Celeste's POV
I didn't sleep after everyone left.
How could I? In forty-six hours, three men who claimed to love me would have to choose between saving my life or saving the people they loved most. The Council had turned the first trial into a nightmare designed to destroy us all.
I stood at my window, watching the sky turn from black to gray. My phone buzzed constantly with messages I couldn't bring myself to read. Damien sending research about trial loopholes. Theo asking if I was okay. Adrian—nothing. He'd gone silent after seeing his sister's photo on that screen.
The woman the Council would use to test him. The sister he'd practically raised after their mother died.
My hands shook as I made coffee. The cup slipped, shattering on the floor. I stared at the broken pieces and thought: That's going to be us. Broken into pieces we can't put back together.
"You're up early."
I spun around. Marcus stood in my kitchen doorway, looking exhausted. My mentor had a key to my apartment for emergencies, but he never used it unless something was seriously wrong.
"What happened?" I demanded.
"The Council moved up the timeline." His voice was grim. "The first trial starts in six hours, not forty-six. They want you unprepared. Panicked. More likely to watch your suitors fail."
The room tilted. "Six hours? That's not enough time to—"
"I know." Marcus crossed to me, putting steady hands on my shoulders. "Celeste, listen. I've been researching the trials all night. There's something you need to understand about Trial One."
"What?"
"It's not really about sacrifice. It's about breaking you." His dark eyes were filled with worry. "The Council knows that watching people suffer to save you will destroy you from the inside. They're counting on it. They want you emotionally devastated before the real trials even begin."
I pulled away from him. "Then what am I supposed to do? Call it off? Let myself die?"
"No. You fight back." He handed me an ancient book, its pages yellow with age. "Your ancestor—the one who almost broke the curse—she left notes about the trials. Instructions the Council doesn't know exist."
I opened the book with trembling hands. The handwriting was old-fashioned but clear:
The trials are not tests of the suitors. They are tests of the witch herself. Only she who loves without fear, who trusts without certainty, and who releases control without losing herself can break the curse. The magic responds to HER heart, not theirs.
"I don't understand," I whispered.
"You've been thinking about this wrong," Marcus explained. "Everyone has. The trials don't reveal who loves you most—they reveal whether YOU can accept love without destroying yourself with guilt and fear."
Before I could respond, someone pounded on my door so hard I thought it might break.
I opened it to find Adrian, looking like he'd been through a war. His clothes were torn, blood on his knuckles, a fresh cut across his cheek.
"They came for me," he said without preamble. "My father sent a team. I had to fight my way out."
"Are you hurt?" I reached for him but he stepped back.
"I killed two of them, Celeste. Two hunters who trained with me. Who were like brothers to me." His voice cracked. "And I did it without hesitation because they were between me and you."
The weight of what he'd sacrificed hit me like a physical blow. "Adrian—"
"My sister called." He pulled out his phone with shaking hands. "She's being held at the family compound. My father said if I don't report to the trial grounds and publicly execute you, he'll kill her. Slowly. While I listen on the phone."
The coffee cup I'd been holding dropped. This time I didn't even hear it shatter.
"So that's the choice," Adrian continued, his gray eyes burning into mine. "Show up to the trial and be forced to choose between you and my sister. Or don't show up and guarantee she dies."
Marcus swore under his breath. "The Council coordinated with the Huntmaster. This is worse than I thought."
My door opened again. Damien walked in, followed by Theo. Both looked terrible.
"The boy in the photo," Damien said without greeting. "That's my nephew. My brother's only son. The Council has him at their headquarters under 'protective custody.'" His voice dripped with bitter sarcasm. "They're using him as my test."
"Sophie," Theo said quietly. He looked at me with devastated eyes. "The little girl you saved. The Council contacted her mother. Told her that Sophie needs to be at the ritual grounds for 'important magical testimony.' Her mom thinks it's an honor. She has no idea—"
"That they're going to use her daughter to break you," I finished, feeling sick.
We all stood there in my destroyed kitchen, surrounded by broken glass and broken plans.
"We could run," Damien suggested, but his tone said he knew it was hopeless. "Take the people we love and disappear. The Council's reach isn't infinite."
"Yes it is," Adrian countered. "And running just delays the inevitable. They'll hunt us down. Kill everyone we care about just to prove they can."
"So we show up," Theo said. His usual warmth was gone, replaced by something harder. "We face the trial. We find a way through it."
"There is no way through it!" I exploded. "Don't you understand? The Council designed this so that no matter what you choose, someone dies! If you save me, you condemn the people you love. If you save them, I die and the curse destroys half the city when my magic explodes!"
Silence fell.
Then Marcus spoke, his voice cutting through the despair. "Unless you change the rules."
We all turned to stare at him.
"What?" I breathed.
"Your ancestor's notes. She wrote about manipulating the trial magic, using your own power to alter the conditions." He flipped through the old book urgently. "It's dangerous. Could kill you even faster. But theoretically, you could rewrite what the trial tests. Make it about something other than choosing between people."
"How?" Adrian demanded.
"Blood magic. A binding ritual that would link all of you together—Celeste, the three suitors, and the three hostages. If the binding holds, then saving Celeste automatically saves everyone connected to her." Marcus looked at me seriously. "But it would require you to use more power than you have left. The spell might kill you before the trial even begins."
"Or it might give us all a fighting chance," I said quietly.
My phone buzzed. A message from an unknown number:
Trial grounds. Two hours. If all three suitors don't appear, their loved ones die immediately. No exceptions. No delays. —Arcane Council
Below it, three live video feeds. Adrian's sister, bound to a chair. Damien's nephew, crying in a locked room. Sophie, confused and scared, asking where her mother was.
"I'll do it," I said. "The blood magic. The binding. Whatever it takes."
"Celeste, you'll die—" Theo started.
"I'm already dying!" I shouted. "At least this way, nobody else has to! At least this way, you're not forced to choose between me and the people who matter to you!"
"You matter to us," Damien said quietly.
"Not enough," I whispered. "Not more than a sister. A nephew. A child. And you shouldn't have to pretend otherwise."
Adrian crossed the room in two steps and grabbed my shoulders. "Listen to me. I already chose you. Three years ago. Every day since then. I chose you over my family, my honor, everything I was taught to value. Don't you dare diminish that."
"I chose you too," Damien added. "The moment I decided to expose my family's crimes rather than protect their secrets. That choice wasn't political strategy. It was love."
Theo took my hand. "I've been choosing you across lifetimes. Through death itself. You really think I'd stop now?"
Tears burned my eyes. But before I could respond, my phone buzzed again.
Another video. But this one wasn't from the Council.
It was Vivienne, smiling into the camera.
"Hello, cousin," she purred. "I heard about your desperate little plans. The blood magic binding? The rescue attempt? Such noble ideas. Such a shame they won't work."
The camera panned to show what she was holding.
A detonator.
"I've rigged those transport vehicles with explosive runes," she continued sweetly. "The moment anyone tries magical interference—including your binding spell—everyone in a hundred-foot radius dies instantly. Your suitors. Their loved ones. And most importantly, you."
She leaned closer to the camera, her smile vicious.
"But here's the truly beautiful part. I've also placed a curse on the hostages themselves. If the trial doesn't proceed exactly as the Council designed it, if anyone tries to cheat or change the rules, the curse activates. Slowly. Painfully. Making them beg for death while you watch helplessly."
The camera showed a close-up of Adrian's sister. A black mark was spreading across her neck like poison.
"That mark appeared the moment I finished the curse," Vivienne explained. "It's dormant now. But the second you try anything clever, it wakes up. You have two choices, Celeste. Follow the trial rules and watch your suitors choose who lives and who dies. Or try to save everyone and guarantee they all die screaming."
The video ended.
We all stood frozen, the weight of impossible choices crushing down on us.
"Tell me you can break her curse," Adrian said to me, his voice desperate.
I wanted to lie. Wanted to be strong enough, powerful enough to save everyone.
But I'd promised honesty. To all of them. No matter what.
"Not without killing myself in the process," I whispered. "And even then, I might not have enough power left to—"
I couldn't finish the sentence.
"Then we go to the trial," Theo said firmly. "We face it. And we trust that when the moment comes, we'll know what to do."
"There is no right choice!" My voice broke. "That's the point! The Council built a trial specifically designed so that—"
"So that normal people would fail," Damien interrupted. "But you're Celeste Thorne. You break impossible curses and rewrite destiny. If anyone can find a loophole, it's you."
"What if I can't?" I whispered.
Silence.
Then Adrian spoke, his voice absolutely certain: "Then we trust that three hundred years of magic and fate didn't bring us together just to watch each other die. We trust that whatever happens in that trial, we face it together."
"Together," Theo echoed.
"Together," Damien agreed.
I looked at Marcus. My mentor. The man who'd guided me through sixteen years of building walls around my heart.
"What do I do?" I asked him.
He smiled sadly. "You do what your ancestor couldn't. You trust that love is stronger than fear. And you walk into that trial knowing that whatever happens, the magic will respond to your heart, not the Council's manipulation."
My phone buzzed again. A final message from the Council:
One hour. Trial grounds. All three suitors must be present. No exceptions. The future of the magical world depends on your choice, Miss Thorne. Choose well.
I took a deep breath. Made my decision.
"Then let's go face this."
We walked out of my apartment together—four people against an entire magical government, facing trials designed to destroy us, with a cousin who wanted me dead and a Council that wanted me to suffer.
But we walked out together.
And somehow, that felt like the first real victory I'd had in months.
The drive to the trial grounds was silent. Each of us lost in our own thoughts, our own fears. My magic pulsed weakly, burning through my veins. I had maybe one big spell left in me before my body gave out completely.
I'd have to make it count.
We reached the trial grounds just as the sun crested the horizon. The ancient ritual site was already filled with spectators—supernatural beings from every faction, all gathered to watch the most powerful witch alive either find her soulmate or die trying.
The Council sat in raised seats, looking down at us like judges at an execution.
Adrian's sister was chained to a pillar on the left, the black curse mark visible on her neck. Damien's nephew huddled in a cage on the right, crying silently. Sophie stood in the center, confused and terrified, calling for her mother.
And Vivienne stood beside the Council, smiling like she'd already won.
"Welcome, Miss Thorne," the Council Leader announced, his voice echoing across the silent crowd. "Welcome to the Trial of Sacrifice. The rules are simple. Each of your suitors will face a choice—save your life, or save the life of the person they love most. Those who choose you may continue to the next trial. Those who choose otherwise will be eliminated. Permanently."
He paused, letting the word sink in.
"The trial begins in sixty seconds. I suggest you say your goodbyes."
Adrian looked at his sister. Damien stared at his nephew. Theo's eyes were locked on Sophie, the little girl he'd watched me save three years ago.
And then all three of them turned to look at me.
In their eyes, I saw love. Determination. And something that looked almost like hope.
"Fifty seconds," the Council Leader announced.
Marcus squeezed my shoulder. "Trust yourself, Celeste. Trust them. And trust that sometimes the impossible is just the difficult waiting to happen."
"Forty seconds."
I walked forward, standing in the center of the ritual circle. Silver light began to pulse beneath my feet—the ancient magic activating, preparing to test us all.
"Thirty seconds."
Adrian, Damien, and Theo took their positions around me, forming a triangle. Each of them was exactly the same distance from me as they were from the person they were supposed to choose over me.
"Twenty seconds."
The air grew heavy with magic. Dark magic. The kind designed to force impossible choices and break hearts.
"Ten seconds."
I closed my eyes, reaching deep inside myself for whatever power I had left.
And then I felt it.
Something Marcus had said earlier. Something about my ancestor's notes.
The trials are not tests of the suitors. They are tests of the witch herself.
My eyes snapped open.
"Five seconds."
I knew what I had to do.
"Three. Two. One."
The Council Leader smiled coldly.
"Let the Trial of Sacrifice begin. Suitors—choose now. Save Celeste Thorne, or save the one you love most. You have sixty seconds to decide. Choose wrong, and everyone dies."
But I was already moving.
Already casting.
Already rewriting three hundred years of magical law with the last of my dying power.
Because I'd finally understood what my ancestor had tried to teach me.
The trial wasn't about them choosing me.
It was about me choosing to save everyone.
Even if it killed me.
Silver light exploded from my body, reaching toward all six people at once—the three men I might love, and the three innocent people who didn't deserve to die for my curse.
The binding spell that Marcus said would kill me.
I was casting it anyway.
"No!" Marcus shouted. "Celeste, stop!"
But it was too late.
The magic grabbed hold of all of us, linking our lives together in a way that should have been impossible.
And then the world went white.