Seraphina's POV
Three days pass in a blur of training that feels more like torture.
Lucien wakes me before dawn each morning. No gentle wake-ups. No breakfast. Just him standing over my bed saying, "Get up. Your enemies won't wait for you to feel ready."
He teaches me to fight. To use the Sanguine power sleeping in my blood. To command vampires with just my voice.
Every lesson is brutal. Every mistake earns a cold lecture about how weakness gets you killed.
But through the bond, I feel what he won't say—his fear that he's not training me fast enough. His terror that I'll die like the queen did three hundred years ago.
On the third night, Misha bursts into the training room. "My lord, they're here."
Lucien goes still. "How many?"
"All of them. Every major house. Viktor brought the entire Council." Misha's face is grim. "They're at the gates with an army of five hundred vampires. They're demanding Seraphina be handed over for execution within the hour."
My legs nearly give out. Five hundred vampires. The entire Council.
"We have maybe fifty soldiers," Lucien says quietly. "We can't win this fight."
"Then we run," Misha suggests. "Take her through the underground passages—"
"Viktor will hunt her across the world." Lucien's jaw clenches. "There's nowhere she can hide from the entire empire."
They're talking about me like I'm not here. Like I'm a problem to be solved.
"Stop," I say.
They both look at me.
"I won't let you die protecting me." My voice shakes but I keep talking. "Viktor wants me alive, right? He spent twenty-six years planning this. He won't kill me."
"He'll do worse than kill you," Lucien growls. "He'll break you. Control you. Turn you into his puppet queen."
"Maybe." I meet his silver eyes. "But you'll be alive."
Through the bond, I feel his rage spike. "You think I spent three days training you just to hand you over?"
"I think you spent three hundred years alone because everyone you protected died!" The words burst out. "I won't be another person you watch burn, Lucien. I won't do that to you."
Something flashes in his eyes—pain so deep it makes my chest ache through our bond.
"You don't get to make that choice," he says softly.
"Neither do you."
We stare at each other. The bond pulses between us, tangling our emotions until I can't tell where my fear ends and his begins.
A horn blares from outside. Viktor's army announcing their presence.
"One hour," Misha reminds us quietly. "Then they attack."
Lucien moves suddenly, grabbing my shoulders. "Listen to me. There's one way to save you, but you'll hate it."
"What way?"
"I sever the mate bond." His voice is rough. "Break the connection between us. Without it, you're just another vampire heir—valuable but not worth starting a war over. Viktor might negotiate. The Council might show mercy."
My heart stops. "But the bond... if you break it..."
"I go back to feeling nothing. Three more centuries of being dead inside." His fingers tighten on my shoulders. "But you live. That's all that matters."
"No." I grab his wrists. "Lucien, no. You finally feel again. You have a heartbeat. I won't take that from you—"
"You're not taking anything. I'm giving it." He pulls me close, his forehead touching mine. "Your life is worth more than my ability to feel, Seraphina."
Tears stream down my face. "That's not fair."
"Life isn't fair. You learned that six months ago when they framed you."
Through the bond, I feel everything he's not saying—how much he's grown to care in just three days, how terrified he is of losing me, how he'd give up anything to keep me safe.
"There has to be another way," I whisper.
"There isn't." Lucien straightens up, his expression going cold and determined. "Misha, prepare the severance ritual. We do it now, before Viktor—"
The wall explodes inward.
Stone and dust fly everywhere. I scream as Lucien throws himself in front of me, shielding me from debris.
When the dust clears, Viktor Corvus stands in the wreckage. Silver-haired, elegant, radiating ancient power. Behind him, dozens of vampires pour through the breach.
"No need for the severance, Nocturne," Viktor says calmly. "I'll be taking what's mine now."
Lucien's sword is in his hand instantly. "Over my dead body."
"That can be arranged." Viktor smiles. "The Council has already authorized your execution for harboring a fugitive heir. Stand down, and I might let you live as a prisoner. Fight, and you die here."
More vampires flood the room. Too many. Way too many.
Lucien looks at me through the bond. His message is clear: Run.
But I'm done running.
I step out from behind him, facing Viktor directly. "You want me? Fine. I'll come with you. But you let Lucien and everyone in this keep go free. You don't hurt them."
Viktor's eyes gleam with satisfaction. "A noble sacrifice. How touching."
"Seraphina, no—" Lucien grabs my arm.
I turn to him. Through our bond, I push everything I feel—gratitude for protecting me, admiration for his strength, and something deeper I don't have words for yet.
"Thank you," I whisper. "For making me feel less alone."
Then I do something crazy.
I kiss him.
His lips are cold but his response is immediate—desperate, fierce, like he's trying to memorize me before I'm taken away.
The mate bond flares between us, blazing silver so bright it lights up the entire room.
Power surges through me—not my power, not his power, but ours. Combined. Amplified by the bond.
When we break apart, silver flames dance along my skin.
Viktor's smile fades. "What—"
I turn to face him, and my voice comes out layered with command. "You made a mistake twenty-six years ago, Viktor. You tried to control me before I was even born. You destroyed my human life. You sent killers to murder me."
The silver flames spread, filling the room. Every vampire except Lucien drops to their knees, forced down by royal power they can't resist.
Even Viktor struggles against it, shock written across his face.
"I'm not your puppet," I say. "I'm not anyone's victim. I am Seraphina of House Sanguine, and I'm taking back everything you stole from me."
The flames explode outward.
When they clear, Viktor and his vampires are gone—blown back through the breach in the wall by pure Sanguine power.
Silence falls.
I sway, exhausted, but Lucien catches me.
"What did you do?" he breathes.
"I don't know." I look at my hands, still glowing faintly. "But I think... I think I just declared war on the entire vampire empire."
Through the bond, I feel Lucien's emotions—shock, pride, fear, and something that might be love.
"Then we fight," he says simply. "Together."
Outside, Viktor's voice echoes across the mountains: "Three days, Nocturne! Three days to bring her to the Council, or we burn Blackthorn Keep to the ground with everyone inside!"
The siege has begun.