Seraphina's POV
"Get down!" Caspian shouted, shoving me to the carriage floor.
Ice exploded from his hands, shattering the window as arrows slammed into the side of the carriage. The whole vehicle shook violently.
"Drive!" Commander Frost roared from outside. "Don't stop!"
The carriage lurched forward so fast I crashed into the seat. More arrows whistled past, and I heard soldiers screaming as Caspian's ice magic tore through them.
"Stay down," Caspian ordered, his voice deadly calm even as chaos erupted around us.
Through the broken window, I glimpsed Elise on horseback, her face twisted with fury as she hurled ice spears at us. But we were already racing away, the ice horses moving impossibly fast.
Minutes felt like hours. Finally, the sounds of battle faded behind us.
I slowly sat up, my whole body shaking. "Are they—"
"We lost them," Caspian said flatly. He moved to the opposite side of the carriage, as far from me as possible, and stared out the window.
Silence fell heavy between us.
I wanted to thank him for protecting me. For saving me from Elise's army. But something about the rigid way he held himself stopped the words in my throat.
"Thank you for—" I started anyway.
"Don't thank me," he cut me off coldly, still not looking at me. "I didn't do you any favors."
The harshness in his voice stung. "You saved me from being captured."
"I saved myself," he corrected. "You're the only thing stopping my curse from killing me. Losing you means losing my cure."
Oh.
Right.
I was just a tool to him. A cure for his curse. Nothing more.
I pressed myself against my side of the carriage and looked out my own window, blinking back tears. Why did his coldness hurt so much? I barely knew him.
Hours crawled by in uncomfortable silence. The landscape outside slowly changed—green fields turning white, trees becoming bare and frozen. Snow began falling, thick and heavy.
The temperature inside the carriage dropped so much I could see my breath. I wrapped my arms around myself, shivering.
Caspian sat perfectly still, staring at his gloved hands with the strangest expression. Confused. Almost... afraid.
I couldn't help watching him. He kept flexing his fingers, then staring at them like they'd betrayed him somehow.
Finally, I couldn't take the silence anymore. "Why did you choose me?"
Long silence. So long I thought he wouldn't answer.
Then, without looking at me, he spoke: "Because when I saw you at the ball, for the first time in ten years, the curse stopped hurting."
I blinked. "What?"
Caspian's jaw tightened. "The curse. It's not just about killing things I touch. It's inside me. Constantly. Like ice is stabbing through my body every second of every day. I haven't had a moment without pain since my parents died."
My anger faded, replaced by shock. "You're in pain? Right now?"
"Always." His voice was hollow. "Breathing hurts. Moving hurts. Existing hurts. For ten years, I've lived with this agony, unable to touch anyone or anything without my curse destroying it."
He finally looked at me, and I saw something raw in his ice-blue eyes.
"But when I looked at you," he continued quietly, "the pain stopped. Just... vanished. For the first time in a decade, I felt normal. Human."
My throat tightened. "So you chose me because I made the pain go away."
"Yes." He didn't try to dress it up or make it sound better. "I was selfish. Desperate. I thought maybe if I married you, you could help me. I didn't think about what it would cost you."
"It was going to cost me my life," I whispered.
"I know." Guilt flickered across his face. "Everyone believes my curse will kill you. Your mother was counting on it. But I suspected—hoped—you were different. That maybe you could survive."
"Because I'm Sun Blessed."
"I didn't know that for certain," Caspian admitted. "I just knew you made the curse quiet. That was enough for me to take the risk. To force you into this marriage even though it might kill you."
His honesty was brutal. But somehow, I preferred it to pretty lies.
"You're not the monster everyone says you are," I said softly. "You're just someone in pain who saw a way out."
Caspian's eyes widened slightly, like he hadn't expected understanding.
"That doesn't make what I did right," he said.
"No," I agreed. "But it makes you human."
Something shifted in the air between us. The cold distance melted just a fraction.
"I'm sorry," Caspian said quietly. "For using you. For not giving you a choice. You deserved better than this."
Before I could respond, the carriage slowed and stopped.
"We're here, Your Majesty," Commander Frost called from outside.
Caspian stood and opened the door. Freezing air blasted inside, making me gasp.
He stepped out, then turned and offered me his hand. "Welcome to your new home."
I took his hand—still gloved, still careful—and climbed out.
Then I stopped breathing.
A massive palace rose before us, made entirely of ice and crystal. It glowed in the moonlight like something from a dream, beautiful and terrifying at once. Towers spiraled toward the sky, frozen waterfalls hung motionless on the walls, and everything sparkled like it was covered in diamonds.
But it felt... dead. Empty. Like a beautiful corpse.
"The Crystal Palace," Caspian said. "Built by my ancestors five hundred years ago. Once, it was the most magnificent kingdom in the world."
"What happened?" I whispered.
"My curse happened." His voice turned bitter. "For ten years, it's been spreading. Freezing everything. Killing the land. Soon, there won't be anything left to save."
I looked around and realized he was right. Everything was frozen solid—trees, fountains, even flowers trapped in ice like they'd been frozen mid-bloom. Nothing moved. Nothing lived.
"How many people still live here?" I asked.
"A few hundred. Most fled years ago when the curse got worse. Only the loyal ones stayed." Caspian started walking toward the palace entrance. "Come. I'll show you to your quarters."
I followed him up frozen steps, through massive doors that groaned as they opened. Inside was just as cold and dead as outside.
Servants appeared—pale, thin people in dark clothes who looked half-frozen themselves. They bowed to Caspian, then stared at me with wide eyes.
"The new queen," Caspian announced. "She's to be given the East Wing and everything she needs."
"Yes, Your Majesty," they murmured.
Caspian turned to leave, but I grabbed his arm.
"Wait," I said. "You said I could help. That my magic could heal your curse. How?"
He looked at my hand on his arm—the first time I'd touched him since the wedding kiss. Even through his sleeve and gloves, I felt warmth spread between us.
"I don't know," he admitted. "The legend says a Sun Blessed can break a Winter King's curse, but I don't know how. I was hoping you might—"
A scream cut him off.
We both spun toward the sound. A servant boy had collapsed in the hallway, ice spreading across his skin.
"No!" Another servant rushed to him. "The curse is spreading again! It's worse than before!"
Caspian's face went white. "That's impossible. The curse was stable—"
More screams echoed through the palace. Guards ran past, shouting about ice spreading through the servants' quarters.
"What's happening?" I gasped.
Caspian stared at his hands in horror. "The curse. It's reacting to something. Growing stronger."
Then his eyes met mine, and I saw fear—real, bone-deep fear.
"It's reacting to you," he breathed. "Your Sun magic. The curse sees you as a threat, so it's—"
Another scream. Another person collapsing.
"Make it stop!" I begged. "Do something!"
"I can't!" Caspian's hands shook. "I've never been able to control it!"
Ice cracked across the floor, racing toward us. The temperature plummeted so fast my breath froze in my lungs.
Commander Frost burst into the hall. "Your Majesty! The curse is consuming the entire east wing! People are dying!"
I looked at Caspian, then at the ice spreading everywhere, then at my own glowing hands.
I had power now. Sun magic. The opposite of his curse.
Maybe I could stop this.
"Tell me what to do," I said firmly.
Caspian shook his head. "You don't know how to use your magic yet. If you try—"
"People are dying!" I shouted. "I have to try!"
Before he could stop me, I pressed my glowing hands against the frozen floor.
Golden light exploded outward, crashing into the spreading ice like a wave hitting a wall.
For a moment, everything went still.
Then the ice shattered with a sound like breaking glass, melting under my warmth.
The screaming stopped.
I looked up at Caspian, breathing hard.
But he wasn't looking relieved. He looked terrified.
"Seraphina," he whispered. "Look at your hands."
I looked down and gasped.
The golden light was still there. But now it was spreading up my arms, growing brighter and hotter, and I couldn't make it stop.
"What's happening to me?"
"Your power," Caspian said, backing away. "It's awakening fully. And if you can't control it—"
The light flared so bright everyone had to shield their eyes.
"—you'll destroy everything. Including yourself."