The darkness wrapped around Selene like a living cloak, pressing against her skin and stealing her breath. Every instinct screamed run, yet she could not move. The shadows were alive — twisting, writhing, testing, probing.
"Selene!" Auren's voice cut through the black, deep and commanding. The sound vibrated through the walls, through her bones. "Focus. Find me."
She clutched the amulet at her throat, closing her eyes. Magic stirred faintly in her veins, responding to her fear, to the pull of the prince's presence. Slowly, the oppressive weight of the shadow began to thin, like smoke being drawn toward a distant flame. She followed it — guided by the echo of his voice, guided by something older, something ancient that told her she could trust him.
Auren appeared suddenly from the shadows, his golden eyes cutting through the black like twin torches. He reached for her hand, hesitating just enough to respect her autonomy. Selene let him take it. Their fingers brushed lightly, a simple contact, yet it sent warmth through her chest she hadn't expected — not dangerous, not overwhelming, just… grounding.
"Keep close," he murmured, his voice soft now, a gentle contrast to the authority it had carried moments before. "The castle… it knows you are here. It senses the blood it fears."
She nodded, swallowing against the lump in her throat. "I never realized a castle could hate someone so much."
"Not hate," he corrected, stepping carefully over fallen beams. "Remember. This is a place of memory. Of echoes. Of grief. It reflects what happened — and sometimes, what it fears will happen again."
They moved through halls of broken grandeur. Portraits hung askew, their subjects' eyes glinting as if they still lived, or perhaps remembered. Dust drifted in lazy spirals, and the faint smell of incense lingered in pockets, clinging stubbornly despite the years. Auren's presence beside her was both comforting and terrifying — he radiated power, centuries of it, and yet he remained painfully human in the little gestures: the way he paused at a crack in the floor, the slight lift of his chin when sensing danger.
Selene's voice was barely a whisper. "Who… who cursed you, really?"
Auren's eyes darkened, reflecting the shadows that crept along the walls. "Not a who, but a what." His gaze flicked to the shattered throne room ahead, glowing faintly with residual magic. "The curse was born of fear, envy, and vengeance. It is tied to blood, to magic, to the bonds we cannot sever. Every step I have taken for centuries has been measured by its chains."
Selene felt the weight of it. The centuries of loneliness, the endless nights of walking through a kingdom that had already died — it was almost unbearable to imagine. Yet, there was something in his voice that didn't ask for pity. It was simply truth. Cold, unflinching truth.
She swallowed. "And now… what happens to you?"
He looked at her, the corners of his lips faintly twitching, almost like a smile that had not been seen in a millennium. "Now," he said, "someone has come who carries the same blood that started it. Someone who might — or might not — end it." His gaze locked on her. "You, Selene. You are… part of this now."
She wanted to pull back. To deny it. But a strange certainty tugged at her, deep in her chest. Something inevitable. "I don't know if I can help," she admitted. "I barely know what I'm doing here. I barely know myself."
"None of that matters," he said softly, though there was steel beneath the words. "The castle will not wait for you to be ready. The curse will not pause. And I… I cannot survive another thousand years without someone like you."
She blinked. His honesty — raw, stripped of pretense — made her stomach tighten. She could not touch him, not yet, but just hearing him speak that way made her pulse hammer in her veins. It was an intimacy born of desperation, trust, and the slow burn of understanding.
They reached a hall where the moonlight cut through shattered windows in beams, illuminating fragments of mirrors along the walls. Auren stopped, his hand hovering near the largest one. He studied it with a pained reverence. "This… is where it began. Where the kingdom fell. Where the curse… became me."
Selene approached cautiously. The mirror was intact, unlike the others, though the surface shimmered unnaturally, as if alive. When she peered into it, she saw herself — or rather, a version of herself she didn't recognize. A woman with storm-gray eyes like hers, standing in the same castle, centuries ago.
She gasped. "That… that's me?"
Auren's voice was tight. "Not exactly. A reflection of what your bloodline once did. A fragment of the past that the castle refuses to forget."
The magic in the room stirred, rippling through the air. Shadows danced along the walls, twisting into shapes of soldiers and courtiers long dead, their whispers threading through Selene's mind. She felt dizzy, her heart racing.
"This castle…" she whispered. "It's alive."
"Yes," Auren said, stepping closer, though leaving a careful distance. "It's alive, and it remembers everything — pain, loss, betrayal… love. And it will test you. Test us."
Selene swallowed hard. "And if we fail?"
Auren's gaze hardened, golden eyes blazing with a mixture of centuries-old grief and fierce resolve. "Then the curse continues. The kingdom dies again. And you…" He let the word hang, unfinished.
Before she could ask, a shattering noise split the air — one of the mirrors cracked violently, sending shards skittering across the floor. Shadows surged from it, tendrils of black smoke writhing toward them.
Selene stumbled back, and Auren's hand shot out instinctively, gripping her shoulder. The brush of his touch was electric, yet restrained — a silent promise that he would protect her, no matter the cost.
The shadows coiled, breathing, alive. And then… one whispered her name.
"Selene…"
Her blood ran cold. She looked at Auren. His face was pale, the gold of his eyes flaring in alarm.
"They know," he said quietly. "They know you are here. And they will not let you leave."
The shadows surged forward, faster now, hungry and merciless.
Auren's hand reached for hers again, but before they could react, the darkness swallowed her completely.
And the last thing she heard was his voice, strained and desperate:
"Hold on, Selene! I'll find you!"