Seraphina's POV
Everything was dark.
No sound. No air. No time.
I was floating, weightless, caught in an endless abyss of nothingness.
For a moment, I thought I was dead. The fire had swallowed me whole. My body had burned, my soul had fractured, and yet… I was still here. Somewhere. Drifting.
Then, the memories came.
They hit me like a storm, wave after wave, crashing through my mind with relentless force.
I saw flashes of my previous life and then Seraphina's past came too, just as vivid, just as raw. The mark. The whispers. The fear.
Two lives. Two fates.
I didn't know why.
The memories churned, spinning me faster and faster, until I thought I would lose myself completely. Until…I heard a voice.
A deep, desperate voice calling out through the void.
"You can't leave me. Not now. Not again."
I knew that voice.
Lorien.
And just like that, I was yanked back.
Air flooded my lungs as I gasped awake, my body jolting violently. My heart pounded, the memories still lingering in my head.
The room around me blurred into focus dark stone walls, golden torchlight, the scent of burned wood still thick in the air. My fingers dug into the rough sheets beneath me. I wasn't in the dungeon anymore.
I was in someone's bed.
Wait, I wasn't in another body and time right?
Lorien? I wanted to call out.
Panic coiled in my chest. I tried to sit up, but the pain and exhaustion and confusion pressed down on me.
Then, I heard him.
"How?"
His voice was low, filled with something I couldn't quite place. Disbelief. Fear. Frustration?
Slowly, I turned my head to see him standing at the foot of the bed. His golden eyes burned into mine, searching, demanding.
"How do you keep defying death again? How do you keep surviving when you should be dead?"
His question sent a shiver down my spine. Because I didn't know.
My gaze flickered to my arm.
The mark.
It pulsed, glowing faintly beneath my skin like dying embers. A piece of something ancient, something forgotten, something that refused to let me go.
Lorien saw it too. His entire body tensed, his jaw tightening.
"When did you notice this?" His voice was somewhat low.
I hesitated. "Before… before all of this. I've had it for as long as I can remember. After I woke up in the dungeon I had no memories of the past… I…"
Lorien stepped closer before I could continue and made his presence suffocating.
"And you never thought to tell me?"
I swallowed hard. "I didn't think it mattered."
Something snapped in his gaze. He grabbed my wrist, his fingers brushing over the mark. His touch was warm, but there was no gentleness in the way he held me.
"Did you come here to spy on me?" he demanded.
My breath caught in my throat. "What?"
His grip tightened slightly. "Were you sent here to destroy my kingdom?"
I jerked my arm back. "That's ridiculous!"
"Is it?" His eyes were unreadable now, but his suspicion was clear. "You think I haven't noticed? The way you appeared out of nowhere? The way strange things keep happening around you? First I tried to get the truth out of you and found you died and then you came back to life. Now this."
"You expect me to believe it's all just coincidence? Did you fake your death?"
"What are you saying? You killed me so how could I fake it?" I said and he frowned.
Anger and fear tangled inside me.
"I didn't kill you, I found you dead. So you are going to tell me, what mind games have you been playing? Is the mate bond even real?"
"I don't even know what I am!" I snapped. "I don't know why this is happening! I don't know why I'm still alive!"
His jaw clenched. For a long moment, he said nothing, just watching me with those piercing eyes.
Then, before I could react, he turned and strode toward the heavy wooden door.
The lock clicked into place.
My stomach dropped.
"You're staying here until I find out the truth," he said.
Panic surged through me. I shot to my feet, ignoring the way my body protested. "You can't keep me locked up!"
"Watch me."
~~~
Lorien's POV
I stormed down the corridor, my thoughts were a whirlwind of confusion.
Seraphina should have been dead. That fire should have consumed her, just like she had died before. And yet, she lived. Again.
It wasn't just luck. It wasn't just a coincidence.
It was something else.
Something dangerous.
The mark on her arm… I had seen it before. In old texts, but I couldn't remember.
She wasn't just a witch.
She was something worse.
Something that had no place in my kingdom.
And yet…
Yet I wanted to save her.
Because despite everything, despite the fear, despite the unknown, one thought clung to me with a grip I couldn't shake.
She is mine, and I was going to find out exactly what she was before it was too late.