Cassian's POV
The monsters came in waves.
First, shadow beasts—creatures made of living darkness with teeth like broken glass. They poured from the forest, screeching, hungry for blood.
I shifted mid-run, my dragon form erupting in flames. Fire poured from my jaws, turning shadows to smoke. But for every creature I killed, three more took its place.
"Left side!" Kieran shouted, his lightning crackling across the arena. He fought back-to-back with me, storm and fire combining into something devastating.
But we were losing ground.
Lyanna stood at the arena's center, frozen. Shadow magic poured from her borrowed body in waves she couldn't control. The power was too much, too wild. It was tearing her apart from the inside.
"Lyanna, focus!" I roared. "You have to control it!"
"I can't!" Her voice broke. "It's too strong. It wants—"
A shadow beast lunged at her throat.
Seraphine—wearing Lyanna's real body—threw herself in the way. The creature's claws raked across her back. She screamed, blood spreading across my old lover's familiar skin.
"No!" Lyanna caught her before she fell. "Why did you—"
"Because if you die, I die." Seraphine gasped through the pain. "The runes bind us. Your death causes mine. So stop trying to be noble and FIGHT!"
The words snapped something in Lyanna. Her eyes went pure black. Shadow magic burst outward, obliterating a dozen creatures at once.
But the power surge made her scream. Made her double over, holding her chest where the dark runes burned.
"The magic's killing her," Kieran said sadly, appearing at my side. "Using Seraphine's power in Seraphine's body—it's too much for a Primordial soul to handle."
"Then we end this fast." I launched myself at the biggest shadow beast, my claws finding its throat. "Before she burns herself out." We fought like devils. Fire and lightning and desperate rage. Bodies piled up around us—shadow beasts, stone golems, things that had no names.
But they kept coming. And coming. And coming.
"This is a trial," the elder's words echoed across the arena. "To show which soul deserves to survive. The weak will fall. The strong will claim their fate."
"I'll show you weak!" Lyanna's power surged again, stronger this time. She raised Seraphine's hands and shadow creatures turned on each other, ripping themselves apart.
She was amazing. Terrifying. Barely in control.
And she was dying. I could see it in how her hands shook, how blood dripped from her nose, how the runes on her chest glowed brighter with each second.
"We need to stop the trial!" I shouted. "End it now before she—"
"Before she what?" A new voice cut through the noise. "Before she becomes what she was meant to be?"
The Shadow King stepped into the arena, surrounded by two dozen elite guards. His eyes locked onto Lyanna with predatory greed.
"My daughter's body, supercharged with Primordial magic." His smile was terrible. "If I drain that power before it kills her, I'll become unstoppable."
"Over my dead body," I screamed.
"That can be arranged." He gestured to his guards. "Kill the kings. Capture the mix. And bring me my daughter—whichever body she's wearing."
The guards charged.
We were already tired. Already hurt. Already fighting a lost battle against endless monsters.
Now we had trained fighters to deal with too.
"This is bad," Kieran said, lightning flashing weakly around his hands. "Really bad."
"I noticed. " I shifted human to conserve energy. My dragon form was spent. "Any brilliant ideas?"
"One." He looked at Lyanna, still standing at the middle, power radiating from her in visible waves. "We let her ascend."
"What?"
"The trial is trying which soul deserves the body. What if we stop fighting it? Let the magic choose naturally?" Kieran's eyes held hopeless hope. "If she accepts Seraphine's body fully, becomes it completely—the power will settle. She'll survive."
"And Seraphine dies," I finished.
We both looked at Seraphine-in-Lyanna's-body. She'd heard every word. Her face—Lyanna's face—went pale.
"Do it," she said softly.
"What?" Lyanna spun to face her. "No. I won't—"
"Yes, you will." Seraphine smiled sadly. "Because you're the hero. The picked one. The Primordial who can actually change things. And I'm just..." Her voice cracked. "I'm just the villain who deserves to die."
"You're not a villain." Tears streamed down Lyanna's stolen face. "You're a winner. Like me. We're the same, remember?"
"Exactly." Seraphine touched Lyanna's cheek—her own cheek, technically. "Which is why I know you'll do what I could never do. You'll choose right even when it hurts. Even when it costs everything."
She stepped back. Raised her hands. And spoke words in old Draconic that made the air shimmer.
"No!" Lyanna screamed. "Don't you dare—"
But it was too late.
Seraphine's soul lost its hold on Lyanna's body. Released the fight for life. Released everything.
The body collapsed like a doll with cut strings.
And Lyanna's soul—suddenly having no competition, no resistance—locked permanently into Seraphine's body.
The dark runes flared blindingly bright.
Then they changed. Reformed. Became something new—permanent marks that no longer threatened death but offered power.
Lyanna screamed as magic rushed through her. Shadow and Primordial power merging, fusing, becoming something the world had never seen before.
When she opened her eyes, they glowed with purple-gold light.
"What did you do?" she whispered, looking at Seraphine's empty body—her original body, now just a shell.
"I gave you what you needed." Seraphine's voice came from everywhere and nowhere. Her soul, freed from physical form, hung in the air like mist. "The power to win. The strength to live. The life I never deserved."
"You can't just die!" Lyanna cried. "I won't let you!"
"You don't have a choice. I already let go." Seraphine's soul starting fading. "But maybe... in another life... we could have been friends instead of mirrors."
"Wait!" I shouted. "There has to be—"
Seraphine's soul dissolved into nothing.
Gone. Permanently.
And Lyanna collapsed, now truly and forever trapped in Seraphine's body, powered by magic that could level countries.
The Shadow King laughed. "Perfect. Now she's vulnerable. Take her!"
His guards rushed forward.
But they never reached us.
Because Lyanna stood up. Slowly. Power coming from every pore.
"You want Seraphine's body?" Her voice rang with unnatural resonance. "Fine. Let me show you what it can really do."
She raised her hands.
And the entire field exploded with shadow-fire—a combination of magic that shouldn't exist but now did.
When the smoke cleared, half the guards were dead. The other half ran screaming.
The Shadow King stared at her with wide eyes. "Impossible. That amount of power should have killed you."
"It would have." Lyanna looked at her hands—Seraphine's hands, forever hers now. "If I was still fighting it. But I'm not fighting anymore. I accepted this body. This power. This terrible second chance." Her eyes found mine. "And now I'm going to use it to destroy every king who thinks people are just pieces to move around."
She pointed at the Shadow King.
"Starting with you."
Shadow-fire erupted from her fingers.
The Shadow King barely dodged. "You ungrateful—"
"I'm not your daughter." Lyanna's voice was ice. "She died giving me the power to end you. Now run, old man. Run fast. Because the next time I see you, I won't miss."
He ran. Disappeared into darkness like the coward he was.
Silence fell across the ruined field.
Lyanna stood there, shaking, covered in blood—some hers, some not. The most powerful being in the Five Kingdoms.
And totally, utterly alone.
I walked toward her slowly. "Lyanna—"
"Don't." She held up a hand. "Don't look at me. Don't touch me. Don't pretend you know who I am anymore."
"I know exactly who you are."
"Do you?" She laughed bitterly. "Because I don't. I'm not Lyanna Thorne anymore. I'm not Seraphine Nightshade either. I'm something new. Something wrong. Something—"
I kissed her.
She froze. For one beating, two, she didn't move.
Then she melted into it, her hands—wrong hands, different hands—clutching my shoulders like I was the only real thing left.
When we broke apart, tears streamed down her new face.
"I don't know how to be her," she whispered.
"Then don't be her. Be you. In whatever skin you wear."
"That's not how it works." She pulled away. "Everyone will see Seraphine. Expect Seraphine. Want me to be—"
A pulse of magic interrupted us.
We all turned.
Lyanna's original body—the one Seraphine had died in—began glowing with golden light.
"What's happening?" Kieran breathed.
The body rose into the air. And from it, a soul began forming. Not Seraphine's soul. Someone else's.
Someone new.
The light took shape. Became human. Became female.
Became a woman with dark hair, green eyes, and a smile that made my dragon recognize something impossible.
"Hello," she said in Lyanna's natural voice. "Thank you for keeping my body safe. I'll take it from here."
Lyanna stared. "Who... who are you?"
The guy grinned. "I'm you. The real you. The actual Lyanna Thorne—the one who died three thousand years ago when the first Primordials fell. And I've been waiting a very long time to come home."