The guardians surrounded me like a wall of living stone—stern, immovable sentinels guarding their sacred treasure. I'd been branded an intruder, a thief, a betrayer to my own bloodline.
And perhaps I was.
Damian's laughter echoed through the massive chamber, bouncing off the marble columns, mocking me. The Vampire King had found a new power source—my mother's blood—and was using it to control the very guardians meant to stop beings like him.
"Seems your own mother doesn't recognize you, little princess," he taunted, his voice deeper, more resonant with his newfound power. "What a shame."
I stared at the stone statue of my mother, her blank eyes fixed on me without recognition, without love—just the cold determination of a guardian ready to crush any threat to the Heart.
"Mom," I whispered, the word catching in my throat. "Please."
Nothing. Not even a flicker of hesitation.
The guardians advanced, closing the circle around me. My wings fluttered nervously at my back, the black feathers catching the crimson light from the blood fountain. There was nowhere to run.
"Seraphina," Damian called, "take the Heart now. Your friends are still waiting, remember? Tick tock."
The memory of Landon, Regina, and the others flooded back. The reason I'd come here in the first place—to save them. I'd made a promise. And now that promise would cost me everything.
I looked at the gleaming Heart floating above the blood fountain. So small, yet containing enough power to keep the prison dimension intact. To remove it would be catastrophic.
"I'm sorry," I whispered, not sure who I was apologizing to. My mother? The Selenias who came before me? Myself?
I gathered the last of my strength and launched upward, my black wings spreading wide. The nearest guardian lunged for my ankle, missing by inches. Another hurled her spear, which sliced through several of my feathers before embedding in a column behind me.
I spiraled toward the ceiling, climbing higher, trying to get a clear path to the Heart. The stone guardians couldn't fly, but they were hurling everything they had—spears, chunks of broken marble, even parts of themselves—trying to knock me from the air.
Below, Damian watched with gleaming eyes, holding my mother's statue in his thrall.
"Now, Seraphina!" he commanded. "Or shall I start with the redheaded king? I wonder how he'll look without his head."
Rage and fear propelled me higher. I tucked my wings and dove toward the fountain, streamlining my body like an arrow. Wind rushed past my ears, drowning out the sounds of the guardians' roars. I stretched out my hands, fingers extended toward the pulsating crimson Heart.
Just as my fingertips were about to touch it, my pendant grew scorching hot against my chest. A voice—ancient, desperate—erupted from it.
"Not like this, child! Not for him!"
I hesitated, my hands hovering mere inches from the Heart. The voice from my pendant—my grandmother's voice—sounded different this time. Stronger. More urgent.
"He deceives you! The blood he drinks is not your mother's—it's the blood of the Fallen One! Take the Heart for yourself, not him!"
Damian's triumphant face suddenly twisted with rage. "What are you waiting for?" he snarled. "Take it NOW!"
In that moment of clarity, I saw the truth. Damian had never intended to save my friends. He was using me, using all of us, to free something much darker—the ancient evil my ancestors had imprisoned.
The stone guardians were closing in below, preparing to hurl themselves at me in a final attempt to stop the theft.
I made my decision.
"I'm sorry," I whispered again, this time to my friends, wherever they were.
I plunged my hands into the fountain, past the floating Heart, deep into the churning blood below. The liquid burned like acid, but I kept pushing, searching for what my instincts told me was there.
My fingers closed around something solid—a stone. Not the Heart, but something else. Something hidden beneath.
I yanked it free from the crimson depths.
"NO!" Damian's scream was primal, furious.
In my hands lay a small stone tablet, ancient symbols carved into its surface. Blood dripped from it, revealing words I somehow understood: *The true heart lies within blood and bone.*
"Foolish girl!" Damian raged. "What have you done?!"
I didn't know, but my pendant grew warmer, almost encouraging. The stone in my hands began to glow, illuminating the symbols.
The voice whispered again: "The Heart, child. Take it now—for yourself, not him!"
I looked at the floating crimson Heart, then back at the stone tablet in my hands. Understanding dawned. The Heart was never just the glowing orb—it was also this, the tablet containing the secret knowledge of the Selenias.
With the tablet clutched in one hand, I reached for the crimson Heart with the other.
"STOP HER!" Damian roared. The stone guardians surged forward.
My fingers closed around the Heart. Power—pure, raw, ancient—flooded through me like lightning. My wings blazed with light, no longer black but luminous, glowing with crimson energy.
The moment I removed the Heart from its resting place, the entire chamber began to shake. Cracks appeared in the marble floor, spreading rapidly, chunks of ceiling breaking loose and crashing down.
"What have you done?!" Damian screamed, his voice barely audible over the thunderous rumbling.
The answer came not from me, but from somewhere deep below—a roar so terrible it froze the blood in my veins. The Fallen One, stirring in his prison.
The guardians stopped their advance, their stone faces tilting upward as if listening to some distant call. Even my mother's statue stood motionless, torn between Damian's control and something more powerful awakening below.
I didn't wait to see what would happen next. With the Heart and tablet clutched tightly to my chest, I shot toward the exit, wings beating furiously.
"After her!" Damian commanded the guardians. "Don't let her escape with the Heart!"
Stone feet pounded behind me as I raced through the corridors, taking the same path we'd used to enter. The entire structure was collapsing around me—walls cracking, floors buckling. Without the Heart at its center, the prison dimension was losing stability.
I burst back into the great hall where we had first entered, only to find the portal we'd come through was shrinking rapidly.
Behind me, the guardians' footsteps grew closer, their stone bodies somehow faster than before, driven by desperation to reclaim the Heart.
"Return it!" they called, their voices a chorus of grinding stone. "Return the Heart or doom us all!"
I hesitated at the edge of the portal, looking back at my pursuers. They weren't just angry—they were afraid. Without the Heart, without its power, what would happen to them? To this place? To the prison it maintained?
The stone face of my mother emerged from the crowd, pushing to the front. For just a moment, I thought I saw recognition in those hollow eyes.
"Please," she said, her voice different from the others—softer, almost human. "My daughter, don't do this."
My heart shattered. "Mother..."
"The Heart belongs here. Its power maintains the balance."
I clutched the items tighter to my chest. "I need it to save my friends—to save everyone."
"At what cost?" she asked, extending her stone hand. "Give it back, Seraphina. Let me protect you, as I failed to do in life."
Tears streamed down my face. "I can't."
The portal behind me shrank further, now barely large enough for me to fit through. Beyond it, I could see the abyss—that endless void we had crossed to reach this place.
Another tremor shook the foundation, more violent than before. The roar from below grew louder, closer.
"He comes," my mother whispered, terror in her stone voice. "The Fallen One stirs. Without the Heart, his chains weaken."
Damian appeared then, pushing through the guardians, his eyes blazing with fury. "Give me the Heart, you stupid girl! Before you destroy everything!"
I backed closer to the portal. "Stay away from me."
"You have no idea what you've done," he snarled. "That Heart isn't just power—it's the lock on his prison! Without it—"
As if on cue, another roar tore through the chamber, so powerful it cracked the stone floor beneath our feet. A fissure opened up, running from wall to wall, hot air and crimson light billowing up from somewhere far below.
The guardians began to crumble, their stone bodies breaking apart as the power that animated them faded. My mother's statue reached for me one last time, her fingers outstretched.
"My beautiful girl," she whispered as cracks spread across her face. "Run."
I didn't want to leave her—not again, not when I'd only just found her. But the portal was almost closed, and the chamber was disintegrating around us.
With a sob, I turned and threw myself through the shrinking portal, wings tucked tight against my back to fit through the narrow opening.
I emerged into the void, the endless expanse of nothingness stretching in all directions. Behind me, the portal to the Heart's chamber collapsed with a final, thunderous crash.
For a moment, all was silent except for the sound of my beating wings and my own ragged breathing.
Then I heard it—a whisper of movement in the void. I turned to see a dark mist seeping through the tiny crack where the portal had been, tendrils reaching out like searching fingers.
Damian. Somehow, he had escaped too.
Panic surged through me. I clutched the Heart and tablet tighter and flew as fast as my wings could carry me, back the way we had come, toward the massive door that would lead out of this dimension.
The void seemed endless, the distance impossible. My wings ached, the muscles burning with the strain of flying at full speed for so long. But the mist behind me was gaining, spreading wider, moving faster.
"Give me the Heart!" Damian's voice echoed from the mist. "You can't escape me, Seraphina!"
I didn't answer, didn't look back. Every ounce of my strength went into my wings, pushing harder, faster.
At last, I saw it—the colossal door that marked the entrance to the prison dimension. Relief flooded through me.
But my relief was short-lived. The door was closing.
Whether triggered by the Heart's removal or by some other ancient mechanism, the enormous stone slabs were slowly but inexorably sliding shut. Already, the opening was only half its original size.
"No!" I gasped, pushing myself harder.
Behind me, Damian's mist form surged forward, sensing my desperation. "You'll never make it, little princess! Give me the Heart, and perhaps I'll help you escape!"
I ignored him, focusing everything on that narrowing gap. My wings beat frantically, muscles screaming in protest. The Heart pulsed against my chest, its power flowing through me, giving me strength I didn't know I possessed.
The gap grew smaller by the second—fifteen feet, then ten, then barely five. The massive stone doors seemed to move faster as they neared each other, as if eager to seal the prison once more.
I tucked my wings as tight as possible, aiming for the center of the gap. Three feet of clearance remained. Then two.
Damian's mist was right behind me now, so close I could feel its cold touch on my ankles.
"You're mine, Seraphina!" he hissed. "You and the Heart both!"
With one final, desperate surge, I hurled myself toward the gap—now barely a foot wide.
Would I make it through in time? Or would I be trapped here forever with Damian and the awakening horror below?