POV: Sera
I don't sleep.
All night, I clutch my mother's journal and read by the dim light filtering through my cell window. Her handwriting is neat and careful, filled with notes about curses, magic, and someone she calls C.
Day 47: C smiled today. Just for a second, but I saw it. The curse punished him immediately the chains burned his wrists until he collapsed. I hate watching him suffer for feeling even a moment of joy.
My hands shake. The Guardian Cain, my mother called him is punished for being happy? What kind of curse does that?
I flip through more pages, desperate for answers. But the journal ends abruptly mid-sentence: I think I've found the key to breaking the curse. If I'm right, then Sera will
The rest of the page is blank.
What did she want to tell me? And why did she stop writing?
Keys jangle outside my cell. I shove the journal inside my dress just as guards unlock the door.
Time to go, thief, one sneers.
They chain my wrists again and drag me through the temple dungeon, up the stairs, out into the cold morning air. The sun hasn't even risen yet the sky is still dark purple.
Move faster, a guard barks, shoving me forward.
We enter the market square, and my stomach drops. Hundreds of people line the streets. They've come to watch. To see the thief get what she deserves.
Someone throws a rotten tomato. It hits my shoulder, splattering across my already-dirty dress.
Traitor!
Monster-lover!
Hope the Guardian eats you!
I keep my head up, refusing to give them the satisfaction of seeing me cry. My mother survived six months beyond these gates. If she could do it, so can I.
Sera!
I turn and see Rhen pushing through the crowd. Guards try to block him, but he's strong enough to break through. He grabs my hand for just one second.
I'll find proof, he whispers urgently. I'll prove you're innocent. Just survive, okay? Promise me.
I promise, I whisper back.
Then guards rip us apart. I watch Rhen disappear into the crowd, my last friend, my last hope of rescue.
The obsidian gates appear ahead, and my breath catches.
They're massive at least fifty feet tall, made of black stone that seems to swallow light. Glowing symbols cover every inch, pulsing with magic that makes my skin prickle. Beyond the gates, I can see it: the Wild Lands. Purple mist swirls between twisted silver trees. The sky looks stuck between day and night, neither dark nor light.
It looks like a place where reality goes to die.
Last chance to confess, a guard says, unlocking my chains. Tell us who you were working with, and maybe the priest will show mercy.
I didn't steal anything, I say through gritted teeth.
He laughs a cruel sound. Fifty sunsets. That's how long you've got. Though I'll bet you don't last five. He leans close, his breath sour. The Guardian doesn't like visitors.
Before I can respond, he shoves me hard.
I stumble through the gates. They slam shut behind me with a BOOM that shakes the ground. Magic crackles across the surface, sealing me in.
I'm alone.
Completely, utterly alone.
The Wild Lands stretch before me beautiful and terrifying. The air feels thick, heavy with magic. It makes my skin tingle and my heart race. Every breath tastes like metal and flowers.
I pull out my mother's journal and flip to a page I marked. She drew a map. Follow the white stone path to the fortress. Don't step off the path. The Wild Lands don't like strangers.
I look down. Sure enough, white stones glow softly beneath my feet, creating a path through the purple mist. I start walking.
Everything is too quiet. No birds sing. No insects buzz. Just the sound of my footsteps and distant wind chimes I can't see.
Strange flowers bloom beside the path colors I don't have names for. They turn as I pass, like they're watching me.
I walk faster.
After what feels like hours, the fortress appears through the mist.
My mother's journal didn't prepare me for this. It's enormous black stone towers reaching toward the twilight sky, massive walls covered in glowing silver ivy, windows like dark eyes watching my approach.
It's beautiful. And absolutely terrifying.
The front doors stand open. Waiting.
I climb the stone steps, my legs shaking. Hello? My voice sounds tiny in the massive entryway. Is anyone here?
Silence.
I step inside.
The entry hall is huge ceiling so high I can barely see it, grand staircase splitting in two directions, faded paintings on the walls. Dust covers everything like a blanket of forgotten time.
This place was magnificent once. Now it's a tomb.
You shouldn't have come.
I spin around, heart hammering.
A man steps out of the shadows, and my breath stops.
He's nothing like the monster from the stories. Tall and powerful, yes, but not grotesque. Not terrifying. His face is beautiful in a sharp, dangerous way high cheekbones, strong jaw, full lips pressed into a hard line. But his eyes silver, like moonlight are filled with such deep sadness it hurts to look at them.
Black chains wrap around his wrists and throat. Not metal chains these are made of shadow, moving like living smoke. They pulse with dark energy that makes the air around him shimmer.
This is the Cursed Guardian.
This is Cain.
I didn't have a choice, I manage to say, trying to sound braver than I feel.
His silver eyes study me with an intensity that makes me want to run. They always send the condemned here, he says, his voice low and rough like gravel. You'll die within three days. They all do.
Something in his tone resignation, not cruelty gives me courage.
Then I'll be different, I say, lifting my chin. I'll survive fifty-one days.
For just a second, something flickers in his eyes. Surprise? Hope? But then his expression goes cold again, shutting me out.
There's a room in the east tower, he says flatly. Third floor, last door. Stay out of my way, and maybe you'll last longer.
Wait I start.
But he's already turning away, walking back into the shadows like he's part of them.
I need to know I try again.
Stay. Out. Of. My. Way. Each word is sharp as a knife. Then he's gone, disappeared into the darkness of the fortress.
I stand alone in the massive hall, my heart pounding.
This is my prison for fifty days. This cursed fortress with a cursed guardian who expects me to die.
But I'm not going to die.
My mother survived six months here. She tried to break his curse. And somehow, I'm supposed to finish what she started.
I pull out her journal again, flipping to the last entry. My eyes catch on words I missed before: The curse can only be broken by someone with curse-breaker blood. Someone like me. Someone like Sera.
My hands start shaking.
Curse-breaker blood? What does that mean?
Before I can process it, I hear footsteps above me. Heavy. Deliberate. Cain, moving through the fortress like a ghost.
I need to find the east tower. I need to figure out what my mother discovered. I need to
A scream echoes through the fortress.
Not human. Something else. Something that makes every hair on my body stand up.
The scream comes again, closer this time. And with it, the sound of chains rattling violently.
I run toward the sound without thinking. Up the grand staircase, down a dark hallway, following the terrible noise.
I burst into a large room and freeze.
Cain is on his knees in the center of the floor. His shadow chains are glowing with black fire, burning into his skin. He's shaking, gasping, clearly in agony.
What's happening? I rush toward him. What do I do?
Don't he gasps. Don't touch
But I'm already reaching for him. Some instinct I don't understand drives me forward. I grab his wrist, trying to pull the burning chain away from his skin.
Golden light explodes from my hands.
Cain's eyes go wide not with pain, but with shock. Because my touch doesn't hurt him. The black fire dims. The chains hiss and recoil, like they're afraid of me.
Warmth floods through me, from my hands into him. It feels like sunlight, like magic, like something ancient waking up inside me.
How? Cain whispers, staring at where my hands touch his wrist. How is this possible?
I don't know. I can feel energy flowing between us golden and bright, pushing back against the darkness of his curse.
Then the chains go wild.
They tighten viciously around Cain's throat and wrists, yanking him backward away from me. He crashes to the floor, coughing and gasping.
Leave! he shouts, his voice raw with pain and something else fear. Get away from me!
But I can help
You CAN'T! His silver eyes are wide, terrified. The curse won't allow it. Every time someone tries to help me, it punishes me worse. Just stay away.
He staggers to his feet and runs from the room, the chains dragging behind him like demons.
I stand there, breathing hard, staring at my hands.
They're still glowing. Faint golden light pulses under my skin, slowly fading.
What just happened?
I touched him, and he didn't feel pain. The curse recoiled from me. Golden light came from my hands.
I pull out my mother's journal with shaking fingers and read her words again: The curse can only be broken by someone with curse-breaker blood. Someone like me. Someone like Sera.
Oh.
Oh no.
I'm not just here because I was framed. I'm not just here by accident.
I'm here because I have the same power my mother had. The power to break curses.
And somehow, High Priest Aldric knows it.
This whole thing the frame-up, the trial, sending me specifically to the Guardian it wasn't about punishing me for theft.
It was about getting me here.
But why? What does Aldric want? What did my mother discover that got her killed?
And why do I have the terrible feeling that I'm not supposed to break Cain's curse I'm supposed to do something far worse?