POV: Seraphina
I heard them whispering while I was walking through the palace hallways.
"The binding ceremony is in three days," one servant said to another. "The king hasn't been to his rooms in days. He's been with Lady Morganna."
My heart stopped.
I gripped the hallway wall to keep from falling. A binding event. Theron was tying himself to someone. And from the way the helper said "Lady Morganna," I already knew exactly who.
No. This couldn't be happening. This wasn't real. This was the nightmare my grandmother had shown me, but it was meant to be a vision of the future. It was supposed to be something I could avoid.
I turned and ran toward the throne room. If Theron was dodging me, if he was planning this binding, then I needed to find him. I needed to make him look at me. I needed to make him remember what we had.
But when I reached the throne room doors, guards blocked my way.
"The king is in council," they said. "He cannot be disturbed."
"I'm not asking for permission," I said, reaching for the door.
Their hands on my shoulders were gentle but firm. They wouldn't let me pass. Worse, they treated me like I didn't matter anymore. Like I was just another person, not someone important.
I tried to leave and find another way in. But the palace—the palace that had welcomed me three months ago—suddenly felt like a maze designed especially to keep me away from him.
I'd walk down a hallway that should have led to his chambers, only to find it transformed into a dead end. Doors that had been open before were suddenly shut. Servants who had bowed to me now looked away when I passed.
It was like the house itself was rejecting me.
Days passed. One day. Two days. Three days of looking, of being blocked, of watching the palace prepare for a binding ceremony I couldn't stop.
I saw Lady Morganna in the halls once. She was wearing white silks, looking like a woman prepared for her wedding. When our eyes met, she smiled at me. A smile full of success and cruelty.
"Goodbye, little siren," she purred. "Thank you for keeping the king warm while I arranged his future."
I wanted to hit her. I wanted to scream. Instead, I turned and walked away, feeling like my entire world was crumbling.
That night, I felt it.
Something was changing in my body. Something was wrong. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling sick. My stomach turned, and I barely made it to the chamber pot before throwing up. My entire body was shaking.
I looked at my hands in the darkness, and they were glowing. Not the soft glow of siren magic. A bright, burning glow. A sickening green light that I'd never seen before.
I stumbled to the mirror and looked at my image. My skin was pale, almost transparent. My eyes were still sea-green, but now they were surrounded by darkness—like I was being eaten from the inside out.
Something was very wrong.
I pressed my hand to my stomach and felt the baby. The feeling was different now. The life inside me wasn't quiet anymore. It was frantic, moving furiously, like it was trying to tell me something.
The pregnancy. Something about the curse and the siren blood mixing together. Something was happening to me. Something was happening to the baby.
I needed to tell Theron. Even if he was tying himself to another woman. Even if he'd picked his throne over me. He needed to know. The baby needed him to know.
I gathered my bravery and went to his chambers directly. If the palace tried to stop me this time, I would fight. If guards stopped my way, I would use my voice to move them. I didn't care anymore about being nice or patient.
But when I reached his rooms, I found the doors wide open.
No guards. No barriers. Just open doors leading into his private room.
I walked inside and found him there, sitting on the edge of his bed. He was fully dressed for the binding service, wearing formal robes of midnight blue and silver. He looked every inch the king he was. Powerful. Eternal. Beautiful.
And fully broken.
His silver eyes were hollow. His hands were shaking. When he looked up and saw me, something cracked in his chest.
"Seraphina," he whispered. "I was going to come to you. I was going to explain—"
"There's no time," I said, cutting him off. I walked toward him, and my body felt strange—like I was moving through water. "Something's wrong. With me. With the baby. I'm glowing weirdly. I'm sick. I think the curse is—"
He grabbed my hands and pulled me closer. His cursed hands, his dangerous hands, but they didn't hurt me. They never hurt me.
"I know," he said. "I figured it out. The curse mixed with your mermaid blood. It made something new inside you. Something that shouldn't exist."
"What?" I asked, frightened.
"I don't know," he revealed. "The doctors don't know. No one in this realm has ever seen this before. A half-immortal child made by curse and blood magic combined."
He pulled me down so I was sitting beside him on the bed.
"The Eternal Ritual can't be performed on you anymore," he added. "The doctors say it would kill you. It would kill the baby. The two of you are too connected to curse-magic now. Any attempt to make you immortal would destroy you both."
"Then what happens to me?" I asked. "What happens to us?"
He didn't answer. He just pulled me into his arms and held me like I was the most valuable thing in the world.
"The binding ceremony is in an hour," he said finally. "I'm going to do it. I'm going to marry Morganna. I have to. Because if I don't, the human realm burns. Millions of people die."
"Theron—"
"But I'm not saying goodbye to you," he said, and his voice was fierce now. Determined. "I'm not losing you. I don't care if I have to hide you in the most secret part of this house. I don't care if I have to fight every immortal in existence. You're mine, Seraphina. You and our daughter are mine."
He held my face in his hands and looked straight into my eyes.
"Stay here. In my private rooms. Lock the door. Don't let anyone in. I'll handle the binding. I'll make it through this ceremony. And then I'll come back to you. I promise."
"How can you promise that?" I asked, tears running down my face. "You're tying yourself to another woman. Forever."
"I know," he said. "But that bond means nothing compared to what we have. That binding is politics and life. What we have is real. What we have is forever."
Before I could reply, the binding ceremony bells started ringing throughout the palace.
It was time.
He kissed my face, my cheeks, my lips. He held me like he was memorizing the feeling of me. And then he let me go.
"I love you," he said as he walked toward the door.
"I love you too," I whispered.
He stopped in the doorway and looked back at me one final time.
"In the gallery above the throne room," he said softly. "You'll be able to watch from above. I want you to see. I want you to understand that no matter what happens down there, my heart belongs to you."
And then he was gone.
I stood in his empty chamber, glowing with strange curse-magic, carrying his impossible daughter, and made a choice that would change everything.
I was going to watch him bind himself to another woman.
And I was going to survive it.