Seraphina's POV
Golden light exploded from my body, and I couldn't make it stop.
"What's happening to me?" I gasped, staring at my glowing hands in terror.
The entire hall erupted into chaos. Nobles screamed and scrambled backward. Guards rushed forward with weapons drawn, then froze when they saw the light pouring from me like sunshine.
"She's been hiding magic this whole time!"
"It's a trick!"
"She's dangerous!"
But I wasn't doing this on purpose. I had no idea how to control whatever was happening inside me.
The golden light grew brighter, warmer, spreading across the floor like waves. Where it touched Caspian's frost patterns, the ice melted instantly.
"Impossible," Caspian breathed, staring at his arms. The curse marks that always covered his skin were disappearing. "You're actually doing it. You're pushing back the curse."
"I don't understand!" Tears streamed down my face. "I don't have magic! I've never had magic!"
"You were born with it," Caspian said, his voice urgent. He grabbed my shoulders, and where his hands touched me, the golden light flared even brighter. "Someone hid it from you. Bound it so you couldn't access it. But my curse—when I kissed you—it broke through the binding."
"NO!" Mother's scream cut through the chaos. She stood at her throne, her face twisted with rage and fear. "This is impossible! The binding spell should have held! She should have died powerless!"
Everything went silent.
Even through my panic and confusion, those words hit me like a physical blow.
"What did you say?" I whispered.
Mother's hand flew to her mouth, realizing what she'd just admitted in front of everyone.
Caspian's eyes went deadly cold. Frost exploded from his feet, racing across the floor toward Mother's throne.
"You bound your own daughter's magic?" His voice was quiet, but it carried through the entire hall like thunder. "You stole her power when she was a child?"
"She was dangerous!" Mother shouted, backing away as ice climbed up the steps toward her. "A Sun Blessed born into a kingdom of ice? She would have destroyed everything! I did what was necessary to protect our family!"
Sun Blessed. That term again. What did it mean?
"You tortured her for twenty-three years," Caspian said, and I'd never heard such fury in a voice. "You called her worthless when you knew she held more power than your entire court combined. You were going to let her die thinking she was nothing."
The ice reached Mother's feet, and she stumbled backward with a gasp.
"I protected her!" Mother screamed. "They would have killed her if they knew what she was! The ice mages would have seen her as a threat!"
"So instead, you made her life a living nightmare?" Caspian's hands clenched into fists. "You broke her spirit so completely that she accepted death as a mercy?"
I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Everything I'd believed about myself was a lie.
I wasn't powerless. I never had been.
Mother had stolen my magic when I was just a baby. She'd locked it away and watched me suffer for over two decades, letting me believe I was broken and worthless.
"How could you?" The words tore from my throat. "I'm your daughter!"
"You were a mistake!" Mother shot back, her composure finally cracking completely. "Your father wanted you, but I knew what you were the moment you were born. Those golden eyes. That warmth. You were never meant to exist in a kingdom of ice!"
Elise suddenly appeared at Mother's side, ice magic crackling around her hands. But she wasn't looking at me with jealousy anymore.
She looked terrified.
"If she's really a Sun Blessed," Elise said, her voice shaking, "then she could destroy our entire kingdom. Sun magic is the opposite of ice. The ancient texts say—"
"I know what the texts say!" Mother snapped. "That's why I bound her power! To save us all!"
"Liar," Caspian said coldly. "You bound her because you were afraid. Afraid she'd be more powerful than you. More important than your precious younger daughter."
He turned to me, and his ice-blue eyes softened.
"We're leaving," he said. "Right now."
"What? No—" I started to protest, but Caspian grabbed my hand.
The moment our skin touched, something incredible happened.
His curse marks didn't just disappear. His entire body seemed to relax, like he'd been carrying a painful weight and it suddenly lifted.
And I felt... whole. For the first time in my life, I felt complete.
"She can't leave!" Mother shouted. "Guards, stop them!"
But when the guards moved forward, Caspian raised his free hand. A wall of ice exploded up from the floor, creating a barrier between us and everyone else.
"Touch her, and I'll freeze this entire palace into a tomb," Caspian promised. His voice was death itself. "Your choice."
The guards froze.
Caspian pulled me toward the exit, moving fast. I stumbled after him, still trying to process everything.
"Wait!" I gasped. "I don't understand what's happening! What am I? What does Sun Blessed mean?"
"I'll explain everything," Caspian promised. "But not here. Not where they can hurt you anymore."
We burst through the doors into the palace courtyard. A massive black carriage waited there, pulled by horses made entirely of ice. They pawed the ground, breath steaming in the cold air.
Commander Frost stood by the carriage, his hand on his sword. "Everything ready, Your Majesty?"
"Get us out of here," Caspian ordered. "Now."
He practically lifted me into the carriage and climbed in after me. The door slammed shut.
"Go!" Caspian shouted.
The carriage lurched forward so fast I fell against the seat. Through the window, I saw the palace doors burst open. Mother and Elise stood there, surrounded by guards.
"SERAPHINA!" Mother screamed. "You can't leave! I'm your mother! You belong to me!"
But the carriage was already racing away, the ice horses moving impossibly fast.
I watched the palace—the only home I'd ever known—disappear behind us. Watched Mother's furious face fade into the distance.
Part of me wanted to cry. To scream. To demand Caspian take me back.
But a bigger part of me felt something I'd never felt before.
Relief.
I was free. Finally, completely free.
I turned away from the window to find Caspian watching me with an unreadable expression.
"Are you alright?" he asked quietly.
Was I alright? I'd just discovered I had magic. Found out my mother had been lying to me my entire life. Married a cursed king. And now I was fleeing my home kingdom.
"No," I admitted. "I'm not alright. I'm confused and scared and I don't understand anything that just happened."
Caspian nodded slowly. "That's fair."
"Why did you choose me?" The question burst out before I could stop it. "Did you know? About my magic?"
"I suspected," Caspian admitted. "When I looked at you at the ball, my curse stopped hurting for the first time in ten years. That only happens around incredibly powerful magic users. But Sun Blessed are supposed to be extinct. I thought maybe you had some latent healing ability, or—" He shook his head. "I didn't know for certain until the kiss broke your binding spell."
"So you married me to break your curse?" I felt something crack inside my chest. "You used me."
"Yes," Caspian said simply. He didn't try to deny it or make excuses. "I was desperate. The curse was killing me slowly. When I found someone who could stop the pain, I convinced myself it was fate. That choosing you was meant to be."
His honesty hurt more than a lie would have.
"But," Caspian continued, leaning forward, "I also saved you from a mother who tortured you and a sister who wanted you dead. You're away from that palace now. Away from people who treated you like garbage. Whatever happens next, at least you're free of them."
He was right. I knew he was right.
But I still felt used. Manipulated. Like I'd traded one prison for another.
"Where are we going?" I asked quietly.
"My kingdom. The Crystal Palace in the Northern Territories."
"The cursed lands," I whispered. "Where everything is frozen and dying."
Caspian's jaw tightened. "Yes. But maybe—if you really are a Sun Blessed—you can help heal it. Your warmth against my ice. Maybe together we can—"
He cut himself off, shaking his head.
"What?" I pressed.
"Nothing. It's foolish to hope."
But I'd seen something in his eyes. Something that looked almost like... vulnerability.
This feared Winter King, this man everyone called a monster, looked lost and scared.
Just like me.
The carriage rode in silence for a long time, carrying us north toward frozen lands and an uncertain future.
Finally, I spoke: "I want to know everything. About Sun Blessed magic. About your curse. About why my mother was so afraid of what I am."
Caspian met my eyes. "Are you sure? Some truths are more dangerous than lies."
"I've lived my whole life believing lies," I said firmly. "I'm done with that. Tell me the truth. All of it."
Caspian studied me for a moment. Then he nodded.
"Alright," he said. "But first, you need to understand something about what you are."
He reached out slowly and took my hand. The golden light flickered between our joined fingers.
"Sun Blessed and Winter Kings aren't enemies," Caspian said quietly. "According to ancient legends, we're supposed to be partners. Two halves of one whole. Your warmth balances my cold. My ice grounds your fire."
My heart started racing. "What are you saying?"
Caspian's ice-blue eyes burned into mine.
"I'm saying that maybe fate didn't bring us together by accident. Maybe we were always meant to find each other."
He paused, his grip on my hand tightening.
"And I'm saying that my curse isn't just any curse. It's a binding spell that can only be broken one way."
"How?" I whispered.
Caspian's expression turned deadly serious.
"By a Sun Blessed willingly giving me her heart. Completely. Forever."
The carriage suddenly jerked to a stop.
"Your Majesty!" Commander Frost's urgent voice called from outside. "We have a problem!"
Caspian's head snapped toward the window. His face went pale.
"What kind of problem?" he called back.
"The kind with an army blocking the road. Your Majesty, we're surrounded."
My blood turned to ice.
Through the carriage window, I saw them—dozens of soldiers on horseback, all wearing the colors of my mother's kingdom.
And standing at the front, smiling coldly, was Elise.
She'd followed us.
And she'd brought an army.