Caelan's POV
"No."
The word came out harsh, desperate. I grabbed Seraphina's shoulders, forcing her to look at me. "I won't let this happen. I WON'T lose you!"
"Caelan—" she started.
"Don't!" My voice cracked. "Don't say it's okay. Don't tell me to let go. I've spent five hundred years alone. I finally found you, and I'm not giving up!"
Through our fading bond, I felt her heartbreak mixing with mine. Only fifty minutes left before it disappeared completely. Before she forgot everything.
"There has to be a way," I said frantically. "Lyra! There's always a way! Some ancient spell, some forbidden magic—"
"I've been searching my mind for anything!" Lyra was crying too, flipping desperately through invisible magical texts only she could see. "But Caelan, the First Starborn didn't just take her power. She rewrote reality. Made it like Seraphina's magic never existed. There's no spell to undo that!"
"Then I'll make one!" I pulled Seraphina close. "I'm the Immortal King. I've learned magic for five centuries. I can—"
"You can't," Seraphina whispered against my chest. "Caelan, please. Don't make this harder."
"Harder?" I pushed her back to look at her face. "You're asking me to watch you forget me! Forget us! Go back to thinking you're nobody!"
"Maybe that's better!" Tears streamed down her face. "Maybe forgetting is mercy! At least I won't remember what I lost!"
"But I will!" The words exploded out of me. "I'll remember! Every second of these three days! Your laugh, your courage, your choice to save me even when you barely knew me! I'll remember all of it while you look at me like a stranger!"
She touched my face. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
I caught her hand, pressed it against my chest. "Feel that? My heart? It beats for you now. Only you. And when you forget, it'll still beat for you. Forever."
"Don't do this to me," she sobbed.
"I'm not doing anything. The universe is. And I HATE it!" I looked at the fading mark on her wrist. Forty minutes left. "Seraphina, please. Let me try something. Anything."
"Like what?"
An insane idea hit me. "What if I give you my memories?"
Lyra's head snapped up. "What?"
"Through the bond. Before it breaks completely. I'll pour every memory we made into your mind so deeply that even when you forget everything else, you'll remember us." I grabbed Seraphina's hands. "It might work!"
"Or it might kill her," Lyra said. "Forcing memories through a breaking bond could shatter her mind completely."
"I'll risk it," Seraphina said immediately.
"No!" Lyra blocked us. "I'm not letting you! Caelan, you're desperate, but this is suicide!"
"Then what do you suggest?" I roared. "Let her forget? Watch her wake up thinking she's still trapped in that palace with that monster of a family?"
"Yes!" Lyra shouted back. "Because at least she'll be ALIVE! She survived! She's mortal now, yes, but she can have a real life! Meet someone new! Be happy!"
"I don't want someone new!" Seraphina pushed past Lyra. "I want him!"
"You say that now! But in forty minutes, you won't even know who he is!"
The words hung in the air like poison.
Seraphina's face crumpled. "Lyra's right. This is cruel. We should say goodbye while I still remember who you are."
"No." I pulled her into my arms. "I'm not saying goodbye. I'll find a way to make you remember. I have eternity. I'll figure it out."
"And what if you can't?" Her voice was muffled against my chest. "What if I spend the rest of my life not knowing you exist?"
"Then I'll know for both of us." I tilted her chin up. "I'll watch over you. Protect you from the shadows. Make sure you're safe and happy even if you never know it's me."
"That's torture."
"That's love."
She kissed me then. Desperate and fierce and heartbreaking. I kissed her back, trying to memorize everything—the taste of her tears, the way she fit against me, the feeling of her soul still barely connected to mine.
When we finally pulled apart, only thirty minutes remained.
"There's something you should know," Seraphina said quietly. "Before I forget. The First Starborn... when she took my power, I felt something. Like she was hiding something."
"What do you mean?"
"I think she took more than just my magic. I think she took..." Seraphina pressed her hand to her chest. "Something here. Something important."
"Your memories," Lyra breathed. "She took them in advance. That's why the bond breaking will erase you completely. She already set it up!"
Horror washed over me. "Why would she do that?"
"I don't know!" Seraphina grabbed my hand. "But Caelan, listen. If I forget everything, if I go back to thinking I'm powerless... you have to promise me something."
"Anything."
"Don't tell me the truth. Don't try to make me remember." Her eyes were fierce. "Let me live a normal life. Find someone. Be happy. Please."
"I can't promise that."
"You have to!" She shook me. "Because if you don't, if you spend five hundred years pining for someone who doesn't remember you, you'll go mad! And I couldn't bear that even if I don't remember why!"
"Then I'll go mad," I said simply. "Because I'm not giving up on you. Not ever."
Twenty minutes left.
The mark on her wrist was almost completely gone.
Suddenly, Thorne burst into the chamber. "Your Majesty! There's someone here! She says she knows how to stop the memory loss!"
Hope exploded in my chest. "Who?"
"She won't say. She's wearing a hood. But she has magic unlike anything I've ever felt."
"Bring her here! NOW!"
Thorne ran. Seconds later, a hooded figure entered. She was tall, radiating power that made even me nervous.
"Who are you?" I demanded.
The figure lowered her hood.
It was Queen Vivienne. Seraphina's mother.
"You!" Seraphina lunged for her, but I held her back. "How DARE you show your face here!"
"I came to help," Vivienne said quietly. She looked different. Older. Powerless. Broken. "The First Starborn visited me. Told me what she'd done. And I realized..." Her voice cracked. "I realized I've been a monster."
"You think?" Seraphina spat.
"Let her speak," I said, though every instinct screamed to throw her out.
Vivienne pulled something from her robes. A crystal. But not empty—this one pulsed with silver light.
"What is that?" Lyra whispered.
"When I stole Seraphina's magic as a baby, I stored it in a crystal. The Void Eater shattered that crystal. But I had a backup." Vivienne's hands shook. "A small piece I kept hidden. Not much power. Just... a fragment."
"Why are you telling us this?" Seraphina asked.
"Because the First Starborn lied. She didn't take all your power. This fragment remains. And if you absorb it..." Vivienne held out the crystal. "It might be enough to anchor your memories. To keep you from forgetting."
"Might?" I growled.
"I don't know!" Vivienne looked at her daughter with actual tears in her eyes. "I don't know if it'll work. But it's all I have. And Seraphina... I know I don't deserve forgiveness. I know I destroyed your childhood. But please. Let me try to save your future."
Ten minutes left.
Seraphina stared at the crystal. At the woman who'd tortured her for twenty-three years.
"Why?" she whispered. "Why now? Why help me?"
"Because I lost my magic. I'm human now. Mortal. And I finally understand what I did to you. How it feels to be powerless." Vivienne's voice broke. "I can't undo the past. But maybe I can save what you have now."
"It could be a trap," Lyra warned.
"I know," Seraphina said. She looked at me. "What do you think?"
Through our dying bond, I felt her hope. Her desperate need to believe her mother could change.
"I think we have ten minutes and no other options," I said. "I think we try."
Seraphina took the crystal from her mother's hands.
The moment she touched it, it shattered. Silver light poured into her chest.
She gasped, her eyes glowing bright.
"Is it working?" I grabbed her. "Seraphina!"
"I don't know!" She clutched her head. "I feel... something. Magic. Not my full power. But something!"
Five minutes left.
The mark on her wrist stopped fading. Started to glow again. Faint but present.
"It's working!" Lyra cried. "The fragment is anchoring the bond!"
"How long will it last?" I demanded.
"I don't know," Vivienne said. "That crystal was small. Maybe hours. Maybe days. Maybe—"
The light suddenly flared, then died completely.
The mark vanished.
Seraphina's eyes cleared. She looked around, confused.
"Where am I?" She looked at me. "Who are you?"
My heart shattered into a million pieces.
"No," I whispered. "Seraphina, it's me. It's Caelan."
"Caelan?" She frowned. "The Immortal King? Why am I in Noctwyth? How did I get here?"
She'd forgotten everything.
The fragment had failed.
"I'm sorry," Vivienne said, crying. "I'm so sorry. I thought—"
But she didn't finish.
Because suddenly, Seraphina's eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed.
I caught her, terror ripping through me. "SERAPHINA!"
"She's not breathing!" Lyra pressed her hands to Seraphina's chest, magic flaring. "Her heart stopped!"
"No!" I shook her. "No, no, no! Wake up! WAKE UP!"
But she didn't move.
Didn't breathe.
And I realized the horrible truth.
The crystal fragment hadn't failed.
It had killed her.
My Seraphina was dead.
And it was all my fault for letting her try.