Sera's POV
I didn't kill them.
My voice echoes in the blood soaked chamber. Ten bodies surround us. My magical signature glows in the message written in their blood.
Emperor Caspian stares at me with those frozen eyes. The evidence suggests otherwise.
I was HERE, I say desperately. They kidnapped my father. They tried to force me to break your I stop myself just in time. I can't mention the curse. To perform a ritual. I escaped. That's all.
A ritual? Caspian's voice is dangerously quiet. What kind of ritual?
I can't answer that. Not without revealing everything.
The guard who spoke earlier clears his throat. Your Majesty, the bodies are still warm. They were killed within the last hour. And this servant was found covered in blood at the exact time of death.
My father, still leaning against a wall for support, speaks up weakly. My daughter is innocent. I was there. I saw everything. These people kidnapped me to lure her here. They wanted to use her magic for
Silence, Caspian orders. You're a disgraced noble with no credibility. Your testimony means nothing.
My father flinches like he's been slapped. He deserves it, honestly. But it still hurts to watch.
Search her, Caspian commands.
Guards grab me roughly. One finds the knife in my boot covered in my father's blood from cutting his ropes. Another finds residual magic on my hands from the teleportation spell.
It looks so, so bad.
The knife has blood on it, a guard reports.
I used it to cut my father's ropes! I protest.
Or to kill ten people, the guard counters.
I want to scream. This is the trial all over again. Evidence that looks damning. No one believing me. No way to prove the truth.
Caspian studies me for a long moment. Something flickers in his cold eyes confusion, maybe? Like a memory trying to surface.
Take her to the dungeon, he finally says. And the father too. They'll be tried at dawn.
No! I struggle against the guards, but they're too strong. Please, Your Majesty, just listen
I said enough. His voice could freeze fire.
As the guards drag me away, I catch one last glimpse of the message written in blood.
The curse must be broken. The temporal mage must die. Dawn will fall.
Someone wants me dead. Someone powerful enough to kill ten temple members and frame me for it. Someone who knows about the curse and wants to break it.
Lucian and Morgana escaped. They probably killed their own allies to cover their tracks and frame me at the same time.
And it worked perfectly.
The guards throw me and my father into separate cells in the dungeon. Mine is cold and dark, with only a small barred window high on the wall.
I pace back and forth, my mind racing. I have until dawn to figure out how to prove my innocence. That's maybe five hours.
But I'm locked in a cell with no magic left I used it all on the teleportation spell. No allies. No evidence.
I'm going to be executed at dawn. For real this time.
Sera? My father's voice comes from the cell next to mine, weak and broken. I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. If I hadn't disowned you at the trial
Why did you? I interrupt. The question I've been too afraid to ask. Why did you choose them over me?
Silence. Then: They threatened your mother's life.
I freeze. What?
Your mother, he says, voice cracking. She's been sick for months. A curse placed on her by someone in the temple. They told me if I didn't publicly disown you, they'd kill her. I thought... I thought if I obeyed, they'd leave our family alone. I thought I was protecting you by pushing you away.
My throat tightens. Where is she now?
Hidden. In a safe house outside the city. But if I die, the protection spell dies with me. She'll... He can't finish.
So that's why he disowned me. Not because he wanted to. Because he was trying to save my mother.
I'm getting us out of here, I say firmly. Both of us. And then we're saving her.
How? You're powerless. We're locked up. We're going to
A sound interrupts him. Footsteps in the hallway outside our cells.
I press myself against the bars, trying to see who's coming.
A hooded figure appears, carrying a torch. They stop in front of my cell.
Step back from the door, a woman's voice orders.
I recognize it. Elira. The archivist.
I step back, and she unlocks my cell with a key that shouldn't exist only guards have dungeon keys.
How did you I start.
No time for questions. She grabs my arm and pulls me out. We have exactly three minutes before the guards change shifts. Move.
She unlocks my father's cell too. He stumbles out, looking as confused as I feel.
Why are you helping us? I ask as she leads us through a secret passage I didn't know existed.
Because someone needs to protect the Emperor from himself, Elira says cryptically. And you're the only one who can do it.
We emerge in a hidden room filled with books and scrolls. Elira lights more torches, and I see we're in some kind of secret archive.
This is my real library, she explains. The one upstairs is for show. This is where I keep the truth. She pulls out a red leather journal and hands it to me. Read this. Quickly.
I open it and recognize the handwriting immediately. It's the same messy script from the note Caspian slipped me in my cell that first night.
These are his journals. Night Caspian's journals.
I flip through pages and pages of entries. Hundreds of them. All documenting his mortal hours. His fears. His loneliness. His desperate attempts to figure out who's trying to kill him.
The most recent entry is from last night before I met him at the tower.
Found her. The temporal mage. Sera Ashlyn. She's the key to everything. The curse. The assassination attempts. The temple's plan. I need her to trust me. But how do I make her trust someone who sentenced her to death? Someone who won't even remember her in the morning?
My hands shake. He knew. Night Caspian knew I was important before we even met at the tower.
Keep reading, Elira urges.
I turn to an entry from three days ago:
Discovered the truth about the curse. It can only be broken by a temporal mage's willing sacrifice. But there's another way. A loophole the temple doesn't know about. If the mage and the cursed one share their magic through a blood bond, the curse splits between them. Both become semi mortal. Both share the burden. Neither dies.
A blood bond. That's the answer. That's how to break the curse without killing either of us.
But Lucian and Morgana don't know about this. They think the only way is through sacrifice. That's why they need me alive for now.
There's more, Elira says, flipping to a marked page.
This entry is from a week ago:
The day self-suspects something. He keeps having dreams about a girl he doesn't know. Keeps feeling drawn to someone he can't remember. The curse is breaking down. Soon, the two halves will start to merge. When that happens, I'll remember everything. But I'll also lose control. The transformation will become random. Unpredictable. Deadly. I'm running out of time.
I look up at Elira. The curse is failing?
Degrading, she corrects. Which means the Emperor is becoming more vulnerable every day. And whoever's trying to kill him knows it.
My father speaks up weakly. If the curse is degrading, what happens if it breaks completely without the proper ritual?
Elira's expression darkens. He dies. Immediately. His immortal body can't handle the shock of becoming fully mortal all at once. It would kill him in seconds.
Oh gods.
How long does he have? I whisper.
According to the signs I've been tracking? Elira checks a chart on the wall. Two days. Maybe three if he's lucky.
The same timeline Night Caspian told me. He wasn't just talking about the assassin. He was talking about the curse itself killing him.
Can the blood bond ritual save him? I ask desperately.
If performed correctly, yes. But it requires both parties to consent willingly. And it must be done during his mortal hours when he can actually bleed. Elira looks at me intently. Can you convince Day Caspian to trust you enough to perform a blood ritual with you when he doesn't even remember why he needs to?
I have no idea. Day Caspian thinks I'm a murderer. He won't even listen to me, let alone trust me with his life.
Unless...
What if I can prove I didn't kill those people? I say slowly. What if I can find the real killer?
In two days? My father looks skeptical.
I have to try.
Elira nods approvingly. Good. Then you'll need this. She hands me a small vial of silver liquid. Temporal tracking potion. Pour it on the blood message in the chamber, and it'll show you who really wrote it. Their magical signature will appear.
Hope sparks in my chest. This can prove my innocence?
If you survive long enough to use it. Elira glances at the door. The guards will discover you're missing in about thirty seconds. You need to
The door bursts open.
Guards flood in, swords drawn.
And behind them, Emperor Caspian himself.
His cold eyes find me immediately, and I see something in them I've never seen before.
Rage.
So, he says, voice deadly quiet. Not only are you a murderer, but you've also corrupted my archivist and escaped custody. Is there any crime you won't commit?
Your Majesty, if you would just listen Elira starts.
You're relieved of duty, he tells her. Effective immediately. Guards, arrest her too.
No! I step forward. She was trying to help me prove my innocence. Please, just let me show you
I reach for the vial of tracking potion, but a guard knocks it from my hand.
It shatters on the floor. The silver liquid spills and evaporates instantly.
My only evidence. Gone.
Caspian looks at the broken vial, then back at me. Attempting to destroy evidence now?
That wasn't evidence of my guilt! I shout. It was evidence of my innocence! It would have shown you who really killed those people!
Enough lies. He gestures to the guards. Take all three of them to the throne room. The trial begins now. Not at dawn. Now.
As guards grab me, Elira manages to whisper in my ear: The journal. Page forty seven. Read it before the trial.
They drag us away before I can ask what she means.
In the chaos, I manage to stuff the journal inside my shirt, hidden against my skin.
We're taken to the throne room where nobles have been hastily assembled. Lucian and Morgana stand in the front row, looking perfectly innocent and concerned.
They set this whole thing up. I'm sure of it.
Caspian takes his throne, and his cold gaze sweeps over me.
Sera Ashlyn, he begins formally. You are accused of mass murder, conspiracy against the crown, and corruption of royal officials. How do you plead?
This is it. My last chance.
I could plead guilty and beg for mercy. I could stay silent. I could scream the truth about the curse and hope someone believes me.
But instead, I look the Emperor directly in the eyes and say clearly:
I plead innocent. And I can prove it. But first, you need to read something.
I pull out the journal and hold it up.
Caspian's eyes widen. Just for a second, shock breaks through his icy mask.
Because he recognizes it.
Somehow, impossibly, Day Caspian recognizes his own journal.
Where did you get that? he demands, voice shaking slightly.
You gave it to me, I say. Last night. You told me to read it. You told me I was the only one who could help you.
The courtroom erupts in whispers.
Caspian stares at the journal like it's a ghost.
That's impossible, he whispers. I've never seen that journal before in my life.
But his hand is trembling.
Because somewhere deep in his mind, buried under the curse's memory blocks, he knows.
He knows I'm telling the truth.
Read page forty seven, I say desperately. Please. Just read it.
Caspian hesitates. Then he gestures for a guard to bring him the journal.
He opens it to page forty seven.
His face goes completely white.
What is it, Your Majesty? Lucian asks, trying to sound concerned but I can hear the panic in his voice.
Caspian doesn't answer. He just stares at the page, his hands shaking harder.
Then he looks up at me, and for the first time, his cold mask cracks completely.
How, he whispers, do you know my mother's name?