Seraphina's POV
"Kill the old man first."
Morganna's command was casual, like she was ordering tea instead of murder. Her witches raised their hands, dark magic swirling toward Elder Aramis.
"NO!" I screamed, struggling against my magical chains.
But Aramis moved faster than seemed possible for someone so old. He slammed his staff into the ground, and a wave of pure silver light exploded outward, throwing the witches backward like leaves in a storm.
"You forget, Morganna," Aramis said, his voice rumbling with power, "that I am not just any sage. I am the Guardian of the Sanctum. And in this place, YOUR magic means NOTHING."
The entire sanctuary began to glow with ancient runes that appeared on every surface—walls, floor, ceiling. The light intensified until it was almost blinding.
Morganna's confident smile faltered. "Impossible. The old wards should be—"
"Stronger than ever," Aramis interrupted. "Did you really think I'd let them fade after five hundred years?" He gestured, and the chains binding us shattered like glass. "Run! All of you! I'll hold her off!"
Kaelith's frozen body suddenly moved—the restraint spell breaking under Aramis's power. He immediately shifted into dragon form, his massive body filling half the sanctuary.
"I'm not leaving you to fight her alone!" Kaelith roared.
"You must! The girl is dying!" Aramis blocked a dark curse from Morganna, sweat beading on his forehead. "She has four hours left! Get her to the Heart Chamber—deep in the mountain! There's another way to save her, but you must hurry!"
"What other way?" I gasped, trying to stand but my legs wouldn't hold me. The death curse was getting stronger, black veins now covering half my face.
"No time to explain!" Aramis's staff blazed with light as he fought off three witches at once. "Go! NOW!"
Kaelith scooped me up in his claws while Darius grabbed Lyria. The other warriors took defensive positions around us.
"This isn't over, Dragon King!" Morganna shrieked, her eyes burning with rage. "I will have her blood! I will free my master! You cannot stop destiny!"
"Watch me," Kaelith snarled, then we burst through the broken wall and into the night sky.
We flew deeper into the mountain, following passages that seemed to open before us—Aramis's magic guiding us even from a distance. Behind us, explosions rocked the sanctuary. The battle between the ancient sage and the dark witch was tearing the mountain apart.
"Here!" Darius called out, spotting a massive opening in the rock face. "The Heart Chamber!"
We dove inside and landed in a cavern so beautiful it took my breath away. Crystals the size of houses grew from every surface, glowing with soft rainbow light. In the center of the chamber was a pool of water that shimmered like liquid moonlight.
"What is this place?" Lyria whispered in awe.
"The Heart of the Mountain," a familiar voice answered.
We spun around to find Aramis standing there, leaning heavily on his staff, bleeding from multiple wounds. He'd escaped Morganna somehow.
"How did you—" Kaelith started.
"I'm old, not stupid. Left a portal for myself." Aramis stumbled toward the pool, wincing. "But Morganna won't be far behind. We have maybe ten minutes before she breaks through my remaining wards."
He gestured to the glowing pool. "This is the Heart Pool—the source of all magical energy in these mountains. Legend says it was created by the first Lunaris priestess as a gift to future generations."
My mother's necklace, still hanging around my neck, began to glow in response to the pool.
"The death curse can be broken here without severing your Lunaris connection," Aramis explained quickly. "But it requires you to face your deepest fear and overcome it. The pool will pull you into a vision—a nightmare made real. If you can survive it and find the truth hidden within, the curse will break. But if you fail..." He didn't need to finish.
"How do we know this will work?" Kaelith demanded.
"We don't." Aramis coughed, blood on his lips. "But it's the only option left. The pool or death. Choose quickly—she's coming."
I could hear it now—Morganna's witches blasting through the mountain, getting closer every second.
"Do it," I said, meeting Kaelith's eyes. "I trust you. Whatever happens in there, I trust you to bring me back."
"Seraphina—"
"Please." I touched his face gently. "Let me try to save myself without losing everything."
He held my gaze for a long moment, then nodded. "I'm coming in with you."
"What?" Everyone said it at once.
"The pool allows it," Aramis confirmed. "But it's dangerous. You'll both face your worst nightmares together. If either of you breaks, you both die."
"I don't care." Kaelith lifted me in his arms, his human form strong and steady. "We face this together or not at all."
Before anyone could argue, he walked straight into the glowing pool with me in his arms.
The water was warm and felt alive, wrapping around us like silk. The world dissolved into light—
And then we were somewhere else.
I opened my eyes to find myself standing in the grand ballroom from my engagement party.
No. Not again. Not this nightmare.
But it was worse than memory. This time, I watched Elena expose me as a bastard over and over again, an endless loop of humiliation. Each repetition hurt more than the last.
"This is your fear," a voice whispered through the nightmare—not Kaelith's voice, but something older. "Public shame. Being revealed as worthless. Losing everything."
"I know!" I shouted at the empty ballroom. "I've already lived through this! I've already survived it!"
"Have you?" The voice asked. "Or are you still that broken girl who believed she deserved to be thrown away?"
The scene shifted.
Now I was in Kaelith's throne room, but he was looking at me with disgust. "You're nothing," he said coldly. "Just a human who got lucky. You think I could ever love something as weak as you?"
"This isn't real," I said, even as my heart cracked. "He doesn't think that."
"Doesn't he?" The voice pressed. "You took his death curse. You're losing your powers. Soon you'll be ordinary again—just a plain human with nothing special to offer. Why would a Dragon King want you then?"
Tears streamed down my face because part of me feared that was true.
"I'm not worthless," I whispered. "I'm not."
"Prove it," the voice challenged. "Face the deepest truth you've been hiding from yourself."
The nightmare shifted again, and this time I saw my mother.
She stood in a meadow filled with moonflowers, smiling at me with such love it hurt.
"Mama?" My voice broke.
"My sweet girl," she said gently. "You've been running from the truth your whole life."
"What truth?"
"That you were never the mistake they said you were." Her eyes glowed with silver light—Lunaris light. "I was a priestess, Seraphina. I chose to fall in love with your father knowing it would cost me everything. I chose to have you knowing I wouldn't live to raise you. Because you were destined for something greater than either of us could imagine."
"You died giving birth to me," I sobbed. "If you hadn't had me—"
"I would have died anyway. The dark forces hunting Lunaris didn't care if I bore children or not. At least this way, I left something beautiful behind." She touched my face tenderly. "Stop carrying guilt that isn't yours. Stop believing you have to earn the right to exist. You ARE enough, my daughter. You always were."
The words broke something open inside me—all the years of believing I was a burden, a mistake, something to be ashamed of.
"I'm enough," I whispered.
"Say it louder," my mother encouraged.
"I'm ENOUGH!" I shouted, and the nightmare shattered like glass.
I found myself in a different nightmare—Kaelith's nightmare.
I was seeing through his eyes, watching his family die at the peace summit. The screams, the blood, the betrayal. He was just a young dragon, barely able to fight, watching everyone he loved murdered by people they'd trusted.
The pain was overwhelming—not just physical, but emotional. The guilt of surviving when they didn't. The rage at his own helplessness. The crushing loneliness that followed.
"This is what I carry every day," Kaelith's voice surrounded me. "The knowledge that I failed them. That I wasn't strong enough to save anyone."
"It wasn't your fault," I called out into the nightmare. "You were young! You did everything you could!"
"Did I?" His pain was a living thing, suffocating. "Or did I survive because I was a coward who ran instead of dying with honor?"
"You survived because you were MEANT to survive!" I shouted. "So you could become the king your people needed! So you could protect others the way you couldn't protect them!"
The nightmare wavered.
"I'm afraid," Kaelith's voice admitted, vulnerable in a way he'd never been before. "Afraid that everyone I care about will die. Afraid that if I let myself love again, I'll just watch it burn like before."
"I'm afraid too," I said honestly. "Afraid of being abandoned. Afraid of not being enough. But being afraid doesn't make us weak, Kaelith. It makes us human. Even dragons can be human where it counts—in the heart."
"I can't lose you," he whispered. "The thought of watching you die like I watched them die—it's the one nightmare I can't survive."
"Then don't watch me die," I said firmly. "Help me LIVE. Fight beside me. Trust me to be strong enough to stand with you, not behind you."
Light exploded through the nightmare.
We burst from the Heart Pool together, gasping and soaked.
The death curse was gone. The black veins had vanished from my skin completely. My Lunaris power thrummed through me, stronger than ever—not diminished, but enhanced by facing my fears.
"It worked," Aramis breathed in relief. "You did it. You both did."
Kaelith pulled me close, both of us trembling from the emotional intensity of what we'd just experienced. We'd seen each other's deepest fears, most painful memories, darkest insecurities.
And we'd survived together.
"I meant what I said in there," Kaelith murmured against my hair. "I can't lose you."
"You won't," I promised. "We're in this together now."
"How touching."
We spun around to find Morganna standing at the entrance to the Heart Chamber, her witches behind her. She looked battered and furious.
"Elder Aramis put up more of a fight than expected," she said, touching a burn on her face. "But nothing matters now. You've healed her curse, but you've also trapped yourselves. There's only one exit from this chamber, and I'm standing in it."
She smiled cruelly. "Surrender the Lunaris girl, or everyone dies. Your choice, Dragon King."
Before Kaelith could respond, the entire chamber began to shake violently. The crystals started cracking, their light flickering.
"What did you do?" Aramis's face went pale with horror. "Morganna, what did you DO?"
"Just a little insurance spell," she said casually. "If I couldn't have the girl peacefully, I'd collapse the entire mountain on your heads. The spell is already active. In five minutes, this whole place comes down."
"You'll die too!" Darius shouted.
"A small price to pay." Morganna's eyes burned with fanatical devotion. "Because even if the girl dies, her blood will soak into the earth, and my master can still use it to break his seal. Either way, I win."
The shaking intensified. Huge chunks of crystal fell from the ceiling.
"We need to evacuate!" one of the warriors yelled.
"We can't!" Aramis pointed to the entrance where Morganna stood. "She's blocking the only way out with a barrier spell! We're trapped!"
Everyone looked at me—the only one whose power might be strong enough to break through.
But I was exhausted from breaking the curse. I had maybe one big surge of power left in me.
One chance.
Use it to break Morganna's barrier and save everyone.
Or use it to stop the mountain's collapse.
I couldn't do both.
"Seraphina," Kaelith said urgently. "What do we do?"
I looked at the crumbling chamber, at Lyria's terrified face, at the warriors who'd risked everything to protect me, at Kaelith who'd faced his worst nightmares for me.
And I made my choice.
I thrust my hands toward the ceiling, golden-white light exploding from my palms, pouring everything I had into stabilizing the mountain.
The shaking stopped. The crystals stopped falling. The chamber held.
But I'd used all my power.
I had nothing left to break Morganna's barrier.
We were still trapped.
Morganna's smile was victorious. "You saved them from the collapse. How noble. And how stupid." She raised her hands, dark magic swirling. "Now you're powerless to stop me from taking what I want."
She was right.
I'd saved everyone from the mountain.
But I'd doomed us to Morganna instead.
"Well," Kaelith said grimly, moving to stand between Morganna and me, "if we're going to die, we're taking you with us."
His body began to shift into dragon form—
And then something impossible happened.
The Heart Pool behind us erupted with brilliant silver light.
A figure rose from the water—translucent and glowing, but unmistakably real.
My mother.
Not a vision this time. Not a nightmare.
Actually there.
"Hello, Morganna," my mother's spirit said, her voice echoing with ancient power. "Did you really think the first Lunaris priestess wouldn't leave protection for her descendants?"
Morganna's face went white with terror. "No. You're dead. You've been dead for twenty-three years!"
"Dead, yes. Gone, no." My mother's spirit moved forward, and where she walked, moonflowers bloomed from stone. "I've been waiting in the Heart Pool, guarding it, watching over my daughter until she was ready."
She looked at me with such love. "And now she is."
"Ready for what?" I whispered.
"To receive my final gift." She reached out, and her translucent hand passed through my chest—not painfully, but warmly. "The full power of the Lunaris bloodline. Everything I was, everything our ancestors were, I give to you now."
Power flooded into me—not just healing power, but something far greater. Knowledge of ancient spells, combat techniques, the ability to command the very elements themselves.
I was no longer just a healer.
I was a Lunaris warrior-priestess at full power.
"No!" Morganna shrieked, attacking with everything she had.
But I was ready.
I raised my hand and her dark magic simply... stopped. Frozen in mid-air, held by my will alone.
"You wanted my blood?" I said, my voice echoing with power that wasn't entirely my own. "Here's the problem with that plan. Lunaris blood doesn't just heal or break seals."
I stepped forward, and Morganna backed away in fear.
"It destroys darkness itself."
I released the frozen magic, but reversed—sending it back at Morganna tenfold. The dark witch screamed as her own curse consumed her, burning away the dark magic that had sustained her for centuries.
When the light faded, Morganna looked... normal. Old. Powerless.
Just a woman, stripped of everything that made her dangerous.
"My power," she whimpered, staring at her hands. "What did you do?"
"I cleansed you," I said simply. "Your dark magic is gone forever. You're human now. Mortal. Ordinary."
For someone like Morganna, it was a fate worse than death.
Her witches, seeing their leader defeated, fled through the now-broken barrier.
"It's over," Kaelith said, pulling me into his arms. "You did it. You actually did it."
But my mother's spirit shook her head sadly.
"This battle is over, yes. But Morganna was just a servant." She looked at me gravely. "Elena still has the Eclipse Stone. And the Shadow King is still trapped, waiting to be freed. Your real battle hasn't even begun yet, my daughter."
"Then I'll face it," I said firmly. "Whatever comes, I'll face it."
My mother smiled proudly. "I know you will. You're stronger than I ever was." Her form began to fade, returning to the pool. "Remember—you are Lunaris. You are loved. And you are never alone."
She disappeared, leaving only moonflowers floating on the water.
I collapsed against Kaelith, suddenly exhausted again.
"We need to go," Aramis said quietly. "Elena's deadline is in two days. We need to stop her before she activates the Eclipse Stone."
"And rescue the Duchess," Lyria added. "If she's still alive."
"She is," I said with certainty. "I can feel it somehow. Elena is keeping her alive as bait."
Kaelith looked down at me. "Can you fly?"
"Give me five minutes to rest," I said. "Then we fly to the human kingdom. We end this."
As we prepared to leave the Heart Chamber, I looked back at the pool one last time.
"Thank you, Mama," I whispered.
And I swear I heard her voice one final time:
"Make them regret ever underestimating you."