Aria's POV
"Stop glowing!"
I'm shaking my hands frantically, trying to make the golden light go away. It's not working. If anything, it's getting brighter.
"I can't!" Panic rises in my throat. "I don't know how I started, I don't know how to stop—"
Caelan grabs my shoulders. "Aria, breathe. Look at me."
I force myself to meet his silver-blue eyes. They're intense but not angry. Not scared. Just focused.
"Breathe with me," he says firmly. "In. Out. In. Out."
I follow his rhythm. Slowly, painfully slowly, the light starts to fade. The heat in the room decreases. Outside, the cracking sounds quiet down.
But the tree is still blooming. Pink flowers bright against the gray sky.
"How did I do that?" I whisper.
"I have no idea." Caelan releases my shoulders but doesn't step back. "But we need to figure it out before you accidentally melt my entire palace."
"I'm sorry—"
"Stop apologizing for having power." His voice is sharp. "That's what they wanted you to do. Make you feel guilty for existing." He runs a hand through his silver hair, frustrated. "But we do need to understand what triggers it. What you were thinking when the light started."
I try to remember. "I was just sitting here, feeling lost. And then... I don't know. I felt warm inside. Like something waking up."
"Emotional trigger," Caelan mutters. "Of course. The most unstable kind of magic."
"Is that bad?"
"It's complicated." He finally steps back, giving me space. "Get some rest. Tomorrow, we'll start figuring this out properly."
"Tomorrow?" I repeat nervously. "What happens tomorrow?"
"Training," he says simply. "If you're going to have magic—and apparently you are—you need to learn to control it. Before it controls you."
He leaves, closing the door softly. I'm alone again with my glowing hands and my racing thoughts.
Outside the window, pink flowers bloom on a dead tree.
And I have no idea if I'm saving this kingdom or destroying it.
I don't sleep well. Every time I close my eyes, I see the light exploding from my hands. Hear the ice cracking. Feel the heat building inside me like something trying to escape.
When morning comes, I'm exhausted but too nervous to stay in bed.
There's a knock on the door. "Aria? Are you awake?"
It's Lyanna's voice. I quickly check that I'm decent in the nightgown someone left for me. "Come in!"
She enters carrying a tray of food—bread, cheese, some kind of soup. "I thought you might be hungry. You didn't eat much yesterday."
My stomach growls in answer. I hadn't realized how hungry I was.
"Thank you," I say, taking the tray. The soup is warm and delicious. "Shouldn't you be resting? You just woke up from a thirteen-year sleep."
"I've rested enough." She sits on the edge of my bed with a grin. "Besides, I want to know everything about the girl who broke my curse."
"I didn't—I mean, I don't think—" I stumble over my words.
"You absolutely did." Lyanna's eyes are sparkling. "Caelan told me about the tree. About the ice cracking everywhere. Aria, do you understand what you've done? This kingdom has been dead for thirteen years. And in one night, you brought spring back."
"Just one tree," I protest weakly.
"One tree is more than we've had in over a decade." She leans forward. "And it's just the beginning, isn't it? I can feel it. Something's changing."
She's right. I can feel it too—a humming in my chest, like energy waiting to burst free.
"I'm scared," I admit. "What if I can't control it? What if I hurt someone?"
"Then we'll figure it out together." Lyanna squeezes my hand. "You're not alone anymore, Aria. You have us now."
The words make my eyes sting with tears. When was the last time someone said I wasn't alone?
After breakfast, Lyanna helps me find clothes that actually fit—a simple dress in soft blue. It's the nicest thing I've worn since the party dress I arrived in.
"Ready for your tour?" she asks with a mischievous smile. "Caelan's waiting."
We find him in the corridor, looking impatient. "Finally. I thought you'd sleep all day."
"It's barely past dawn," Lyanna points out.
"Exactly. Half the morning wasted." But there's no real annoyance in his voice. He looks at me. "How are you feeling?"
"Nervous," I answer honestly. "And confused. And scared."
"Good. Fear keeps you careful." He starts walking. "Come on. If you're going to live here, you should see what you're dealing with."
We walk through corridors of ice that shimmer in the morning light. Everything is beautiful and sad at the same time.
"This was the throne room," Caelan says, pushing open massive doors.
I step inside and gasp. The room is huge, with a ceiling so high I can barely see it. Ice columns rise like frozen trees. Where there should be fountains, there are sculptures of ice—water frozen mid-flow, trapped forever.
"My parents held court here," Caelan says quietly. "Every day, people came with problems, and my parents helped solve them. It was always full of noise and life and..." He trails off. "Now it's a tomb."
I want to comfort him but don't know how. Instead, I walk to one of the frozen fountains and gently touch it.
Warmth spreads from my palm into the ice. For just a second, water flows. Then it freezes again.
"Did you see that?" I breathe.
"I saw." Caelan is beside me now, staring at the fountain. "Try again. But this time, focus. Don't just touch—try to feel the ice. Try to ask it to melt."
"Ask it?" That sounds ridiculous.
"Magic responds to intention," he explains. "Try."
I place both palms on the frozen water. Close my eyes. Feel the cold under my hands.
Please, I think. Please melt. Please flow like you're supposed to.
Heat builds in my chest, travels down my arms, into my hands. I hear a crack, then a trickle.
I open my eyes. Water is flowing. Actually flowing, creating a tiny stream down the fountain's edge.
"I did it!" I laugh in amazement.
But then the heat keeps building. The water flows faster. Too fast. The fountain starts cracking, pieces of ice breaking off.
"Aria, stop!" Caelan grabs my shoulders, pulling me back.
The moment we break contact, the fountain refreezes. But now there are cracks running through it.
"I'm sorry," I gasp. "I didn't mean to—"
"You need training," Caelan says firmly. "Power without control is dangerous. Come on. I want to show you one more place."
We walk through more corridors, passing empty rooms and frozen halls. Everything feels like a palace waiting for people who will never return.
Finally, we reach a set of glass doors. Through them, I can see snow.
"The gardens," Caelan says softly. "Or what's left of them."
He opens the doors, and we step outside.
I forget how to breathe.
The gardens are massive, stretching out in every direction. But they're not gardens anymore—they're a graveyard. Trees frozen mid-bloom. Flowers encased in ice. Fountains stopped forever. Everything is white and silver and dead.
Except for one tree near the entrance. The tree that bloomed last night. Its pink flowers are still there, bright and impossible against all the death.
"They used to be the most beautiful gardens in all the kingdoms," Caelan says. His voice is thick with emotion. "My mother loved them. She'd spend hours here, tending every plant personally. She said gardens were proof that life always finds a way."
"What happened?" I ask gently.
"The curse happened." He walks forward into the frozen wasteland. "The day I was cursed, spring died. Everything bloomed one last time, then froze forever. These flowers—" he gestures at the ice-covered roses, "—they've been preserved exactly as they were thirteen years ago. The last spring Frostveil ever saw."
I follow him deeper into the gardens. My heart aches at all the lost beauty. At all the life that stopped too soon.
Without thinking, I reach out and touch a frozen rose.
The moment my fingers brush the ice, something incredible happens.
Color explodes through the petals. Not just a flash this time—real, lasting color. The rose turns from ice-white to deep red. The stem goes green. The thorns become sharp and real.
Then the ice around it cracks and falls away completely.
The rose unfreezes. Alive. Actually alive.
"Aria," Caelan breathes.
But I'm not paying attention to him. I'm staring at the rose in wonder, watching it sway gently in the breeze.
I did that. I brought it back to life.
Without meaning to, I touch another frozen flower. Then another. Each one blooms and unfreezes at my touch, returning to life after thirteen years of death.
"How are you doing this?" Caelan asks, his voice full of awe.
"I don't know," I whisper. "It's like they're calling to me. Like they've been waiting to wake up."
I move through the gardens touching flower after flower, unable to stop. Roses, tulips, lilies—they all burst into color and life. The ice melts away. Green spreads across the white wasteland.
Behind me, I hear Caelan make a choked sound. I turn to see him staring at everything with tears streaming down his face.
"My mother's gardens," he whispers. "You're bringing back my mother's gardens."
The raw emotion in his voice makes my own eyes water. I want to comfort him, but I can't stop touching the flowers. They're pulling me forward, begging to be freed from their icy prison.
I reach the center of the gardens where a massive tree stands—bigger than any other, frozen solid. It must have been magnificent once.
"The Mother Tree," Caelan says, following me. "The oldest tree in Frostveil. My mother said it was planted by the Moon Goddess herself. When it froze, we knew the kingdom was truly lost."
I place both hands on its trunk.
Power explodes through me like lightning. Golden light pours from my palms into the tree. Heat radiates outward in waves. The ice doesn't just crack—it shatters, falling away in enormous chunks.
The tree groans, a sound like wood waking up after a long sleep. Branches start moving. Leaves uncurl from frozen buds. Flowers bloom by the thousands, covering every branch in white blossoms that smell like hope.
And then the tree speaks.
Not in words exactly, but in feelings that pour into my mind. Welcome, child of spring. We've been waiting for you.
I stumble back, gasping. "Did you hear that?"
Caelan catches me before I fall. "Hear what?"
"The tree. It spoke to me."
His eyes widen. "That's impossible. Only Moon Priestesses can hear the Mother Tree. Only—"
He stops abruptly, staring at me like he's seeing me for the first time.
"What?" I ask nervously. "What's wrong?"
"Aria," he says slowly. "What if you're not just a healer with hidden magic? What if you're—"
Before he can finish, the ground beneath us starts shaking. Not cracking this time—actually shaking, like the whole kingdom is waking up.
Every frozen plant in the gardens suddenly blooms at once. Color explodes everywhere—reds, blues, yellows, purples. Green spreads like wildfire across the snow. The air warms so fast I can actually feel it rising.
"What's happening?" I scream over the noise.
"You!" Caelan shouts back. "You're breaking the curse! The whole curse!"
The shaking intensifies. Ice falls from the palace walls. The snow on the ground melts in seconds, revealing grass underneath—actual grass, green and alive.
And from somewhere deep in the palace, I hear a woman's voice scream in rage.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"