SERA'S POV
The pain comes first.
Sharp. Burning. Like fire eating through my wrists.
I try to move and metal bites deeper into my skin. The sound of chains rattling fills the darkness around me. My mouth tastes like I've been licking old pennies—copper and blood and something else I can't name.
Where am I?
I force my eyes open but there's nothing to see. Just black. Thick, heavy darkness that presses against my face like a wet cloth.
I try to remember how I got here.
Nothing.
I try to remember where I live.
Nothing.
I try to remember my own name and my heart starts hammering in my chest because there's nothing there. Just a blank space where my life should be.
"Help!" My voice comes out scratchy and wrong, like I haven't used it in forever. "Somebody help me!"
The chains rattle as I pull against them. The metal cuts deeper. Warm blood trickles down my palms but I don't stop. I yank harder, panic flooding through my veins.
"HELP!"
My scream echoes off stone walls I can't see. It bounces back to me, making me sound small and scared and alone.
I am alone.
Aren't I?
I freeze, listening. The darkness seems to listen with me. Nothing but my own harsh breathing and the drip, drip, drip of water somewhere far away.
Then—footsteps.
Slow. Steady. Getting closer.
My heart nearly stops. Someone's coming. Someone knows I'm here.
But is that good or bad?
The footsteps grow louder. Closer. Right outside wherever I'm trapped.
A key scrapes in a lock. Metal groans. Then light—blinding, painful light—floods in and I squeeze my eyes shut against it.
"You're awake."
The voice is deep. Male. Cold as winter ice.
I crack my eyes open, squinting against the brightness. A man stands in the doorway holding a lantern. Tall. Dark-haired. Face sharp and handsome but in a scary way, like a beautiful knife.
His gray eyes study me like I'm a bug pinned to a board.
"Who are you?" I manage to choke out. My wrists are bleeding now. I can feel it. "Why am I in chains?"
He steps into the cell—because that's what this is, I realize with growing horror. A stone cell with chains bolted to the wall. A prison.
"My name is Caspian Thorne," he says, setting the lantern on the floor between us. The light makes his face look even sharper. Dangerous. "I'm your keeper."
"My what?"
"Your keeper." He crouches down in front of me, close enough that I can see flecks of blue in his gray eyes. Close enough that I notice his hands aren't quite steady. "The one who guards you. Keeps you locked away. Makes sure you can never escape."
Terror shoots through me like lightning. "I don't understand. I don't—I can't remember anything. Please, I don't even know my name!"
Something flickers in his eyes. Pain? Regret? It's gone too fast to tell.
"Your name is Seraphina," he says quietly. "Though you probably won't believe what you are."
"What I am?" I repeat. My voice is shaking now. Everything is shaking. "What does that mean?"
Caspian reaches toward my face. I flinch back but there's nowhere to go. His fingers touch my cheek—gentle, which somehow makes it worse—and come away wet with tears I didn't know I was crying.
"It means," he says, "that three years ago, you tried to destroy the gods themselves."
The words don't make sense. They can't make sense.
"That's crazy," I whisper. "That's—gods aren't real. Are they?"
He almost smiles but there's no happiness in it. "They're very real. And you're one of them. Or you were, before they cast you down here. Before they took your memories and locked you in chains and sentenced you to—"
He stops. His jaw clenches tight.
"Sentenced me to what?" I demand. Blood pounds in my ears. "What's my sentence?"
Caspian stands up, backing toward the door. His hand goes to his chest like something hurts there. Under his shirt, I see a faint glow—like he's got light trapped under his skin.
"That's not my decision to make," he says, and his voice sounds hollow now. Empty. "The Divine Council will decide your fate when they're ready. Until then, you stay here. In chains. Under my watch."
"Wait!" I lunge forward as far as the chains allow. They catch me hard, yanking me back. Pain explodes in my wrists but I don't care. "You can't just leave me here! I don't remember anything! I don't know what I did wrong!"
Caspian pauses in the doorway. For a long moment he just looks at me, and I see something terrible in his face—something that looks like he's hurting as much as I am.
"I know," he says softly. Too softly. "I know you don't remember. That's part of your punishment."
He picks up the lantern.
"No, please—" My voice breaks. "Don't leave me in the dark. Please. I'm scared."
His hand trembles so badly the lantern light shakes across the walls.
"I'm sorry," he whispers.
And I realize with a shock that he actually means it. This cold, scary man with the empty voice is genuinely sorry. But he's turning away anyway. Taking the light with him.
"Wait!" I shout desperately. "At least tell me—tell me what happens now! What are you going to do to me?"
Caspian stops at the threshold. He doesn't turn around.
"Nothing," he says. "I'm going to keep you alive. Keep you locked here. And wait for orders."
"Orders to do what?"
He's silent for so long I think he won't answer. Then, just before he closes the door:
"Orders to kill you."
The door slams shut. The key turns. Darkness swallows everything.
I'm alone again in the black with my bleeding wrists and empty head and the echo of three words bouncing around in my skull.
Orders to kill you.
But as the terror closes in, something else stirs inside me. Something that feels like heat building in my chest. Like a fire waking up after sleeping for a very, very long time.
And in the darkness, my hands start to glow.