Aria's POV
"RUN!"
Caelan grabs my hand and yanks me away from the Mother Tree just as a bolt of black lightning strikes where I was standing. The gorgeous flowers I just brought back to life wither and die instantly.
"No!" I reach back toward the tree, but Caelan pulls me harder.
"Move, Aria! NOW!"
A woman materializes in the center of the blooming gardens. She's tall and terrifying, with long black hair and eyes that glow purple. Power radiates from her like poison.
"You dare," she hisses at me. "You DARE break what I spent thirteen years building?"
"Morganna," Caelan says coldly. He steps in front of me, ice forming around his hands like weapons. "You're not supposed to be able to enter this kingdom. The wards—"
"Your precious wards shattered the moment this brat woke the gardens." Morganna's smile is cruel. "Spring magic is so loud. So bright. It called to me like a beacon." Her purple eyes fix on me. "And I simply had to come meet the little fool who thinks she can undo my curse."
Fear freezes me in place. This is the witch who destroyed an entire kingdom. Who put Lyanna to sleep. Who killed Caelan's parents.
And I just invited her in by accident.
"Aria, when I say run, you run," Caelan whispers without taking his eyes off Morganna. "Don't argue. Don't look back. Just run to the palace and find Silas."
"I'm not leaving you—"
"You don't have a choice!" He shoves me backward as Morganna launches a wave of dark energy at us.
Caelan throws up a wall of ice. The dark magic hits it and explodes. Ice shards fly everywhere. One cuts my cheek, and I taste blood.
"Such devotion," Morganna mocks. "Protecting the girl who's ruining everything. How noble. How stupid."
"Leave her alone," Caelan growls. "Your fight is with me."
"No, darling boy. My fight was never with you." Morganna starts walking toward us, and flowers die with each step she takes. "You were just a means to an end. A spoiled prince who rejected my daughter. The perfect target for a curse that would feed me power for decades."
"Feed you?" I gasp. "The curse gives you power?"
"Smart girl." Morganna's smile widens. "Every ounce of suffering in this kingdom strengthens me. Every frozen flower, every dead tree, every year of despair—it all flows into me. I'm more powerful now than I've been in centuries." She glares at me. "And then you show up and start breaking everything. Waking sleeping princesses. Melting ice. Bringing back spring."
"Good," I say, finding my voice. "I'm glad I'm ruining your plans."
Her face twists with rage. "You have no idea what you've done, little healer. The curse isn't just about ice and cold. It's a binding spell. It keeps something locked away. Something that should never be free."
"What are you talking about?" Caelan demands.
"You'll find out soon enough." Morganna raises both hands. "But first, I need to deal with the problem. Kill the spring girl, and the gardens die again. The curse resets. Everything goes back to how it should be."
Black lightning crackles around her fingers.
"RUN!" Caelan screams at me.
This time, I do.
I turn and sprint toward the palace. Behind me, I hear explosions of magic—ice against darkness. Caelan shouting spells. Morganna laughing.
Guards rush past me toward the fight. "Stay inside!" one yells.
I burst through the palace doors and nearly crash into Lyanna.
"What's happening?" she demands. "I heard—" She sees my face. "You're bleeding!"
"Morganna's here," I gasp. "She's attacking Caelan in the gardens. She wants to kill me because I'm breaking the curse."
Lyanna's face goes pale. Then determined. "Come with me. Now."
She grabs my hand and pulls me through corridors. We're running so fast I can barely keep up.
"Where are we going?" I pant.
"Somewhere she can't sense you. Somewhere safe." Lyanna pushes open a hidden door I hadn't noticed before. "The sanctuary. It's protected by old magic—older than Morganna's curse."
We rush down stone stairs into darkness. Lyanna grabs a torch from the wall, and I see we're in some kind of underground chamber.
In the center of the room is a bed. And on the bed—
I stop breathing.
There's another Princess Lyanna. Lying perfectly still, surrounded by melting ice candles. She's beautiful and peaceful, frozen in time.
"I don't understand," I whisper, looking between the Lyanna beside me and the sleeping one on the bed.
The Lyanna holding my hand smiles sadly. "I'm sorry for the deception. But I needed to see if you were real. If you could truly break the curse."
As I watch in horror, she starts to shimmer and fade.
"Wait, what—"
"I'm not really awake yet," she says gently. "I'm a projection. A dream walking in the waking world. The curse lets me exist like this for short periods, but I can't truly wake until..." She looks at the sleeping princess on the bed. "Until someone with spring magic touches the real me."
My mind is spinning. "So everything today—the breakfast, the tour, meeting you—"
"Was real. I am real. Just not... solid yet." Her form flickers. "Aria, my time is running out. The witch's presence is weakening my projection. But you need to understand something."
"What?"
"The curse isn't just keeping me asleep. It's keeping me alive." Her voice is urgent now. "Morganna bound my life force to this kingdom. As long as the curse stands, I sleep. If the curse breaks completely, I die."
"No," I breathe. "That can't be true."
"It is. That's why my brother has never been able to break it, even though he's tried everything. Breaking the curse means losing me forever." Tears stream down her translucent face. "And now you've started something that can't be stopped. The spring magic is too strong. It's going to shatter the curse completely."
"Then I'll stop," I say frantically. "I won't use my magic anymore. I won't touch anything—"
"It's too late." She's fading faster now, becoming transparent. "The Mother Tree recognized you. The gardens are waking. The process has already begun." She reaches out with a ghostly hand and touches my cheek. "But there might be a way. A chance."
"Tell me! Please!"
"Touch me. The real me. Before the curse fully breaks." She's barely visible now. "Your spring magic is pure—untainted by darkness. If you can reach my sleeping body and wake me properly, you might be able to sever Morganna's binding without killing me. But you have to do it soon. Before—"
She vanishes completely.
I'm alone in the underground chamber with the sleeping princess.
Above me, I hear explosions. The palace is shaking. Caelan is still fighting Morganna.
And I have a choice to make.
Touch Lyanna and risk killing her if I do it wrong. Or leave her alone and let Morganna win.
My hands are shaking as I approach the bed. The sleeping princess looks so peaceful. So fragile.
"I'm sorry," I whisper. "I'm sorry I don't know what I'm doing. I'm sorry I might hurt you. But I have to try."
I reach out and take her ice-cold hand.
The moment our skin connects, pain explodes through my body. It feels like I'm being ripped apart from the inside. I scream, but I don't let go.
Golden light pours from my hands into the sleeping princess. Her body arches off the bed. The ice candles around her explode. The entire chamber fills with blinding brightness.
Through the pain, I feel something else—dark magic wrapped around Lyanna's heart like chains. Morganna's curse, binding her to eternal sleep and tying her life to the kingdom's death.
I grab those dark chains with my magic and pull.
They resist. They fight. They burn like acid.
But I don't stop pulling.
"WAKE UP!" I scream at Lyanna. "WAKE UP AND FIGHT WITH ME!"
The chains start to crack. Dark magic screams in protest.
And then they shatter.
The explosion throws me backward. I hit the wall and slide to the floor, gasping for air. My whole body feels like it's on fire.
On the bed, Princess Lyanna sits up.
Her eyes open.
They're glowing purple.
"Thank you," she says in a voice that isn't hers. A voice that sounds like Morganna. "You've just freed me from the one prison I couldn't escape."
No.
No, no, no.
"The sleeping princess was never Lyanna," the thing wearing Lyanna's face says with a terrible smile. "It was me. And you just broke my cage."