Draeven's POV
I wake up in chains for the first time in three hundred years.
My dragon roars inside me, furious at being trapped. The chains are made of Dragonsteel—the only metal strong enough to hold a dragon shifter. They burn against my scales, keeping me locked in my beast form.
I'm in the dungeon beneath the palace. My own dungeon. The irony isn't lost on me.
"Finally awake, brother?" Kael's voice comes from the cell next to mine. He sounds tired and angry. "They've been keeping us down here for hours."
"How long?" I growl.
"Five hours until dawn. Five hours until they kill her."
Rage explodes through me. I pull against the chains with all my strength. The metal groans but doesn't break. They've secured me well.
"Save your energy," Kael says. "I've already tried. These chains were made to hold our father when he went feral. They'll hold us too."
I want to roar, to burn this entire dungeon to ash. But he's right. Struggling won't help.
"There has to be a way out," I say.
"If there is, I haven't found it." Kael is quiet for a moment. "Draeven, can I ask you something?"
"What?"
"Why her? Why are you willing to risk everything for a witch you've known for a month? A witch you spent most of that time trying to kill?"
It's a fair question. One I've been asking myself.
"I don't know," I admit. "When I look at her, I see someone who's been hurt over and over but hasn't let it make her cruel. She could hate the world, hate all of us, but she doesn't. She's still kind. Still brave. Still willing to sacrifice herself to save people who've done nothing but hurt her."
"That doesn't explain why you care."
"No, it doesn't." I close my eyes. "But when Casimir's guards pointed their weapons at her, something in me snapped. My dragon screamed at me to protect her. Not because of prophecy or duty, but because she's mine to protect."
"Yours?" Kael sounds surprised.
"Not like property. Like..." I struggle for the words. "Like she's supposed to be in my life. Like the universe put her in my path for a reason, and if I let her die, I'll regret it for whatever centuries I have left."
Kael is silent for a long moment. Then he laughs softly. "You're in love with her."
"Don't be ridiculous. It's been a month—"
"Time doesn't matter to dragons. You know that. When we find our true mate, we know instantly." Kael's voice is gentle. "Your dragon recognized her, even when you didn't want to admit it."
I want to argue, but I can't. Because he might be right.
The cell door opens, and Casimir walks in with four guards. He looks older than I've ever seen him, tired and sad.
"It's time," he says.
"Time for what?" I demand.
"The twelve High Priestesses have agreed to perform the ritual at dawn. They'll use the Dragon's Bane to ensure her death is permanent." Casimir won't meet my eyes. "They want you to watch. They think seeing you witness it will prove that dragons and witches can work together for the greater good."
"The greater good?" I roar. "You're murdering an innocent woman!"
"To save millions of others." Casimir finally looks at me. "I know you can't see it now, but someday you'll understand. Leadership means making choices that hurt. It means sacrificing what you want for what's needed."
"You're not a leader. You're a coward who's too afraid to look for another way."
Casimir flinches like I've struck him. "Perhaps. But I'm a coward who's still trying to save his kingdom, even if it means my nephew will hate me forever."
He signals the guards. They unlock my chains, but before I can attack, they slam iron cuffs on my wrists. These are different—covered in runes that suppress my dragon magic. I can't shift. Can't breathe fire. Can't do anything but stumble forward as they push me out of the cell.
They drag Kael out too, bound the same way.
"Where's Seraphina?" I demand. "What have you done with her?"
"She's in the ritual chamber, being prepared." Casimir walks ahead of us. "Lyria is with her."
I freeze. "Lyria is dead."
"No, she's been in hiding for three centuries, working with the witch covens. When she heard about the Deathless Witch, she came back to help with the ritual. She says she knows things about Seraphina that we need to understand."
Ice floods my veins. "Casimir, you can't trust her. She's the one who killed my father!"
"I know. I hired her, remember?" Casimir looks back at me with empty eyes. "But right now, she's the only one who claims to know how to properly seal the Void. We don't have the luxury of choosing our allies."
"She's lying! She's working for the Void!"
"Perhaps. But if there's even a chance she's telling the truth, we have to take it." Casimir turns away. "I'm sorry, nephew. I truly am. But the decision is made."
They drag us through the palace. Dawn is close—I can feel it. The sky outside the windows is starting to lighten from black to deep blue.
We're running out of time.
We reach the throne room, but it's been transformed. The floor is covered in symbols drawn in white salt. Hundreds of candles burn around the edges. And in the center, chained to a stone altar, is Seraphina.
She's unconscious. Her silver hair spreads around her head like a halo. She looks peaceful, almost like she's sleeping.
Twelve women in black robes stand in a circle around her—the High Priestesses. They're chanting in an ancient language that makes my skin crawl.
And standing directly beside Seraphina, holding a dagger that gleams red in the candlelight, is Lyria.
She looks exactly as I remember. Beautiful. Delicate. The face that haunted my nightmares for decades.
When she sees me, she smiles.
"Hello, Draeven," she says sweetly. "It's been a long time."
"Don't do this," I beg, hating how desperate I sound. "Please, Lyria. If you ever cared about me at all—"
"I never cared about you." Her smile doesn't waver. "You were a job. A very well-paying job. But I'll admit, you were also entertaining. So earnest. So eager to believe someone could love you."
Each word is a knife in my chest. "Then why are you here? Why help them?"
"Because the Void promised me something I've wanted for three hundred years." Lyria runs her finger along the dagger's blade. "Immortality. Real immortality, not the fake kind that Seraphina has. When she dies and the Void rises, it will make me its vessel. I'll be the most powerful creature alive."
"The Void is using you!" Kael shouts. "It'll kill you like it kills everything else!"
"No, it won't. Because I'm special." Lyria's eyes gleam with madness. "The Void chose me before Seraphina was even born. I'm its true daughter. She's just a failed experiment."
"What are you talking about?" Casimir demands, stepping forward.
Lyria laughs. "Oh, you don't know? How delicious. Let me explain." She gestures to Seraphina's unconscious form. "When Celestia sealed the Void, she trapped it in the earth. But the Void is clever. It found a way to send a tiny piece of itself into the world—a seed of darkness. That seed found a witch who was pregnant and merged with the unborn child."
Horror dawns on Casimir's face. "No."
"Yes. Seraphina isn't Celestia's reborn soul. She's the Void's daughter, born human but carrying darkness inside her." Lyria's smile is triumphant. "Celestia's soul fragment tried to possess her at birth, tried to contain the Void's seed, but it only made things worse. Now she's both—light and dark, life and death, creation and destruction. And when I kill her, all that power becomes mine."
I can't breathe. Can't think. "You're insane."
"I'm ambitious. There's a difference." Lyria raises the dagger above Seraphina's chest. "Now, unless you have any other desperate pleas, I think it's time to begin."
The High Priestesses' chanting grows louder. The candles flare. The symbols on the floor start to glow.
"Wait!" I shout. "At least let her wake up! Let her say goodbye!"
Lyria considers this. "You know what? That's actually a wonderful idea. I'd love to see the look on her face when she realizes what she really is."
She snaps her fingers, and Seraphina's eyes fly open.
She looks around, disoriented and terrified. When she sees Lyria standing over her with the dagger, she screams.
"Draeven!"
"I'm here!" I fight against the guards holding me, but they're too strong. "I'm here, Seraphina!"
Her silver eyes find mine across the room. I see fear there. Pain. And something that looks like goodbye.
"I'm sorry," she mouths.
"No!" I roar. "Don't you dare give up! Fight!"
"I can't." Tears stream down her face. "Lyria told me the truth. She told me what I am. If she's right, then me dying is the only way to stop the Void from—"
"She's lying!" I scream. "She's been lying since the day I met her! Don't believe anything she says!"
But doubt clouds Seraphina's eyes. She's not sure. She doesn't know who to trust.
Lyria positions the dagger directly over Seraphina's heart. "Any last words, little monster?"
Seraphina looks at me one more time. "Tell Kael he was a good friend. And tell Draeven..."
"Tell him yourself," I beg. "Stay alive and tell him yourself."
She smiles sadly. "Tell him I'm glad he was the last thing I saw. That makes dying easier."
"The Blood Moon is rising," one of the High Priestesses announces. "We must complete the ritual now."
Lyria raises the dagger higher. The blade catches the red light of the rising moon through the windows.
"Goodbye, Seraphina," she says. "Thank you for your sacrifice."
The dagger starts to fall.
I scream. Kael screams. Even some of the guards look away.
But just before the blade touches Seraphina's chest, she does something no one expects.
She laughs.
Not a desperate laugh. Not a scared laugh. A genuine, amused laugh.
The dagger freezes an inch from her skin. Lyria stares down at her, confused.
"What's so funny?" Lyria demands.
Seraphina's eyes stop glowing silver. They start glowing gold instead—bright, burning gold like dragon eyes.
"You really think I stayed unconscious during your villain speech?" Seraphina says, and her voice is different. Stronger. "You really think I didn't hear every word?"
The chains holding her explode into dust.
She sits up, and power radiates from her in waves that make even the High Priestesses stumble backward.
"Here's the thing about being the Void's daughter and Celestia's heir at the same time," Seraphina continues, standing up from the altar. "I get to choose which one I am. And I choose neither."
She grabs Lyria's wrist, and the dagger drops to the floor.
"I choose to be Seraphina Ashborne," she says. "The girl who survived hell and came out stronger. The woman who won't be used by prophecy, by the Void, or by you."
Light explodes from her body—not silver like Celestia's, not black like the Void's, but white. Pure, blinding white.
When it fades, Seraphina stands in the center of the room, completely free. Her chains are gone. Her power is fully unleashed.
And behind her, rising from the symbols on the floor, is a figure made of shadow and smoke.
The Void has arrived.
"Hello, daughter," it says in a voice that shakes the palace. "Thank you for finally letting me out."
Seraphina's face goes pale. "No. I didn't—I wasn't trying to—"
"But you did. When you broke your chains with my power, you broke the final seal." The Void laughs, a sound like thunder. "And now, I'm free."
It lunges at Seraphina, swallowing her in darkness.
She screams, and the sound tears my heart in half.
Then everything goes black.
When the darkness clears, Seraphina is gone.
The Void is gone.
The throne room is empty except for me, Kael, the guards, the High Priestesses, Casimir, and Lyria, who looks just as shocked as everyone else.
"Where did they go?" Kael whispers.
I look at the spot where Seraphina stood. In the stone floor, burned into the rock itself, are words in a language I don't recognize.
But somehow, I understand them anyway.
"Find me in the place where light meets dark. Save me before I become the monster they always said I was. You have until the Blood Moon sets."
I look out the window. The Blood Moon hangs in the sky, huge and red.
It will set in three hours.
"I'm going after her," I say.
"Going where?" Casimir demands. "We don't even know where the Void took her!"
"Then I'll search every realm until I find her." I turn to face my uncle, and for the first time, he takes a step back from the fury in my eyes. "Release me. Now. Or I will burn this entire palace down with everyone inside it."
Casimir stares at me for a long moment. Then, to my surprise, he nods.
"Release them both," he tells the guards.
The cuffs come off, and my magic floods back.
I shift to dragon form immediately, my scales gleaming black and gold.
"Draeven, wait!" Lyria calls out. "I can help you find her! I know where the Void would take her!"
I want to ignore her, but I can't. If she knows something...
"Talk. Fast."
"The Void exists between realms—not in the living world, not in the dead world, but in between. There's only one place like that." Lyria's face is pale. "The Twilight Abyss. Where souls go when they're too broken to move on."
My blood runs cold. The Twilight Abyss is a myth. A legend. A place where even dragons fear to go.
"If he takes her there, he can unmake her soul," Lyria continues. "Piece by piece, he'll consume her until there's nothing left but darkness. And then he'll use her body as his vessel to destroy the world."
"How long does she have?" Kael asks.
"Three hours. Until the Blood Moon sets. After that..." Lyria looks at me with something that might actually be genuine emotion. "After that, the Seraphina you know will be gone forever. And the thing that comes back will destroy everything, starting with you."
I look at my brother. "Kael, I need you to evacuate the palace. Get everyone to safety. If I don't come back—"
"You'll come back," Kael says firmly. "With her. I know you will."
I wish I had his confidence.
I turn to Casimir. "If I die, the throne is yours. Try not to destroy everything I've built."
For once, my uncle has no sharp reply. He just nods.
I spread my wings and crash through the throne room ceiling, shooting into the red sky.
Behind me, I hear Lyria shout one last thing:
"Draeven! The Void will show her every terrible thing she's ever done, every person she's ever hurt! It'll make her believe she's the monster! Don't let her forget who she really is!"
I don't answer. I'm already flying as fast as my wings can carry me.
The Twilight Abyss exists between life and death, which means I need to die to reach it.
Just a little.
I fly higher and higher, up toward the Blood Moon itself. The air grows thin. My lungs burn. My vision blurs.
At the edge of space, where the sky turns black and cold, I stop flying.
And I let myself fall.
As I plummet toward the earth, as my consciousness starts to fade, I whisper a prayer to whatever gods might listen.
"Let me find her. Let me save her. Let me tell her everything I should have said when I had the chance."
The world goes dark.
And when I open my eyes again, I'm somewhere else entirely.
Somewhere gray and cold and endless.
The Twilight Abyss.
And somewhere in this nightmare, Seraphina is fighting for her soul.
I just have to find her before there's nothing left to save.