Evelina's POV
The dead tree branch catches my cheek, tearing skin.
I don't cry out. Don't even flinch. I just keep walking.
Blood trickles down my face, warm and sticky. It joins the blood from my split lip where the guard hit me earlier. And the blood from my knees where I fell on the rocks. And the blood from my palms where thorns cut deep.
I'm covered in wounds, but I barely feel them anymore.
Pain is just noise now. Background noise to the screaming in my head.
The forest gets darker with every step. The trees are twisted and black, their branches reaching out like skeletal fingers. No birds sing here. No insects buzz. Even the wind sounds wrong—like whispers in a language I don't understand.
This place is dead. Cursed. Evil.
Perfect.
My foot catches on a root and I stumble. My hands hit the ground hard, and more pain shoots through my already injured palms. For a moment, I just stay there on my hands and knees, breathing hard.
I could stop here. Could just lie down and let the forest take me. Maybe the curse would be quick. Maybe I'd just fall asleep and never wake up.
But then I remember Isolde's whisper: "Die slowly. Die painfully. And know that I won."
No.
I push myself up. Keep walking.
If I'm going to die, it won't be on my knees.
The path—if you can even call it a path—winds deeper into the forest. The air gets colder. Heavier. Like something is pressing down on me from above. My lungs have to work harder for each breath.
Stories about these ruins have been told for three hundred years. How a god fell in love with a mortal queen. How he tried to destroy the kingdom when she was killed. How the other gods sealed him away in these cursed ruins, trapping his rage forever.
No one who enters comes back out.
Well, at least I'll have company. A god and me, both betrayed by the people we loved.
Maybe he'll understand.
The thought almost makes me laugh, but it comes out as a choked sob instead.
The sun is setting now. Orange light filters through the dead branches, making everything look like it's on fire. Soon it'll be completely dark, and I'll be alone in a cursed forest with no food, no water, no way to make fire.
I'll probably die tonight.
The realization should terrify me. Should make me turn around and run back to the palace, beg for mercy, accept execution.
But I feel nothing. Just empty.
Isolde was right about one thing—I don't know who I am without the crown. Without my title and perfect manners and careful smiles. Take all that away, and what's left?
Nothing.
I'm nothing.
The trees suddenly end.
I stop, blinking in the fading light.
Ahead of me is a clearing, and in the center—
My breath catches.
The ruins.
They're bigger than I imagined. Massive stone pillars rise from the ground like the bones of some giant creature. They're covered in strange symbols that seem to move in the corner of my vision, but when I look directly at them, they're still.
The stones are black, blacker than anything natural. They seem to drink in the light instead of reflecting it. And between them, crumbling walls and broken archways create a maze of shadow and darkness.
But that's not what makes me freeze.
In the very center of the ruins, surrounded by the pillars, is the seal.
It's massive—a perfect circle carved into the ground, at least twenty feet wide. Symbols and writing cover every inch of it, glowing with a faint silver light that pulses like a heartbeat.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
I can feel it from here. A rhythm that matches my own heartbeat. Or maybe my heart is matching its rhythm. I can't tell anymore.
This is where they sealed him. The Betrayer God. Kyroth.
This is where he's been trapped for three hundred years.
I should be terrified. Should run away screaming. This is a god we're talking about—a being so powerful that it took the entire Pantheon working together to contain him.
But I'm not scared.
I'm curious.
What does it feel like, I wonder, to be betrayed by everyone you trusted? To have your love killed and then be punished for your grief? To be sealed away and forgotten, with nothing but rage to keep you company?
Does it hurt as much as this?
My feet move forward without me deciding to walk. Like something is pulling me toward the seal. The closer I get, the stronger the pull becomes.
The ruins are silent except for that pulsing rhythm. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
I step over a fallen pillar. Around a broken wall. Through an archway that looks like it might collapse any second.
And then I'm standing at the edge of the seal.
Up close, it's even more beautiful. The symbols glow brighter now, silver light dancing across the carved stone. The writing is in a language I don't recognize, but somehow I can almost understand it. Words about binding and sealing and eternal imprisonment.
About punishment for loving the wrong person.
My chest tightens. My eyes burn with tears I've been holding back all day.
"They punished you for loving someone," I whisper to the seal. To the god trapped beneath it. "They took everything from you because you dared to feel something real."
The seal pulses brighter, like it heard me.
"Me too," I continue, my voice breaking. "They took everything from me. My family. My future. My name. All because my sister wanted what was mine."
The tears finally fall, hot and fast. I drop to my knees at the edge of the seal, exhaustion and grief crashing over me like a wave.
"I thought if I was perfect, they'd love me," I sob. "I thought if I did everything right, I'd be safe. But I was wrong. Being good didn't protect me. Being perfect didn't save me. It just made me an easier target."
My hands curl into fists against the ground.
"And now I'm here to die alone in the dark, while they celebrate stealing my life."
The seal pulses faster. Thump-thump-thump-thump.
"Is that what happened to you too?" I ask the darkness. "Did they take everything and then expect you to just accept it? To die quietly?"
The light flares brighter, almost blinding.
"Because I won't," I say, my voice growing stronger. "I won't die quietly. I won't give them that satisfaction. If I'm going to die anyway, I want them to hurt. I want them to regret betraying me. I want—"
My voice breaks into another sob.
"I want revenge," I whisper. "Even if I never get it. Even if I die right here. I want them to pay for what they did to me."
The seal goes completely still.
The light stops pulsing.
Everything is silent.
For a long moment, nothing happens. The ruins hold their breath. The whole world waits.
Then, from deep beneath the ground, I hear something.
A voice.
Not with my ears. With something deeper. Like it's speaking directly into my soul.
"Finally," the voice says, ancient and dark and full of rage. "Someone who understands."
The seal explodes with black light.
And something begins to rise from the depths below.