Seraphina's POV
"Don't move or I'll stick you with a pin," the servant snapped, yanking the wedding dress tighter around my waist.
I stood perfectly still, staring at my reflection in the mirror.
The girl looking back at me was a stranger. Beautiful white dress, hair arranged in perfect curls, face painted with makeup to hide how pale and scared I looked.
I looked like a bride.
But I felt like a corpse being prepared for burial.
"Is this really necessary?" I whispered. "No one's going to remember what I looked like anyway."
The servant's hands froze for just a second. Then she continued lacing up the dress without responding.
Of course. Even now, on my wedding day, no one wanted to talk to me.
Three days had passed since Caspian's unexpected visit to the garden. Three days of being locked in this room, only seeing servants who treated me like I was already dead.
I hadn't seen him again after that conversation. Hadn't heard from him at all.
But I couldn't stop thinking about what he'd said in the garden, his ice-blue eyes burning with intensity: "Trust me. Please. Just trust me."
What did that mean? Trust him to do what? Kill me quickly?
The servant stepped back. "You're ready."
I looked at myself one final time. The dress was beautiful—too beautiful for someone like me. White silk that seemed to glow, with delicate silver embroidery that looked like frost patterns.
A wedding dress. Or a burial gown.
I couldn't tell the difference anymore.
"It's time," another servant said from the doorway, her voice flat.
My legs went numb. This was it. The moment I'd been dreading.
The moment I'd die.
I followed the servants through the palace hallways, my hands shaking so badly I had to clench them into fists. We reached the great doors leading to the ceremony hall.
Through the doors, I could hear... nothing.
No music. No celebration. No joy.
Just silence.
The doors opened, and I stepped inside.
The hall was packed with nobles and guests, all dressed in dark colors like they were attending a funeral. No one smiled. No one looked happy.
They all just stared at me with pity or disgust or cold curiosity, waiting to see how I'd die.
At the front of the hall, Mother sat on her throne next to an empty one—Father's throne that no one had sat in since he died. She looked perfectly calm, her face showing nothing.
Elise sat beside her in a beautiful ice-blue dress, smirking. She caught my eye and mouthed two words: Goodbye, sister.
My stomach twisted.
And at the altar, standing completely still, was King Caspian.
He wore all black, making him look like death itself. His silver-white hair seemed to glow against the dark clothes. His face showed no emotion at all—just cold, blank emptiness.
The priest stood next to him, looking terrified.
I was supposed to walk down the aisle to him. Alone.
In normal weddings, the father walks his daughter down the aisle. But Father was dead, and Mother had refused to participate in any way. No one would walk with me.
I had to face my death completely alone.
My feet wouldn't move. I stood frozen at the entrance, my heart hammering so hard it hurt.
Then I saw Mira in the crowd, tears streaming down her face. She pressed her hand to her heart and mouthed: Be brave.
I took a shaking breath and started walking.
Each step felt like walking toward my own execution. The nobles whispered as I passed:
"Poor thing."
"She won't survive the night."
"Such a waste."
"At least she looks pretty for her funeral."
Servants I'd worked with for years openly cried. Lily, the young kitchen girl I'd saved, sobbed into her hands.
I kept walking, my eyes locked on Caspian at the altar.
He watched me approach with those ice-blue eyes, his expression completely unreadable.
Was he feeling anything? Regret? Guilt? Or was he truly the heartless monster everyone said he was?
I reached the altar and stopped in front of him. Up close, I could see frost patterns crawling up his neck, barely visible against his pale skin.
The curse. Always present. Always hungry.
"Dearly beloved," the priest began, his voice shaking, "we are gathered here today to witness the union of—"
He was speaking too fast, rushing through the words like he wanted this over with as quickly as possible.
I barely heard him. My whole body trembled as I stared at the floor, unable to look at Caspian.
This was happening. This was really happening.
"If anyone objects to this union, speak now or forever hold your peace," the priest said.
Please, I thought desperately. Someone object. Someone stop this.
But silence filled the hall.
No one objected. No one cared enough to try to save me.
"Then by the power vested in me," the priest continued, speaking even faster, "I now pronounce you husband and wife."
His voice cracked on the last word.
"You may kiss the bride."
The entire hall held its breath.
This was the moment. The moment everyone had been waiting for.
The moment the curse would kill me.
Everyone knew what happened when King Caspian touched someone. Ice spread through their body, freezing their blood and stopping their heart. Three servants had died just from standing too close to him.
A kiss would be instant death.
I finally forced myself to look up at Caspian.
His ice-blue eyes stared down at me, and for just a moment—just one brief second—I saw something flicker across his cold face.
Regret. Fear. Pain.
Then it was gone, replaced by that blank mask again.
He started to lean down, moving slowly like he was giving me time to run if I wanted to.
But I couldn't run. Running meant Elise would hurt everyone I cared about.
So I stood there, shaking, waiting for death.
Caspian's hand came up, and he gently cupped my face. His touch was cold—so cold it almost burned.
I gasped, and the crowd murmured in anticipation.
This was it. Any second now, the ice would spread through me and everything would end.
"I'm sorry," Caspian whispered, so quietly only I could hear. "Forgive me."
Then his lips touched mine.
And everything exploded into sensation.
But not cold. Not ice. Not death.
Warmth.
Impossible, overwhelming warmth flooded through me like sunlight breaking through clouds. It started where his lips touched mine and spread through my entire body in waves.
I felt power surge inside me—power I'd never known existed. Power that had been sleeping my entire life, waiting for this exact moment.
Golden light burst from my body, so bright that people screamed and covered their eyes.
Caspian jerked back, his eyes wide with shock.
But he wasn't pulling away from me. He was pulling me closer, staring at me like he'd never seen me before.
"You—" he breathed. "You're—"
The light grew brighter. I looked down at my hands and gasped.
They were glowing. Actually glowing with warm, golden light that felt like sunshine.
And where my hands touched Caspian's arms, something impossible was happening.
The frost patterns covering his skin were melting. The ice that always covered him was retreating, disappearing like snow under summer sun.
His curse. It was weakening.
No—not weakening.
It was being pushed back by my light.
"What's happening?" I whispered.
But before Caspian could answer, Queen Isolde's scream ripped through the hall:
"NO! This is impossible! She has no magic! SHE HAS NO POWER!"
I turned to see Mother on her feet, her face white with shock and fury.
Elise stood beside her, ice magic crackling around her hands, looking like she wanted to murder me right there.
"She's powerless!" Mother screamed again. "I made sure of it! The binding spell should have—"
She cut herself off, her hand flying to her mouth.
Binding spell?
"What did you do?" Caspian's voice was deadly cold, colder than I'd ever heard it. Frost exploded across the floor, racing toward Mother's throne. "What spell did you cast on her?"
Mother backed away, fear finally cracking through her cold mask.
But I barely heard their confrontation. Because something else was happening inside me.
Memories flooded my mind—memories that weren't mine. Or were they?
A woman with golden eyes like mine, holding a baby and whispering: "Hide her. Bind her power. They'll kill her if they know what she really is."
Mother's voice, cold and cruel: "She'll never know. She'll live and die thinking she's powerless."
And suddenly, I understood.
I wasn't born without magic.
My magic had been stolen from me. Hidden. Locked away by my own mother when I was just a baby.
But Caspian's kiss—the touch of his curse—had somehow broken the binding spell.
And now my true power was waking up.
I looked at my glowing hands, then at Caspian whose curse was visibly weakening, then at Mother who looked terrified.
"What am I?" I whispered.
Caspian's grip on my arms tightened. When he spoke, his voice was filled with wonder and shock:
"You're a Sun Blessed. The rarest magic user in existence. The perfect opposite of ice magic."
He pulled me closer, his eyes burning into mine.
"And you're the only person in the world who can break my curse."