Chapter 2: The Empress Returns
Pain.
It came in waves, rolling through her bones, searing across her veins like molten fire.
Seraphina gasped awake, her body convulsing as the sensation of burning alive ripped through her limbs. The scent of scorched fabric clung to her, the ghost of a blade against her throat lingering like a cruel memory.
She was supposed to be dead.
She remembered it—the platform, the rain, the executioner's blade. The moment the sword had neared her neck, her magic had surged, a force she hadn't even known she possessed.
And then… darkness.
Now, she lay sprawled across cold, damp stone. The sky above was no longer stormy but a deep shade of violet, unfamiliar stars blinking in the vast expanse. The air was thick, charged with energy that did not belong to her empire.
Where was she?
Seraphina forced herself upright, her muscles screaming in protest. She glanced down at herself—her gown was still torn, bloodstained, but her wounds were gone. Her wrists, once raw and bruised from chains, were smooth.
A rebirth? No, something else.
A voice echoed through her skull, low and ancient, whispering words she could not fully grasp.
"You were never meant to die like that."
Her heart pounded.
Was it the magic? Had it saved her? Had it transported her somewhere else?
Seraphina's fingers curled into the dirt beneath her. She had no time for questions—if she was alive, if she had been spared, then there was only one thing left to do.
Take back what was stolen from her.
Her throne. Her empire. Her revenge.
The world she had awoken in was not her own.
The sky was too vast, the trees too twisted, their branches curling like the gnarled fingers of ancient beings. A thick mist coiled around the air, shifting unnaturally as if alive.
She took a cautious step forward.
Her magic hummed beneath her skin, stronger than it had ever been. Before her execution, she had only wielded fragments of magic—small bursts of power hidden away, never enough to challenge fate.
But now, it surged in her veins, wild, untamed.
She would need to learn how to use it.
A snap echoed through the eerie silence.
Seraphina's head jerked toward the sound. Footsteps. Slow, deliberate. Not human.
Something was watching her.
She inhaled sharply, willing the lingering pain in her body to fade. If she had been thrown into a new world, then she would survive it the same way she had survived everything else—ruthlessly.
A shadow moved between the trees.
Then—red eyes.
A voice, deep and amused, cut through the silence.
"You shouldn't be here, little empress."
Her blood ran cold.
The creature stepped forward, emerging from the mist. Not a man. Not a beast. Something in between.
A figure cloaked in midnight, his features obscured by the flickering light of the unnatural sky. His presence was overwhelming—ancient, powerful, dangerous.
Seraphina did not bow.
"Who are you?" she demanded.
A smirk curled across his lips, sharp as a blade.
"Someone who has been waiting for you."