Draeven's POV
Morganna's dark magic slams into me like a physical blow.
I throw myself in front of Seraphina's bed, my dragon rising instantly to the surface. Golden scales ripple across my arms as I create a shield of fire between us and the witch in the doorway.
"You dare attack your king?" I roar.
Morganna laughs, and the sound makes my skin crawl. "King? You're a fool playing at power, Draeven Nightflame. You've had the key to the prophecy in your dungeon for a month, and you still don't understand what she is."
Behind me, I hear Seraphina gasp. She's awake. Good. I need her conscious for what's coming.
"Guards!" I shout, but no footsteps answer. The hallway outside is silent. Too silent.
Morganna steps into the room, her black cloak swirling. "I sent them away. This conversation is private." She looks past me to Seraphina. "Hello, my sweet girl. Did you miss me?"
"You sold me," Seraphina's voice shakes with rage and pain. "You gave me to him to die!"
"I gave you to him to live," Morganna corrects. "The prophecy required your death by the Dragon King's hand. But you can't die, can you? Such a beautiful curse I placed on you all those years ago."
My blood turns to ice. "You cursed her?"
"When she was twelve years old," Morganna says proudly. "The whole village plague? That was me. I needed everyone dead except her. I needed her to become immortal, hated, and alone. I needed her to suffer for two centuries until the time was right."
Seraphina makes a choking sound behind me. I want to turn to her, but I can't take my eyes off Morganna.
"Why?" I demand.
"Because immortality isn't free, Your Majesty. It must be earned through suffering. Every year she lived while others died, every betrayal she endured, every moment of loneliness—it all fed into her power." Morganna's eyes gleam with hunger. "And now, after 247 years, she's finally ripe for harvesting."
I move before thinking, lunging at Morganna with dragon fire coating my hands. But she vanishes in a puff of black smoke, reappearing across the room.
"Temper, temper," she tsks. "I'm not here to fight you, Dragon King. I'm here to make a deal."
"I don't deal with witches." The words taste like ash in my mouth. Lyria's face flashes through my mind—another witch who betrayed me.
"Not even to save your precious kingdom?" Morganna waves her hand, and images appear in the air like smoke. My palace. My people. All of them frozen like statues. "One word from me, and they all die. Every dragon in your court. Your brother Kael. Your servants. Everyone."
My heart stops. "You're bluffing."
"Am I?" She smiles. "Test me."
I can't. I can't risk it.
"What do you want?" The words rip from my throat.
"Simple. Give me Seraphina. Let me complete my ritual. In exchange, I'll break the spell on your people and leave your kingdom in peace." Morganna looks at Seraphina like she's a piece of meat. "It will be painless, dear. You'll finally get the death you've been begging for."
"No." The word comes from Seraphina.
We both turn to look at her. She's standing now, her silver eyes blazing with power. She looks different than the broken girl I've been executing. She looks dangerous.
"I said no," Seraphina repeats, stronger this time. "I'm done being your sacrifice. I'm done being everyone's problem to solve."
Morganna's face darkens. "You ungrateful little—"
"I was twelve years old!" Seraphina screams, and the windows rattle. "You killed my family! You killed everyone I knew! You made me watch them die while you pretended to comfort me!"
Power rolls off Seraphina in waves. The candles flare. The bed sheets ripple. I feel my dragon instinct screaming at me that she's not human, not witch, not anything I've ever encountered.
"What are you?" I whisper.
Seraphina looks at me, and for the first time, I see her clearly. Really see her. Not as the witch from the prophecy. Not as the creature I've been trying to kill. But as a woman who's been fighting alone for centuries.
"I don't know," she admits. "But I'm going to find out."
Morganna snarls. "You don't have a choice, child. The ritual is already in motion. Why do you think I let Draeven capture you in the first place? Why do you think I timed it for the Blood Moon? Everything has been leading to this moment."
She raises both hands, and the room fills with dark energy. My dragon roars a warning, but I'm too slow.
Black chains shoot from Morganna's palms, wrapping around Seraphina's wrists and neck. But these aren't normal chains—they're made of pure darkness, and where they touch Seraphina's skin, I see her life force being drained away.
Seraphina screams.
I move without thinking, throwing myself at Morganna again. This time I'm faster. My claws rake across her shoulder, drawing blood.
She hisses and stumbles back. "You choose the witch over your people? You're more of a fool than I thought!"
"I choose justice over murder," I growl. "There's a difference."
Something in my chest has shifted. Three hours ago, I wanted Seraphina dead. I've spent a month trying to kill her. But watching Morganna drain her life, seeing the truth of what was done to her—
This isn't justice. This was never justice.
This was just another powerful person using someone weak for their own gain.
And I'm done being part of it.
Morganna's eyes widen as she realizes what's happening. "No. No, you can't—the prophecy says—"
"I don't care what the prophecy says," I interrupt. "If fate wants me destroyed, it'll have to work harder than sending a woman who's already been destroyed enough."
I reach for the black chains on Seraphina and grab them with my bare hands. They burn like ice and fire together, trying to drain my life too. But I'm the Dragon King. I've survived three centuries of assassination attempts.
I can survive this.
With a roar that shakes the palace, I rip the chains apart.
Seraphina collapses into my arms, gasping. Her silver eyes meet mine, full of shock and something else. Something that makes my frozen heart crack just a little.
"Why?" she breathes.
I don't have an answer. I just know that killing her has felt wrong from the beginning, and I'm finally listening to that instinct.
Morganna screams in rage. "You've ruined everything! The ritual needed her willing death or your killing blow! Now neither is possible!"
"Good," I say flatly.
"You don't understand!" Morganna's face twists with desperation. "The ritual is the only thing holding back the Void! Without Seraphina's sacrifice, the ancient darkness will be unleashed! It will consume everything—dragons, witches, humans, all of it!"
My blood runs cold. "What?"
"The prophecy wasn't a warning about Seraphina destroying you," Morganna says, and now she's laughing like a mad woman. "It was a warning about what happens if she lives. She's the lock on a prison, Draeven. And by saving her, you've just opened the door."
The floor beneath us starts to crack.
Black smoke pours through the breaks in the stone, and I hear something moving in the darkness below. Something massive. Something ancient.
Something hungry.
Seraphina grabs my arm. "What did she do?"
Before I can answer, the entire palace shakes.
A roar echoes from deep underground—a sound that doesn't belong to any dragon I've ever known.
Morganna backs toward the window, still laughing. "Three days, Dragon King. You have three days before the Void breaks free completely. Find another way to seal it, or watch everything you love burn."
She jumps through the window and disappears.
I run to look out, but she's gone.
Behind me, Seraphina's breathing is ragged. "Draeven, what is the Void?"
I close my eyes, remembering stories my father told me before he died. Legends I thought were just myths to scare children.
"The Void is the thing that existed before dragons, before witches, before anything," I say slowly. "It's the darkness that wants to swallow all light. My ancestors and the ancient witches worked together to trap it deep in the earth, sealed by blood magic."
"Sealed by my blood," Seraphina whispers.
I turn to face her. "We need to find out exactly what you are. Because if Morganna's telling the truth—"
Another roar shakes the palace. Closer this time.
"—we have three days to save the world."
Seraphina looks at me with wide eyes. "I don't know how to save the world. I can't even save myself."
"Then we'll figure it out together," I say, surprised by my own words.
She stares at me like I've grown a second head. "Together? You've been trying to kill me for a month!"
"That was before I knew you were the only thing standing between us and complete destruction." I hold out my hand to her. "I'm not asking you to trust me. I'm asking you to survive with me. Can you do that?"
She looks at my hand for a long moment.
Then she takes it.
"Three days," she says.
"Three days," I agree.
The floor cracks wider, and more black smoke pours through.
We need to move. Now.
But as we run from the room, one thought keeps circling in my mind:
I just chose a witch over my kingdom.
My father would be ashamed.
So why does this feel like the first right thing I've done in three hundred years?