian."
"What happened? How did he get cursed?"
"A sorceress named Morgana. Powerful. Beautiful. Obsessed with him. She wanted to marry him, but Cassian refused. Said he wouldn't marry someone he didn't love, even for political advantage." Elias's expression darkened. "She cursed him out of spite. But I always wondered..."
"Wondered what?"
"If she had help. The curse was too specific. Too cruel. It felt personal, but not in the way a rejected woman would curse someone. It felt like someone who wanted Cassian suffering but not dead."
"Theron," I breathed.
"I can't prove it. But yes, I think Theron helped Morgana curse his own brother."
The cruelty of it made me sick. What kind of person did that to family?
Suddenly, shouting erupted from somewhere in the palace. Loud. Angry.
Elias tensed. "That's coming from the throne room."
We both rushed to the window, but we couldn't see anything from this angle.
More shouting. Then a sound that made my blood freeze—a roar of pain.
Cassian's voice.
"No," I whispered.
Without thinking, I ran for the door.
"Sera, wait!" Elias grabbed my arm. "You can't go out there!"
"He's hurt! I heard him—"
"And if you run out there, you'll both die!" Elias held me firm. "Use your head! What can you do against the King and his guards?"
He was right. I knew he was right. But every instinct screamed at me to help.
The door burst open.
Cassian stumbled in, and my heart stopped.
Blood ran down his face from a cut above his eye. His shirt was torn. Bruises were already forming on his arms.
"Cassian!" Elias caught him before he fell. "What happened?"
"Theron," Cassian gasped. "He knows. About her. About everything."
"How?" I demanded.
Cassian's silver eyes met mine, filled with pain and something else—fear.
"Because he was there," Cassian said. "Last night. Outside my door. He heard everything."
The room spun. If Theron heard everything, then he knew I could touch Cassian during the curse. He knew I was special. He knew I was a threat.
"He wants you dead," Cassian continued, speaking to me. "He made that very clear. But he can't kill you outright—too many people saw you disowned. If you turn up dead, questions will be asked."
"So what's his plan?" Elias asked.
Cassian's jaw clenched. "He's declared me too dangerous to keep in the palace. Says the curse might spread. Tomorrow at dawn, I'm being exiled to the Northern Tower—a prison built for cursed creatures. It's a death sentence. No one survives there more than a month."
"And me?" I whispered.
"You're being sent with me. As my servant. To 'care for me' during my exile." Cassian laughed bitterly. "He's sending us both to die in a place where no one will witness it. Clean. Simple. Perfect."
Horror washed over me. After everything—after surviving the humiliation, finding Cassian, surviving the guards—we were being sent to die anyway.
"There has to be another way," Elias said desperately. "We can fight this. Appeal to the council—"
"Theron IS the council now," Cassian interrupted. "He's King. His word is law."
"Then we run," I said. "Tonight. Before dawn. We escape the palace and—"
"And go where?" Cassian asked. "The palace is sealed. Guards at every exit. And even if we escaped, where would a cursed prince and a disowned servant go? We'd be hunted."
He was right. We were trapped.
"There's one option," Elias said slowly. "A dangerous one."
"Tell me," Cassian demanded.
"The Northern Tower isn't just a prison. It's also where the ancient curse-breakers used to practice their magic. The library there holds books on curses that have been banned everywhere else." Elias looked at me. "If Sera really does have power over curses, maybe those books can teach her how to use it."
"That's a huge maybe," Cassian said.
"It's the only maybe we have," Elias shot back.
Cassian was quiet for a long moment. Then he looked at me.
"What do you think?" he asked. "You're part of this now. You get a say."
Everyone was looking at me. Waiting. Like I had answers.
I thought about everything that happened. The ball. The humiliation. Finding Cassian. Touching stone and feeling warmth flow from my hands. That connection I couldn't explain.
"I think," I said carefully, "that I've spent my whole life being told I'm worthless. That I'm nothing. But last night, something in me knew how to help you. Something in my blood responded to your curse." I straightened my shoulders. "Maybe I am special. Maybe I do have power. And maybe the Northern Tower is where I'll finally figure out what I'm meant to do."
Cassian's expression softened. "You're braver than you know."
"Or stupider," I said with a weak smile.
"Sometimes they're the same thing," he replied.
Elias moved to a cabinet and pulled out a leather bag. "I'll pack supplies. Food, water, medical herbs. The journey to the Northern Tower takes two days by carriage."
"We leave at dawn," Cassian said. "Under guard. But once we're in that tower..." He looked at me. "We figure out how to break this curse. Together."
"Together," I agreed.
As Elias packed and Cassian cleaned his wounds, I moved to the window. The sun was setting again. Soon, Cassian would turn to stone.
But tonight, something felt different. The air hummed with energy. My hands tingled with warmth.
Tonight, I would touch him again. And maybe—just maybe—I'd discover what I was truly capable of.
The door suddenly slammed open.
We all spun around.
A woman stood in the doorway. Beautiful. Dark hair. Eyes that glowed with unnatural light.
"Hello, Cassian," she purred. "Did you miss me?"
Cassian went white. "Morgana."
The sorceress who cursed him.
She stepped inside, and the temperature dropped ten degrees.
"I heard the most interesting rumor," Morgana said, her eyes locking on me. "That a little servant girl can touch my stone prince. That she survived what no one else has." She smiled, cold and cruel. "I simply had to see for myself."
She raised her hand. Dark magic swirled around her fingers.
"Let's test those powers, shall we?"