Lyria's POV
Cold water hits my face.
I gasp awake, choking and sputtering. My head pounds from whatever drug they gave me. My hands are tied behind my back with rough rope that cuts into my wrists.
I'm in a cage. An actual iron cage, barely big enough to sit up in.
"Welcome back, little sister."
Seraphine stands outside the bars, holding an empty bucket. She's changed into traveling clothes—practical but still expensive. Her perfect hair is pulled back in a braid.
She looks nothing like the possessed monster from before. She looks like my sister again.
Which somehow makes it worse.
"Where's Cassian?" I demand, my voice hoarse.
"The cursed knight? Oh, he's getting special treatment." She smiles cruelly. "The Shadow Sovereign wants to speed up his transformation. Can't have you two plotting escapes together."
My blood runs cold. "What are you doing to him?"
"Nothing he won't survive. Probably." She kneels down to my eye level. "You know what's funny? I used to be jealous of you. Even though you had no power, even though everyone mocked you, Father still looked at you differently. Like you mattered."
"He only kept me alive to use me."
"I know that NOW. But back then, I just saw him paying attention to you instead of me." Her eyes harden. "So I told him about your star magic. I suggested the public trial. I convinced Adrian to break your engagement in front of everyone. I wanted you to hurt the way I hurt."
"You succeeded," I say bitterly.
"Did I though?" She stands up. "Because here you are—the mighty Celestial Queen, blessed by the stars, wielding power I can only dream of. And where am I? Still second place. Still not good enough."
"So you joined the Shadow Sovereign? You're helping him destroy the world?"
"I'm helping him destroy the system that made me feel worthless." She kicks the cage. "The nobles, the magical hierarchy, the idea that some people are just born better than others—it's all lies. The Shadow Sovereign will burn it all down. And from the ashes, we'll build something new. Something where people like me actually matter."
"People like you already matter," I say quietly. "You just never believed it."
"Don't." Her voice turns sharp. "Don't try to therapize me. Don't pretend you understand. You got everything handed to you—the power, the prophecy, the handsome cursed knight who'd die for you. What did I get? Nothing but scraps."
She turns and walks away. "Someone will bring you food eventually. If you're good."
"Seraphine, wait—"
But she's gone.
I'm alone in the cage, surrounded by darkness.
I try to reach my power, but something's wrong. The star's magic feels distant, muted. I look down and see runes carved into the iron bars—binding symbols meant to suppress celestial magic.
I'm trapped.
Hours pass. Maybe a whole day. It's hard to tell in the darkness.
Finally, someone approaches. A mercenary with a scarred face brings me stale bread and water. He doesn't speak, just shoves it through the bars and leaves.
I eat mechanically, my mind racing. I need to find Cassian. Need to escape. Need to stop the Shadow Sovereign.
But how?
That night—I think it's night, hard to be sure—I hear sounds from somewhere nearby.
Screaming.
Cassian's screaming.
"No!" I press against the bars. "CASSIAN!"
His screams go on and on. I can feel his pain through our blood oath, sharp and terrible. They're doing something to him. Torturing him. Trying to break him.
Trying to make the curse consume him faster.
"Stop it!" I scream. "Leave him alone!"
No one answers. No one comes.
The screaming finally stops. Silence falls, somehow worse than the noise.
Through our bond, I feel Cassian—barely conscious, drowning in pain.
And I feel the curse spreading like poison through his veins.
Tears stream down my face. I pull against the ropes binding my wrists until my skin tears and bleeds. But the knots won't budge.
"I'm sorry," I whisper to him through our connection. "I'm so sorry I can't help you."
Footsteps approach. Multiple sets.
I wipe my tears quickly, forcing myself to look strong.
Commander Aldric appears, along with two other corrupted knights. They're dragging something between them.
Someone.
Cassian.
"No," I breathe.
They throw him into a cage next to mine. He collapses on the floor, not moving.
The shadow marks now cover half his face, one eye, creeping down his neck toward his chest. His skin looks gray, almost corpse-like where the shadows touch.
"Cassian!" I press my face against the bars. "Cassian, can you hear me?"
He doesn't respond. Doesn't even twitch.
"What did you do to him?" I snarl at Aldric.
The Commander's empty eyes show no emotion. "Accelerated the curse. The Shadow Sovereign grows impatient. Three days was too long to wait."
"How long does he have now?"
"Hours. Maybe less." Aldric turns to leave. "Make peace with him while you can. Soon, the man you knew will be gone forever."
They leave us alone in the darkness.
I reach through the bars toward Cassian's cage, but our cages are too far apart. My fingers can't quite reach him.
"Cassian, please," I beg. "Please wake up. Please fight it."
Nothing.
Through our bond, I feel his consciousness flickering like a dying candle.
I close my eyes and do the only thing I can—I send my power through the bond. Not much, the runes block most of it, but a thin stream of starlight flows from me to him.
It's not enough to heal him. Not nearly enough.
But maybe it's enough to remind him he's not alone.
Time crawls by. I sit there, feeding him every drop of power I can spare, watching the shadows spread across his skin.
Finally, after what feels like forever, his eyes open.
But they're not silver anymore.
They're black. Completely black.
"Cassian?" My voice shakes.
He sits up slowly, moving like a puppet on strings. When he looks at me, there's no recognition in those dark eyes.
"Cassian, it's me. It's Lyria. You know me. We made a blood oath. We're bound together."
His head tilts, studying me like I'm a stranger. A threat.
"Fight it," I plead. "I know you're still in there. You're stronger than this curse. You told me so yourself—I gave you a reason to fight. So fight! Please!"
For just a second, something flickers in his expression. A hint of silver in the black eyes.
"Ly...ria..." His voice sounds wrong, like two people talking at once.
"Yes! It's me!" Hope surges through me. "Come back to me. Don't let the Shadow Sovereign win."
He presses his hand against the bars of his cage, reaching toward me.
I reach back, our fingertips almost touching.
"I'm...sorry..." he gasps out, and for that moment, he sounds like himself again.
"Don't apologize. Just keep fighting. We'll figure this out together—"
His whole body convulses. He screams—not in pain this time, but in rage. In loss.
When the convulsion stops, the silver is gone from his eyes again. Only darkness remains.
And when he speaks, it's not his voice anymore.
"Hello, little queen." The Shadow Sovereign's voice comes from Cassian's mouth. "Thank you for trying to save him. Your love made the corruption so much easier. He fought so hard to resist... but his love for you gave me the perfect opening."
"No. No, you're lying—"
"Am I?" Cassian's body stands up, moving with unnatural grace. "Your cursed knight is gone, consumed by the very thing he feared most. And now he belongs to me."
The cage door swings open. No one unlocked it—it just opens on its own.
Cassian steps out, shadows swirling around him like a cloak.
"Wait," I say desperately. "Cassian, I know you can hear me! Remember the blood oath? Our lives are bound! If you hurt me, you die too!"
"True." The Shadow Sovereign makes Cassian smile, but it's not his smile. "But there are so many ways to hurt someone without killing them. Let me show you."
He reaches through my cage bars.
His hand, covered in shadow marks, touches my face almost gently.
Then the shadows spread from his hand to my skin.
Pain. Pure, burning pain like liquid fire in my veins.
I scream.
"That's just a taste," the Shadow Sovereign purrs through Cassian's mouth. "I'm going to break you slowly. Break your body, break your mind, break your spirit. And your precious knight will watch through these eyes as I use his hands to destroy you piece by piece."
The shadows spread further, reaching for my neck.
I can't breathe. Can't think. Can't—
Deep inside me, the fallen star pulses once.
Then twice.
Then it explodes with light.
The binding runes on the cage shatter. The shadows on my skin burn away. Power floods through me—not just my mother's power, but something older, stronger.
The star has been holding back, waiting for the moment when I needed it most.
That moment is now.
Light erupts from my body with such force that it blows the entire cage apart.
I stand in the wreckage, glowing like a second sun.
The Shadow Sovereign makes Cassian stagger backward, hissing.
"You want to break me?" I say, my voice echoing with celestial power. "You want to use him against me? Fine. Let's see who breaks first."
I raise my hand and the ropes binding my wrists dissolve.
Around us, alarms start blaring. Footsteps thunder toward us—Seraphine's mercenaries, the corrupted knights, everyone coming to stop me.
But I don't care.
Because right now, I'm not fighting to escape.
I'm fighting to save Cassian's soul.
Even if I have to burn through the Shadow Sovereign himself to do it.
The Shadow Sovereign, speaking through Cassian, laughs darkly.
"You can't save him. He's mine now. But please, try. It will be entertaining to watch you fail."
Cassian's body moves into a fighting stance—his stance, the one he taught me days ago.
"Last chance, little queen. Give up now, or fight the man you love and watch as I make him kill you with his own hands."
I drop into my own fighting stance, tears streaming down my face.
"I'll never give up on him," I say. "Never."
"Then let the real battle begin."
Cassian lunges at me, his sword aimed at my heart.