SERA'S POV
Hours pass in silence. I count my heartbeats to stay sane. One hundred. Two hundred. Five hundred.
Then I hear footsteps again—but these are different. Lighter. Hesitant.
The door opens and a woman peeks in. She's small, maybe thirty years old, with brown hair pulled back in a simple braid. Her hands shake as she holds a bucket of steaming water.
"H-hello," she stammers. "I'm Elena. Mr. Thorne sent me to... to help you."
She's terrified. I can see it in every line of her body—the way she won't quite look at me, how she keeps glancing at the door like she might run.
"Help me how?" I ask gently, trying not to scare her more.
"He said you need to bathe. And eat. And..." She finally looks at me, really looks, and gasps. "Your wrists! They're bleeding!"
I glance down. She's right. The chains have rubbed my wrists raw and bloody. I hadn't even noticed.
"It's okay," I say, even though it's not. "They don't hurt much anymore."
That's a lie. They hurt constantly. But Elena looks ready to cry and I don't want to make it worse.
She sets down her bucket and approaches slowly, like I'm a dangerous animal. "I have clean water. Bandages. I can help if... if you'll let me."
"Please." The word comes out desperate. "I'd really appreciate it."
Elena's fear eases just a little. She kneels beside me and gently unlocks one of my chains—not removing it completely, just loosening it enough to clean the wound underneath.
Her touch is careful. Kind. It makes my throat tight because I can't remember the last time someone touched me with kindness instead of fear or cruelty.
"You're not what I expected," Elena whispers as she washes the blood away. "Mr. Thorne said you were dangerous. A fallen goddess. But you seem..."
"Human?" I offer.
"Yes." She meets my eyes, surprised. "Exactly that."
We work in silence for a while. She cleans both my wrists, wraps them in soft bandages, then helps me wash my face and hands with the warm water. It feels like heaven.
"Can I ask you something?" I say quietly.
Elena tenses. "I... I suppose."
"What has Caspian told you about me?"
She bites her lip, clearly torn. "Not much. Just that you're his prisoner. That I should help you but be careful. That you might be dangerous."
"Do you think I'm dangerous?"
Elena looks at me for a long moment. Then, slowly, she shakes her head. "No. I think you're sad. And alone. And scared, just like anyone would be."
Something in my chest loosens. Someone believes I'm not a monster.
"Thank you," I whisper.
Elena smiles—a small, tentative thing. "You remind me of my sister. She had kind eyes like yours." Her smile fades. "She died two years ago. The gods..."
She stops, swallowing hard.
"The gods killed her?" I ask gently.
"Not on purpose. They just didn't care." Elena's voice goes bitter. "A divine being was passing through our town. Threw a casual bolt of lightning to show off. It hit my sister's house. Killed her instantly. And when we asked for justice, they said mortals shouldn't question divine will."
Anger flares hot in my chest. "That's not right. That's not justice."
"No. But it's how things are." Elena finishes bandaging my wrists. "Mr. Thorne says you tried to change that. Tried to stand against them. Is it true?"
"I don't know. I can't remember." I lean forward. "But I want to believe I did. I want to believe I tried to help people like your sister."
Elena studies me carefully. Then she leans in close, her voice dropping to barely a whisper. "Then I hope you remember. And I hope you make them pay."
Before I can respond, she pulls back and starts gathering her supplies.
"Elena, wait. Can I ask you something else?"
She nods.
"Caspian. What's he like? When he's not being my keeper?"
Elena pauses, thinking. "Lonely. He lives in this huge manor all by himself. Never has visitors. Never goes anywhere. Just serves the gods and guards his prisoners and reads his books."
"Does he sleep?"
"Not much. Especially since you arrived." Elena glances at the door, then lowers her voice again. "He's in the library every night until dawn. Researching. Looking for something. I've never seen him so... intense."
My heart beats faster. "Looking for what?"
"I don't know. But whatever it is, it's important. Dangerous, maybe." She meets my eyes. "And I think it has something to do with you."
"Why do you think that?"
"Because he watches you." Elena says it simply, like it's obvious. "When he brings you food or checks your chains. He watches you like... like you're a puzzle he's desperate to solve. Or maybe like you're something precious he's afraid of breaking."
I think about Caspian's shaking hands when he adjusted my chains. The way his voice went soft when he said he'd help me. The pain in his eyes when his curse forced him to obey.
"He's risking his life to help me," I whisper. "Why would he do that?"
Elena stands, bucket in hand. "Maybe because he sees what I see. Someone worth saving." She moves toward the door, then pauses. "Or maybe because after sixteen years of serving monsters, he finally found someone worth fighting for."
She leaves before I can ask what she means.
I sit in the quiet, my cleaned wrists throbbing under fresh bandages, my mind spinning with new questions.
Caspian is looking for something. Something dangerous. Something connected to me.
And he watches me like I matter.
Hours pass. The light from under the door fades to darkness. Night falls.
Finally, just when I'm starting to think he's not coming, I hear it—two sets of footsteps approaching my cell.
The door opens. Caspian enters, and behind him is a man I've never seen before. Tall, with messy blond hair and sharp green eyes that seem to see right through me. He's smiling, but it's not a friendly smile. It's the smile of someone who enjoys danger.
"Well, well," the stranger says, looking me up and down. "So this is the fallen goddess everyone's so afraid of. She doesn't look so scary to me."
"Sera, this is Kieran Ashwood," Caspian says quietly. "He's a mage. And he's going to help us break your memory seal."
Kieran's smile widens. "Actually, I'm going to do something much more interesting than that." He pulls a glowing crystal from his pocket. "I'm going to show you exactly what your dear sister did to you the night she betrayed you."
My blood goes cold. "You can do that?"
"Oh yes." Kieran kneels in front of me, holding up the crystal. "Memory magic is my specialty. And lucky for you, I managed to steal a fragment of your sealed memories before the gods locked them away completely."
"How?" I breathe.
"Let's just say I have my ways." His green eyes glitter with mischief and something darker. "But before we do this, you should know—what you're about to see will hurt. Badly. You'll feel everything you felt that night. The betrayal. The pain. The moment your own sister drove a blade of light through your heart."
I'm shaking now but I force myself to nod. "Show me."
"Brave girl." Kieran presses the crystal against my forehead. "Try not to scream too loud. We don't want to alert your sister that we're—"
The world explodes into light and pain and I'm falling, falling into a memory that's been waiting three years to destroy me.
And the last thing I hear before everything goes white is Caspian shouting my name.