Seraphina's POV
Pain.
That was the first thing I felt when consciousness returned—pain so intense it felt like my blood was boiling inside my veins.
"She's waking up!" Lyria's voice, panicked and relieved.
I forced my eyes open to find myself lying on soft furs in what looked like a cave. Firelight flickered on stone walls, and I could hear wind howling outside.
"Where..." My voice came out as a croak.
"Easy." Kaelith appeared above me, his golden eyes tight with worry. "Don't try to move. The death curse is still active in your system."
Memories flooded back—the witch's attack, taking the curse meant for Kaelith, the agony of dark magic tearing through me.
"How long was I out?" I managed to ask.
"Six hours. We've been flying non-stop." He pressed a water skin to my lips. "We're halfway to Elder Aramis's sanctuary. We stopped here only because you needed water and the warriors needed rest."
I tried to sit up but gasped as pain lanced through my body. Black veins crawled up my arms like spider webs, pulsing with dark energy.
"It's spreading faster," I whispered.
Kaelith's jaw clenched. "I know. Which is why we're leaving in ten minutes, rest or no rest."
"My King," Darius appeared at the cave entrance, his expression grave. "We have a problem."
"What now?" Kaelith growled.
"We're being followed. A group of at least twenty witches, maybe more. They're tracking us somehow." Darius glanced at me. "I think they're tracking her. The curse is like a beacon."
Horror washed over me. "If they catch up to us while we're trying to reach Aramis—"
"They won't catch us." Kaelith's voice was absolute. "I'll die before I let them take you."
"That's what I'm afraid of," I said quietly. "You're risking everything for me. Your warriors, your kingdom, your own life—"
"You took a death curse for me!" His voice rose with barely contained emotion. "You think I'm going to abandon you now? You think I'd—" He stopped, taking a deep breath to calm himself. When he spoke again, his voice was softer but no less intense. "You're mine, Seraphina. I protect what's mine."
Before I could respond, one of the dragon warriors rushed into the cave.
"My King! The witches—they're closer than we thought! Maybe an hour behind, moving fast!"
Kaelith cursed. "Everyone up. We leave now."
"But the warriors haven't rested—" Darius started.
"NOW!" Kaelith's command echoed through the cave.
As dragons scrambled to prepare for flight, Lyria helped me sit up. Every movement sent fresh waves of agony through my body.
"Miss, you're burning up," Lyria whispered, her hand on my forehead. "The fever's getting worse."
I could feel it. The curse was eating me alive from the inside, spreading like poison through my veins. The black marks on my skin were proof—they'd spread from my arms to my neck, creeping toward my face.
Kaelith swept me up in his arms again, his touch surprisingly gentle despite his urgency. "Hold on to me. This next flight is going to be rough."
We emerged from the cave into the pre-dawn darkness. Mountains stretched endlessly in every direction, peaks shrouded in mist.
Kaelith shifted into his dragon form, but kept me cradled carefully against his chest between his claws. The other warriors shifted too, forming a protective formation around us.
"If anything happens," Kaelith's voice rumbled in my mind—dragon telepathy, I realized with wonder—"if the witches catch up, I want you to remember something."
"What?" I thought back.
"You're stronger than you know. Your Lunaris power—it can do more than heal. It can destroy. If I fall, if we all fall, don't hold back. Use everything you have to survive."
"I won't let you fall."
"Stubborn woman," he said, but I felt warmth in his mental voice. "That's one of the things I love about you."
My heart stuttered. Love?
Before I could process that, we launched into the sky.
The flight was brutal. Kaelith flew faster than before, pushing his body to its limits. The wind screamed past us, so cold it numbed my face. Behind us, I could see dark shapes pursuing—the witches on some kind of flying creatures.
"They're gaining!" Darius called out through the mental link all the dragons shared.
"I know!" Kaelith's wings beat harder. "We need to reach the Sanctum Peaks before they catch us. Aramis's territory is protected—the witches can't follow us there."
"How far?" I asked weakly.
"Too far." His mental voice was grim. "At this rate, they'll catch us before we make it."
As if to prove his point, a blast of dark magic screamed past us, barely missing Kaelith's wing.
"They're in range!" one of the warriors shouted. "My King, we need to fight!"
"No! Keep flying!" Kaelith commanded. "Fighting will slow us down. We push through!"
More dark magic blasts filled the air. One struck a warrior behind us, and I heard his scream as he fell from the sky.
"No!" I tried to turn, tried to see if he survived, but Kaelith held me firm.
"Don't look. Focus on staying alive."
Another blast. Another warrior fell.
The witches were picking us off one by one.
"My King, we can't keep running!" Darius's voice was desperate. "We have to make a stand!"
Kaelith's massive dragon heart pounded against my body. I could feel his internal struggle—keep running and watch his warriors die, or stop and fight with me as vulnerable cargo.
"There!" One of the warriors called out. "A canyon up ahead! We could lose them in there!"
I looked ahead and saw it—a massive canyon with walls so steep and narrow it looked like the mountain had been split in half. Mist filled the bottom, making it impossible to see how deep it went.
"That's the Shadowfang Canyon," Darius said, fear in his mental voice. "My King, we can't go in there. The stories say it's cursed, that creatures live in the mist that—"
"I don't care about stories!" Kaelith banked hard toward the canyon. "We're going in! Follow me or stay behind!"
We dove into the canyon.
Immediately, everything changed. The temperature dropped thirty degrees. The mist wrapped around us like living hands, cold and clammy. And the light—what little pre-dawn light there had been—disappeared completely.
We were flying blind.
"Stay close!" Kaelith commanded. "Don't lose formation!"
Behind us, I heard the witches screech in anger as they followed us into the canyon. But their sounds were getting fainter—the mist seemed to muffle everything.
We flew deeper, navigating by instinct more than sight. The canyon walls pressed close on either side, so narrow that Kaelith had to fly with his wings half-folded.
Then I heard it.
A sound that made my blood freeze.
Whispers.
Thousands of whispers echoing through the mist, speaking in a language I didn't know but somehow understood.
"Turn back... turn back... death awaits... turn back..."
"What is that?" Lyria's voice was high with panic. She was riding on Darius's back.
"I don't know," Kaelith admitted. "But whatever it is, it's better than the witches."
He was wrong.
Something massive moved in the mist below us—a shadow darker than the darkness, huge enough to block out everything else.
"UP!" Kaelith roared. "EVERYONE UP!"
We shot upward just as something enormous burst from the mist—a creature I couldn't fully see but felt in my bones was ancient and hungry.
It missed us by inches, its passage creating a wind that nearly knocked the other dragons out of the sky.
"What was that?!" one of the warriors screamed.
"Keep moving!" Kaelith pushed harder, weaving between the canyon walls.
More shapes moved in the mist. More whispers filled the air. And behind us, the witches' screeches had stopped completely—had the creatures gotten them? Or were they smart enough to turn back?
"There!" Darius called out. "Light ahead! The canyon exit!"
We could see it—a bright opening where the canyon ended, sunlight streaming through.
We were going to make it.
Then the death curse chose that moment to surge.
Pain exploded through my body, so intense I screamed. The black veins spread across my face, over my eyes, making everything go dark. My Lunaris power flared uncontrollably, golden light bursting from my body in waves.
"Seraphina!" Kaelith's mental voice was panicked. "Hold on! Just hold on!"
But I couldn't. The curse and my power were fighting inside me, tearing me apart from within.
Through my fading consciousness, I felt Kaelith's body jerk—my uncontrolled power was hurting him, burning him.
"My King, you have to let her go!" Darius shouted. "Her power is out of control! She's going to kill you!"
"NEVER!" Kaelith roared back.
But he was faltering. I could feel it. My power was too much, the curse was too strong, and we were still flying through a cursed canyon filled with monsters.
We weren't going to make it.
"I'm sorry," I whispered through the mental link, putting everything I had into the words. "I'm so sorry."
Then I did the only thing I could think of.
I let go.
I released my grip on Kaelith's scales and let myself fall.
"NO!" His roar shook the canyon.
I plummeted into the mist, into the darkness, away from him so my power wouldn't kill him.
As I fell, I saw him dive after me, saw him reach out with his claws—
And then something grabbed me from below.
Not the monsters.
Something else.
Arms that glowed with soft silver light, catching me gently.
A voice, ancient and kind, spoke directly into my mind:
"Peace, child of Lunaris. You are safe now."
I looked up into the face of my rescuer and gasped.
An old man with a long white beard and eyes that literally glowed silver. He was floating in the air somehow, holding me effortlessly, smiling with infinite kindness.
"Elder Aramis," I breathed.
"The same." His smile widened. "Though I must say, you chose quite the dramatic way to arrive at my sanctuary. Most visitors use the front door."
Above us, Kaelith crashed through the mist in his dragon form, wild with panic.
"She's here!" Aramis called up calmly. "Safe and sound! Well, mostly sound. The death curse is quite nasty, but nothing we can't handle."
Kaelith shifted to human form mid-air, landing on a invisible platform beside us. His face was a mess of relief and fury.
"You let go," he said, his voice shaking. "You let yourself fall."
"You were going to die holding me," I whispered. "I couldn't let that happen."
He pulled me from Aramis's arms into his own, crushing me against his chest. "Don't ever do that again. Ever."
"I can't promise that," I said honestly.
"Then I'll just have to make sure you never get the chance." He kissed my forehead, my cheeks, my lips—desperate kisses that tasted like fear and relief.
Aramis cleared his throat politely. "As touching as this is, the child is still dying. Perhaps we could continue the romance after we save her life?"
Kaelith nodded, not letting me go. "How much time does she have?"
Aramis's expression turned grave. "Less than I'd like. The curse is in its final stages. We need to begin treatment immediately, or..." He trailed off.
"Or what?" Lyria asked, having landed on Darius's back nearby.
"Or the curse will consume her completely in the next six hours. And if that happens..." Aramis looked at me with deep sadness. "Not even I can bring her back from death."
Six hours.
That's all the time I had left.
"Then let's not waste a second," Kaelith said firmly. "What do you need?"
"Follow me." Aramis gestured, and suddenly the mist parted, revealing a hidden path that led up the canyon wall to a sanctuary carved into the mountainside. "But I must warn you—breaking a death curse isn't like healing a wound. It requires a sacrifice."
"What kind of sacrifice?" I asked weakly.
Aramis looked between Kaelith and me, his ancient eyes sad.
"The kind that changes everything," he said cryptically. "The kind that will test whether your bond is strong enough to survive what's coming."
We followed him up the path, but dread filled my heart.
What kind of sacrifice was he talking about?
And why did I have the terrible feeling that saving my life was going to cost us something we couldn't afford to lose?