POV: Seraphina
My grandmother's warning words were still ringing in my mind when Theron's guards arrived at dawn.
They came on horses that moved like shadows. They didn't ask approval. They simply appeared at the inn, and the innkeeper immediately moved me outside. He didn't want an immortal king's soldiers inside his business. None of the locals did.
"Your Majesty summons you," one of the guards said, and it wasn't a request.
I looked back at the inn, hoping to see my grandmother. She'd disappeared into the bush after her warning, and I hadn't seen her since. Now I was going, and I didn't even get to say goodbye.
"I need to gather my things," I said.
"Your Majesty has already provided everything you will need," the guard replied.
They'd prepared for my answer before I even knew my own answer. That should have scared me. It should have been my warning to run. But instead, I felt something else—a pull, like the tide drawing me toward the ocean. Like fate itself was steering my feet toward those horses.
I climbed onto the seat without another word.
The trip to Shadowspire took two days of hard riding. We traveled through places that seemed wrong somehow—the sky was always twilight gray, never fully day or night. Trees looked twisted and old. We passed towns where people stared at us with fear in their eyes. They knew what the presence of the Twilight King's guard meant.
On the second day, Shadowspire appears.
It rose from the ground like a mountain made of stone and darkness. The palace was made from volcanic glass that caught the light strangely, making it look like frozen night. It was beautiful and terrible at the same time. Beautiful in a way that made your heart ache. Terrible in a way that made you understand you were standing before power that could destroy worlds.
I couldn't move.
This wasn't just a building. This was proof that Theron wasn't human. No mortal could make something like this. No mortal could live in a place this dark and this beautiful. As we rode closer, I understood what he'd been trying to tell me in the forest.
He wasn't just a king. He was something else entirely. Something beyond human. Something beyond understanding.
The gates opened without anyone touching them. The guards led me through passageways that twisted and turned in impossible ways. Servants bowed as I passed. Actual servants—dozens of them—all stopping their work to show respect. But it wasn't love for me. They were showing respect to whoever had picked me.
They were showing respect to the king's decision.
A woman appeared—tall and elegant, with kind eyes that instantly made me feel less terrified.
"Welcome, Seraphina," she said warmly. "I am Lady Vivienne. I handle the palace staff. The king has prepared rooms for you on the eastern wing. Come, let me show you."
She led me through endless halls. The palace seemed to change as we walked, getting more beautiful and more impossible. Walls made of things I'd never seen before. Ceilings so high they disappeared into shadow. Rooms with libraries bigger than entire towns.
"The king has been waiting for someone like you for a very long time," Lady Vivienne said as we walked. "He doesn't usually take guests. It's rare that anyone gets to see these rooms."
"What kind of someone is he waiting for?" I asked carefully.
Lady Vivienne smiled curiously. "I think you know, dear. You're the first woman he's ever brought here willingly."
We arrived at my rooms, and I stopped walking.
The room was huge. One full wall was open to a balcony that overlooked the entire Twilight Realm. The sky stretched out in shades of purple and gray, and faraway lights twinkled like fallen stars. The furniture was elegant and comfy. There were books everywhere—shelves and shelves of ancient information. On a table near the window sat a new instrument, made from wood I'd never seen, strung with silver strings.
There was also a letter.
"Sing for me tonight," it read in handwriting that looked like it was cut from night itself. "When the stars align, I will come to you. I cannot wait any longer to hear your voice in my home. - Theron "
Lady Vivienne smiled. "The king has never done this before. Never prepared rooms like these. Never waited for a woman's answer with such patience." She put a hand on my shoulder. "You should eat. Rest. The king is demanding, but he is not mean. Not to those who belong to him."
"Who says I belong to him?" I asked, but even as I spoke the words, I knew they were a lie.
Something had changed the moment I stepped into this house. The air felt different here. The ground under my feet. Even my own beating sounded different. I was no longer just Seraphina the traveling bard. I was Seraphina in the king's house. I was becoming part of something huge and terrible and beautiful.
After Lady Vivienne left, I explored my rooms. I found clothes in my size—silk and gems like nothing I'd ever owned. I found books about old magic, about siren bloodlines, about curses and immortality. Theron had left them here for me to read. He was showing me who he was through his books.
As the sun set—or rather, as the perpetual dusk grew slightly darker—I picked up the new lute and began to practice. My fingers found the strings quickly. The instrument was perfect, like it had been made especially for me.
Then, as the first true stars appeared in the sky, I heard a knock at my door.
I opened it, and Theron stood there. But he was different from the desperate man in the forest. Here, in his castle, surrounded by his power, he looked like exactly what he was.
A god. An eternal. A being who could destroy me with a thought.
"You came," he said simply.
"You gave me no choice," I answered, but I was stepping backward into my chambers, and he was following me inside.
"No," he said. "I gave you every choice. But you chose to come anyway."
He closed the door behind him, and I heard it lock with a sound like stone sealing a grave.
"Sing for me," he ordered softly.
And in that moment, with the door locked and the king watching me with his glowing silver eyes, I realized something frightening.
I was stuck.
Not by force. But by something deeper. Something that made me want to stay even though every sense was screaming at me to run.
I picked up my lute and started to sing, and Theron's eyes closed in relief as my voice filled the dark palace with light.