Every step echoed too long, every hallway whispered things she didn't want to hear.
Zelene sat by Kael's bedside that night, her fingers barely brushing the edge of the blanket. His breathing had turned shallow — a stuttering rhythm that frightened her more than she'd ever admit.
The curse had taken more from him than anyone realized.It wasn't just the blackened veins crawling up his arm — it was the way he'd stopped looking at sunlight, the way silence clung to him even in sleep.
He wasn't sleeping now. He was enduring.
Each exhale sounded like surrender.
Her magic — warm, steady, practiced — had done nothing. It dimmed the pain for minutes, then the curse returned, crueler than before. It hated her light. It wanted him hollow.
Zelene swallowed hard, wiping her palm against her skirt to hide the tremor. "You can't keep fighting like this," she whispered. "You'll burn yourself from the inside out."
Kael stirred faintly, eyes half-opening, dull with fever and exhaustion. "You... shouldn't... be here."
She almost laughed — a soft, bitter sound. "You said that yesterday."
"I meant it."
"You're dying, Kael." Her voice cracked. "Do you really think I'd leave?"
His gaze met hers then — distant, fractured, but still carrying that same restrained pride. "If I die, the curse dies with me."
"Don't you dare make that sound noble."
His lips parted, but the next breath turned into a gasp. The curse flared — black tendrils pulsing beneath his skin, spreading across his collarbone, up his throat. His back arched, the bedsheets catching light from the burning sigils crawling under his veins.
Zelene's heart seized. "No— Kael—"
She reached for him, her light flaring instinctively, golden warmth against his fevered skin. But the moment she touched him, his body jerked — half in pain, half in warning.
"Don't— touch— me—"
"I won't let you—"
"Zelene!"
His voice broke like glass, and something inside her did too. She froze — watching helplessly as the curse clawed at his chest, black smoke leaking from the mark that wrapped his shoulder like a brand.
The air grew colder. Every candle in the room flickered.
And for a moment — just a fleeting, terrifying instant — she thought she saw something inside the mark move.Something alive.
Then it stopped. The curse quieted again, leaving Kael trembling, drenched in cold sweat.
Silence.
Zelene exhaled shakily, pressing her hand to her lips. You can't save him like this.
That thought, cruel as it was, refused to leave.
She stayed until dawn. Watching. Listening. Breathing with him in case his breath stopped.
And when the first light touched the curtains, she remembered something — faint, distant — a voice from months ago.
"If the Dravenhart seeks counsel beyond the court's noise, the Rosanwald gates are open."
Cassian Rosanwald.Lord of the Rosanwald Estate — eldest of the Four Swords.
She remembered his calm composure at the ball, the faint smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, and the strange sigil he wore on his wrist — one she hadn't recognized then but now resembled the runes that flared on Kael's skin.
The Rosanwalds were scholars of spirit-binding — whispers of old magic said their blood could communicate with entities beyond mortality.
Zelene stood, her decision quiet but solid. "If I can't heal you…" she murmured, looking at Kael's sleeping form, "then I'll find someone who can."
The castle didn't rest that night.
Zelene's mind wouldn't either.
When Kael finally slipped into an exhausted sleep, she slipped out of the room with her heart hammering, her magic trembling faintly under her skin like something begging to be used.
She called for Ray first.
He came quietly, his silver hair tied loosely, eyes already reading her mood before she spoke. "You've decided," he said simply.
Zelene nodded. "The Rosanwalds. If anyone knows what this curse truly is… it's them."
Ray's brows furrowed. "We leave at first light."
She hesitated. "No. We leave now. Before anyone stops us."
Ray didn't argue. He'd learned long ago that Zelene's calm voice was the kind that hid resolve that no blade could pierce.
But someone else overheard.
A shadow moved in the hall — quick, sure-footed.Darius.
He stepped out from the corridor, cloak half-unbuttoned, worry etched deep between his brows. "You're leaving the manor? Now?" His tone wasn't commanding, but heavy with confusion. "Where are you taking my lord's fiancée at this hour?"
Zelene faltered. She couldn't tell him — not yet.Not when she herself didn't understand half of what she was chasing.
"I can't explain, Darius," she said softly. "But it's for his sake."
"For his sake?" Darius's voice cracked with disbelief. "Then why does it look like you're running away?"
Ray stepped forward, tone flat, cautious. "We don't have time for—"
But before he could finish, the air around them shifted.
A presence.Cold. Ancient.Wrong.
Zelene's breath caught. Every candle in the hallway guttered out one by one, as though a storm had passed through the walls. But there was no wind.
And then—A voice, quiet but sharp enough to cut.
"Leaving without permission, milady?"
Miren stepped from the shadowed end of the corridor, her gown trailing like smoke, her expression carved from calm disdain.Her eyes—no longer the soft amber of a lady's maid—burned a dull, unholy red.
Zelene stiffened. "Miren," she whispered. "You knew."
"Of course I knew." Her smile was too gentle, too deliberate. "You think His Grace's condition escapes my sight? You think your meddling has gone unnoticed?"
Ray moved subtly in front of Zelene. "Back away," he warned. His voice carried the faint vibration of power — low, like thunder waiting to strike.
But Miren didn't flinch.She tilted her head, almost amused. "Ah… so the pet sorcerer bares his fangs."
Her hand twitched, and the wall nearest them cracked, fine black lines splitting across the stone like spiderwebs. A dark aura spilled through the gaps — thick and suffocating, humming with ancient energy.
Zelene's magic flared instinctively, gold meeting shadow, light trembling under the weight of something older — something that didn't belong in human flesh.
Darius drew his blade. "What are you—"
"She's not Miren," Zelene said, her voice steady despite the tremor in her chest. "Not anymore."
Miren smiled wider. "You're clever, milady. Pity you learned too late."
And then the illusion shattered.
Her skin rippled — bones stretching, twisting, as shadow crawled across her body like tar. Her eyes deepened to obsidian, her voice warping into something layered and echoing.
"I was bound to this bloodline long before your kind was born."
The air exploded outward.
Darius was thrown back, crashing against a pillar. Zelene barely raised a shield before the wave of dark energy hit — gold light meeting black fire, the collision rattling the very glass from the windows.
Ray muttered a spell, his hand flaring with violet runes. "Zelene— move!"
She ducked, rolling aside as Miren's shadow split into three separate forms, each lunging forward like wolves with claws of smoke. Ray countered, flicking his wrist — every sigil in the air detonating with violet light, slicing through the shadows, but they simply reformed.
"They're feeding on her magic," Zelene hissed. "Ray— stop using your Gift— it strengthens them!"
Ray gritted his teeth. "Then what do you suggest?"
Zelene pressed her palm to the floor — her own power thrumming hot beneath her skin. "We fight her our way."
Gold light spread under her touch — not radiant, not bright — but pure, like dawn breaking through fog. It crawled along the floor, forming ancient runes she barely understood but could feel.
Miren hissed as one of the runes touched her shadow. Smoke peeled from her hand where it burned her skin.
Darius staggered up, blade in hand, his shoulder bleeding. "I'll take His Grace to safety," he rasped.
Zelene nodded without looking at him, her voice trembling but sure. "Do it. No matter what happens, do not let her near him!"
For a moment, their eyes met — silent understanding.
And then Darius ran, vanishing down the corridor toward Kael's chambers.
Miren laughed — a sound that scraped bone. "You think you can hide him from me?"
"You will have to go through me." Zelene said, stepping forward, eyes glowing with restrained fury.
The corridor trembled again — black and gold light clashing like fire and storm, the very walls cracking under their force. Ray chanted something low and old, summoning a spectral barrier between them and the creature Miren had become.
It wasn't enough.
Miren lunged, her movements blurring, inhumanly fast — shadow claws slicing through the air. Zelene raised her arm just in time, her barrier shattering but holding long enough for Ray to pull her back.
Her breath came in ragged gasps. "Ray— if she breaks through, Kael—"
"I know," Ray said tightly. "But if you fall, no one will be left to save him."
Zelene looked at Miren, whose face flickered — half human, half monster, her eyes now filled with hate so sharp it burned.
"What do you want?" Zelene demanded.
Miren's smile cracked into something cruel and broken. "To end what should have ended generations ago. The curse must live — and so must he."
"He?" Zelene whispered. But before she could ask, Miren lunged again — the ground splitting between them, light and shadow devouring each other.