Sera's POV
Everyone at the temple is dead? I repeat, my voice shaking.
The guard nods grimly. All twenty priests. Slaughtered. And the message specifically names you and the Emperor.
Night Caspian's face goes pale. He's still mortal, still vulnerable. If assassins come now, he'll die.
Lock down the citadel, he orders the guard. No one enters or leaves. Triple the guards on every entrance. And bring me He stops, remembering. No. Wait. I won't remember giving these orders. Day me will countermand everything.
The guard looks confused. Your Majesty?
Just do it, Caspian snaps. And don't question me until dawn. That's a direct order.
The guard bows and rushes off.
Caspian turns to me, running his hands through his hair in frustration. This is impossible. How do I protect us when half of me doesn't even know we're in danger?
We need to convince Day Caspian, I say. Tonight. Before dawn. While you're still mortal, write him a message he can't ignore.
I've tried that for centuries, he says bitterly. He never believes me. He thinks the night journals are tricks or delusions.
Then we make him believe. I grab his hand. Come on. We have six hours before dawn. That's six hours to find proof that even Day Caspian can't deny.
We spend the next two hours searching his chambers for clues about the assassination attempts. Night Caspian shows me hidden passages and secret rooms I never knew existed.
In one room, we find dozens of weapons all confiscated from previous assassination attempts over the centuries.
I've been collecting them, Caspian explains, holding up a poisoned dagger. Every night, I find evidence of attempts on my life. Traps set in my rooms. Poison in my food. Hired killers. But by morning, Dayme has no memory of any of it. The evidence disappears or gets explained away.
Someone's been covering the tracks, I realize. Someone with access to your chambers during the day.
Someone I trust, he agrees grimly. Someone close enough to manipulate what Dayme sees and doesn't see.
We look at each other, thinking the same thing.
Lucian, I say.
He's been my chancellor for three years, Caspian says. He has access to everything. My schedule, my chambers, my private records. If anyone could orchestrate this, it's him.
But why? What does he gain by killing you?
Caspian pulls out a document from a hidden drawer. Look at this. It's a law I apparently passed six months ago. I don't remember passing it, but Dayme's signature is right there.
I read it and my blood runs cold. This law says if you die without an heir, your power transfers to your chancellor.
Exactly. Lucian made sure he'd inherit everything. All he needs to do is kill me. Caspian slumps against the wall. And I handed him the perfect opportunity by making him my chancellor. Dayme trusted him. Promoted him. Gave him everything he needed to destroy me.
I kneel beside him. It's not your fault. You couldn't have known.
I should have known. I'm supposed to be a thousand year old emperor. I should be smarter than this. He looks at me with desperate eyes. What if we're too late? What if tomorrow at midnight, when we try the ritual, he succeeds in killing us?
Then we make sure he doesn't get the chance, I say firmly. We perform the ritual early. Before midnight.
It won't work. The ritual has to happen during the exact moment of transformation right at midnight when I'm switching from mortal to immortal. That's when the curse is most vulnerable.
Of course. Nothing can be easy.
A thought occurs to me. What if we fake your death? Make Lucian think he's won. Draw him out into the open.
Caspian's eyes light up. That could work. But we'd need help. Someone we can trust absolutely.
Elira, I suggest. She helped me escape the dungeon. She knows about the curse. She's on our side.
Can we reach her before dawn?
I glance at the window. The sky is already turning gray. We have maybe an hour left.
We have to try.
We rush through the citadel's secret passages to Elira's quarters. I knock urgently on her door.
She opens it immediately, like she was expecting us. You figured out the timeline, she says calmly. Twenty four hours.
How did you I start.
I've been tracking the curse's degradation for months, she says, ushering us inside. I knew it would come to this. The question is, are you ready to do what needs to be done?
The blood bond ritual, Caspian says. Tomorrow at midnight. Can you help us?
I can do better than that. Elira pulls out an ancient scroll. This is the original ritual text from the Temple of Dawn. The one they used to curse you. But there's a section they never showed you. A clause.
She unrolls it and points to text written in faded ink at the bottom.
If the cursed one performs the blood bond with a temporal mage of pure heart, the curse doesn't just split it transforms. Both parties gain controlled immortality. They age normally until they choose to stop. They can be mortal or immortal at will. They share their power, their life force, their very existence.
I stare at the words. That's... that's not just breaking the curse. That's creating something new.
Exactly, Elira says. The temple feared this clause. That's why they hid it. Because two people bonded like this would be unstoppable. More powerful than any single immortal. More human than any mortal.
Caspian and I look at each other.
But there's a catch, Elira continues. The bond is permanent. Unbreakable. You'll be connected for the rest of your lives. Literally. If one dies, the other dies. If one suffers, the other feels it. You'll share everything.
Forever? I whisper.
Forever, Elira confirms. So you both need to be absolutely certain this is what you want. Because once the ritual is complete, there's no going back.
Caspian turns to me. Sera, I can't ask you to bind your life to mine. You barely know me. And what you do know is mostly terrible sentenced you to servitude, I destroyed your life
Nightyou saved my father, I interrupt. Nightyou offered me revenge when no one else would help me. Nightyou trusted me when Dayyou condemned me. I know you, Caspian. Both versions of you. And I'm willing to take this risk if you are.
His mortal heart is beating so fast I can see his pulse in his throat.
We have to decide now, Elira says, glancing at the window. Dawn is minutes away. Once Day Caspian takes over, he might refuse the ritual entirely. Night Caspian needs to leave him instructions he can't ignore.
Caspian grabs a piece of paper and starts writing frantically. Dayme, I know you don't believe in the curse. But by the time you read this, you'll have witnessed the transformation yourself. The servant girl Sera Ashlyn is telling the truth. Trust her. Tomorrow at midnight, you must perform a blood bond ritual with her or we both die. The instructions are in Elira's possession. Don't question this. Don't hesitate. Our life depends on it. Signed Your mortal self.
He seals it and hands it to Elira. Make sure he reads this the moment he wakes.
I will, she promises.
The first ray of sunlight hits the window.
Caspian's body begins to glow. Sera, he gasps, grabbing my hands. Whatever happens tomorrow. Whatever Dayme says or does. Promise me you won't give up on the ritual. Promise me
The transformation completes. His hands turn cold in mine. His eyes shift from warm brown to icy blue.
Day Caspian blinks in confusion, looking around Elira's quarters. What am I doing here?
He sees me holding his hands and yanks them away like I burned him.
Your Majesty, Elira says quickly, holding out the sealed note. You asked me to give you this the moment you woke. You said it was urgent.
Caspian takes it, frowning. He breaks the seal and reads.
His expression goes from confused to shocked to angry.
This is absurd, he says flatly. A blood bond ritual? Trusting a convicted criminal? This note is obviously forged.
The handwriting is yours, Elira points out. As is the personal seal.
Then someone stole my seal. He crumples the note. I don't know what game you two are playing, but I'm not falling for it.
Your Majesty, please I start.
Silence. His cold eyes cut into me. You've manipulated me enough. Guards!
Two guards enter immediately.
Escort this servant back to house arrest, Caspian orders. And Elira, consider yourself under investigation for conspiracy. You're relieved of all duties until further notice.
But Your Majesty, Elira tries, if you don't perform the ritual
There will be no ritual, he says with finality. Now get out. All of you.
The guards drag me away. I look back at Elira desperately.
She mouths one word: Tonight.
I'm taken back to the room where my father waits. He looks up anxiously as I enter.
What happened?
Day Caspian refused the ritual, I say, sinking onto the bed. We have until midnight tonight to convince him, or we all die.
How do you convince someone of something they refuse to believe?
That's the question, isn't it?
I spend the day pacing, thinking, planning. My father tries to help, but he doesn't understand the curse well enough.
At noon, a guard brings us lunch. Compliments of Lord Lucian, he says.
I stare at the food suspiciously. Don't eat it, I tell my father. It could be poisoned.
Poison would be kinder than waiting for execution, my father mutters, but he pushes the tray away.
Hours crawl by. Evening comes. Then night.
At 11:30 PM, there's a soft knock on our window.
I rush to it and see Elira outside, hovering on some kind of magical platform.
Let me in, she hisses. Quickly!
I open the window and she climbs through.
Day Caspian is in his chambers preparing to witness his own transformation, she says rapidly. I convinced him to at least watch what happens at midnight, even if he doesn't believe it. But Sera, there's a problem.
What problem?
I found out why the temple was attacked. They weren't just killed. Their life force was drained. Someone is collecting magical energy for something big. Her eyes are terrified. I think Lucian is planning to steal Caspian's immortality during the transformation. The exact moment when both versions exist simultaneously that's when he's most vulnerable. If Lucian strikes at midnight, he can absorb both the mortal and immortal essence at once.
My stomach drops. So the death threat wasn't a threat. It was a promise. Lucian is going to kill Caspian at midnight whether we do the ritual or not.
Worse, Elira says. If Caspian dies mid transformation without the blood bond, the curse's energy will explode outward. It'll destroy half the citadel. Hundreds of people will die.
I can't breathe. We have to warn him.
I tried. He won't listen to me anymore. He thinks we're all conspirators. Elira grabs my shoulders. You have to convince him, Sera. You have thirty minutes before midnight. Thirty minutes to make him trust you enough to perform a life binding ritual with you.
How? He hates me!
I don't know, she admits. But you're the only one he might listen to. Because somewhere deep in his immortal mind, he remembers you. His dreams remember you. His soul remembers you. You just have to find a way to reach that part of him.
She hands me a vial of silver liquid. This is a truth serum. It forces anyone who drinks it to believe whatever they see with their own eyes, no matter how impossible. Get him to drink this, then show him the truth.
How do I get into his chambers? The guards
Secret passage. She shows me a hidden door in our room I never noticed. It leads directly to the Emperor's private wing. But Sera, once you go through that door, there's no coming back until this is over. One way or another, everything ends tonight at midnight.
I look at my father. He nods. Go. Save him. Save all of us.
I take the vial and step toward the secret passage.
Sera, Elira calls. One more thing. The blood bond ritual requires both parties to cut their palms and speak the binding words while their blood mingles. But it also requires one final element.
What element?
A confession of true feeling. Whatever's in your heart, you have to speak it aloud. No lies. No hiding. Complete honesty. Otherwise the ritual fails and you both die anyway.
My heart pounds. What if I don't know what's in my heart?
Then you have thirty minutes to figure it out.
I step into the secret passage. The door closes behind me, leaving me in darkness.
I run through the passage, my footsteps echoing. Upstairs. Around corners. Following the path Elira described.
I emerge in Caspian's private chambers just as the clock begins to chime.
11:55 PM.
Five minutes to midnight.
Caspian stands by the window, his back to me. He's alone. Waiting.
I told the guards not to let anyone in, he says without turning around.
I didn't come through the door, I reply.
He spins, seeing me for the first time. His cold eyes narrow. How did you
It doesn't matter. You need to drink this. I hold out the vial. It's a truth serum. It'll make you see what's really happening.
I'm not drinking anything you give me.
Then you're going to die in five minutes! I shout. Please, Caspian. I know you don't trust me. I know you think I'm a liar and a criminal. But Nightyou trusted me. And somewhere inside, Dayyou knows I'm telling the truth. Otherwise you wouldn't have promoted me to the archives. You wouldn't keep staring at me like you're trying to remember something. You wouldn't have locked yourself in here tonight to witness something you claim doesn't exist!
His jaw clenches. You're very good at manipulation.
I'm very good at surviving, I correct. And right now, we both need to survive the next five minutes. So please. Please drink this and see the truth.
The clock chimes.
11:58 PM.
Caspian looks at the vial. At me. At the clock.
If I do this and nothing happens if you're lying I will execute you myself at dawn. Do you understand?
Yes.
He takes the vial and drinks it in one swallow.
His eyes widen as the serum takes effect. What did you know?
The clock strikes midnight.
And Caspian's scream of agony fills the room as his body tears itself apart.
The transformation has never been this violent. His skin ripples. His bones crack. He collapses to the floor, convulsing.
Caspian! I run to him.
But before I can reach him, the window shatters.
Lucian crashes into the room, surrounded by dark magic and carrying a blade that pulses with stolen life force.
Perfect timing, he says, smiling. The Emperor, mid transformation, completely vulnerable. And his little mage here to watch him die.
He raises the blade.
I throw myself between them just as Lucian strikes.
The blade pierces my chest instead of Caspian's.
Pain explodes through me. I feel my life draining into the weapon.
But with the last of my strength, I grab Caspian's hand and press my bleeding palm to his.
Blood bond, I gasp. Now or never.
Caspian's eyes shifting between mortal and immortal lock onto mine.
And I see the moment both versions of him finally understand.
Finally believe.
Finally choose.
Together, he whispers, pressing his cut palm to mine.
Our blood mingles.
And the world explodes into light.