Clara's POV
"I can't live like this anymore!" I screamed at Ciel, my voice raw, echoing through the study walls. "I want to be free! I can't be stuck here, living as your creation. I want to be me—I want my own life!"
The rage in my chest was suffocating. Without waiting for his reply, I spun around and stormed out, the sound of my heartbeat drowning out everything else.
"Serena—!" His voice broke behind me, desperate, pleading.
And then I woke.
My eyes flew open, my body breaking into a cold sweat as I jolted upright from the icy stone floor. My chest heaved, and I pressed a trembling hand against my heart.
A dream.
No—something more.
The emotions still lingered in me, sharp and real, as if I had truly lived them. The fury, the despair, the desperate need to break free—it had felt too familiar. Too alive.
"What's happening to me?" I whispered into the suffocating darkness.
This wasn't the first time. These dreams—these memories—they kept returning, each one heavier than the last. Always so real, always clawing at the edges of my mind. But why? Why did they feel like fragments of a truth buried inside me?
I sat in silence for what felt like hours, my thoughts spiraling, my body stiff with fear and exhaustion. The damp chill of the prison cell wrapped around me like chains. The air smelled of mold and rusted iron. Every second stretched into eternity—until I heard them.
Footsteps.
I froze, every muscle taut.
But it wasn't the cloaked man this time. A shadow loomed at the entrance—one of them. The creatures. A tall, unnatural figure with massive black wings folded against its back. Its eyes gleamed faintly in the dark, soulless, watching.
The door creaked open.
I staggered to my feet and tried to back away, but it was useless. The creature moved too fast, its clawed hand closing around my arm with bone-crushing strength.
"No—let me go!" I screamed, thrashing, kicking, clawing against him. My cries echoed in the cell, but the creature didn't flinch. Its grip only tightened as if I were no heavier than a child.
It dragged me through the corridors, past walls I had memorized too well, past the suffocating silence that seemed to hum with something ancient and terrible. My screams went unanswered.
And then—just like before—we reached it.
The chamber.
That place where shadows gathered, where those creatures with wings loomed in silence, their faces hidden, their presence suffocating. And at the center, waiting with his ever-calm mockery, stood the cloaked man.
"Welcome back, my lovely prisoner." His voice slid like poison into my ears. "It's time for the next ritual."
I glared at him, though my knees trembled.
"The first trial was revival through water," he said, his tone almost indulgent. "But this time… something different."
He raised a hand.
The platform beneath me shuddered—and then split open again.
My breath stopped in my chest.
Beneath us, flames roared to life. Huge, violent, consuming flames. The chamber filled with their light, red and gold reflecting off the stone walls. Heat crashed against my skin, searing, suffocating, as though the fire itself wanted to devour me alive.
My heart slammed in my chest.
"No…" My voice cracked, breaking into a sob. "No, no—let go of me! Please!" I fought against the creature's grasp, wild with desperation, my body writhing like a trapped animal.
The cloaked man only tilted his head, amused.
"As you wish."
He gestured with a single, careless flick of his hand.
The creature obeyed.
And I was thrown into the fire.
Ciel's POV
"Lucien—we've been flying for too long," I said, my voice tight with urgency, the night wind cutting against my face. "Are we getting any closer?"
"Yes," Lucien answered, his eyes narrowed, focused like a hawk. "Their scent—it's growing stronger. I'm certain we'll reach them soon."
But his certainty wasn't enough to calm the storm inside me. My fists clenched against the leather straps of the reins, my wings aching from the relentless flight.
Damn it.
We needed to reach her faster. Every second was a blade digging into my chest. My Serena—my heart—was still out there, trapped in their hands. And if anything happened to her…
"Hold on, my love," I whispered against the wind, my voice breaking. "I'm coming."
Clara's POV
I hit the ground hard, the searing stone floor branding my back with molten agony. The air itself was alive, thick with fire, suffocating with heat that stole the breath straight from my lungs. My body convulsed as I struggled to rise, but the flames were everywhere—writhing, snarling, clawing higher like living beasts hungry for my flesh.
I froze, desperate, praying if I stayed still the fire would pass me by. But the flames only swelled, hungrier, hotter. They licked across the floor, seeping closer, until they caught on the edges of my clothes.
The hiss of burning fabric filled my ears.
"No—no!" My hands slapped at the flames, clawing at myself, trying to smother them, but it was useless. The fire only spread faster, climbing up my arms, wrapping around my body, devouring me whole.
A scream tore from my throat.
The sound echoed through the chamber, raw and animal, as if the fire ripped the sound from my lungs itself. The agony was unbearable—skin that didn't burn yet felt as if it was peeling away, nerves igniting one by one until every inch of me was a storm of fire.
I thrashed, I clawed, my body writhing against the unseen torment. The smell of smoke filled my nostrils, choking me. My vision blurred as the fire's roar filled my head, louder and louder, drowning out every thought but pain.
And still—my flesh did not burn.
Only the agony. Only the endless torment of being consumed alive.
My screams grew hoarse, cracking, until my voice was nothing but broken sobs lost inside the roar of flames. My body convulsed, spasming as the fire curled tighter around me, dragging me deeper into its suffocating embrace.
"Stop—please—!" My words dissolved into raw shrieks, swallowed whole by the inferno.
I felt myself unraveling, pain bleeding into numbness, my body betraying me. My strength fled, my cries weakening as the flames still devoured me.
And then—mercifully—darkness crept in.
The edges of my vision faded, the roar of the fire dulled to a distant hum, and my body, though still ablaze, surrendered to unconsciousness.
My eyes fluttered shut, and for one fleeting moment, I embraced the only relief left to me—oblivion.
Please… let me go home…