Seraphine's POV
The world is dying.
I press my face against the carriage window, watching green farmland turn brown, then black, then into nothing at all. We've been traveling for hours, and with every mile south, the land looks more dead.
Commander Thane sits across from me in silence. He hasn't spoken since we left the manor except to bark orders at the guards riding alongside us. He watches me the way a hawk watches a mouse—cold, patient, waiting for me to do something stupid.
I won't give him the satisfaction.
Outside, we pass a family walking north on foot. A mother carrying a baby, a father pulling a cart with two small children inside. Their clothes are torn and dirty. The children's faces are hollow with hunger.
Refugees, Commander Thane says, his first words in hours. Smart ones. They're getting out before the Blood King decides to expand his territory again.
I watch the family disappear behind us. Where will they go?
Does it matter? They'll starve in the North or burn in the South. Either way, war kills them. He leans back, studying me. You feel sorry for them.
It's not a question, but I answer anyway. Yes.
Don't. Pity won't keep you alive where you're going.
The carriage hits a bump, and I'm thrown against the side. The poison vial digs into my ribs through the hidden pocket, reminding me why I'm here. What I'm supposed to do.
Kill the Blood King. Save the kingdom. Go home a hero.
The plan sounds insane even in my own head.
By midday, there are no more refugees. No more travelers at all. The road is empty except for our carriage and the six guards riding with us. The trees along the roadside are black and twisted, their branches reaching toward the sky like skeletal hands.
Burned, Commander Thane says, following my gaze. Fifteen years ago, when the war started, the Blood King's army swept through here. They burned everything. The land never recovered.
I swallow hard. Why would he do that?
Because he could. Thane's expression is grim. Because he's not human anymore. Whatever he was before the curse took him, he's a monster now. You'd do well to remember that.
The curse. Everyone talks about it in whispers. They say Daemon Karvath made a deal with dark magic to get revenge for his family's murder. They say the curse gave him terrible power but turned him into something inhuman. Something that can't be killed by normal weapons.
But poison isn't a normal weapon.
My hand moves unconsciously to the hidden vial, and I catch Commander Thane watching. I quickly fold my hands in my lap, trying to look innocent.
His eyes narrow, but he says nothing.
We stop for the night at the edge of what the guards call the Scorched Border. I'm not allowed out of the carriage until they've set up camp and checked the area for threats.
When I finally step outside, I immediately wish I hadn't.
The land ahead is nightmare made real.
Black volcanic rock stretches as far as I can see, broken only by cracks that glow red with heat from below. The air tastes like ash and sulfur. Nothing grows—no grass, no trees, not even weeds. It's like the earth itself died here.
And scattered across the black stone are bones.
Human bones. Animal bones. Some so old they've turned gray, others still white and clean. Skulls stare at me with empty eye sockets. Ribcages curve up from the ground like the fingers of buried giants.
The Scorched Border, one of the guards mutters, making a religious sign with his hand. Where the war is fought. Where men go to die.
I can't stop staring at a small skull near my feet. A child's skull.
My stomach lurches, and I turn away, pressing my hand to my mouth.
Sick? Commander Thane appears beside me. You'll see worse before this is over. The Blood King's fortress is built on a mountain of corpses. Literally. They say the foundation is made of the bones of his enemies.
Why are you telling me this? My voice shakes despite my efforts to control it.
Because you need to understand what you're walking into. He grabs my arm, forcing me to look at him. Seven women before you have been sent as peace brides. Seven women have entered that fortress. None of them came out alive. You're not special. You're not different. You're just the next sacrifice.
I yank my arm free. Then why send me at all?
Because even sacrifices can serve a purpose. His smile is cruel. The treaty requires a peace bride. What happens to her after doesn't matter to the council.
He walks away, leaving me standing alone in this graveyard of a borderland.
That night, I can't sleep. The guards set up tents, but I stay in the carriage, huddled under a thin blanket. Through the window, I watch the red glow on the horizon—volcanic mountains in the distance, marking the heart of the Southern Empire.
The Blood King's territory.
Somewhere out there, Daemon Karvath waits. The monster I'm supposed to kill. The man who's murdered seven women before me.
I touch the vial again, feeling its weight. One drop, Elise said. That's all it takes.
Can I really do it? Can I look a man in the eyes and poison him?
Even if he's a monster, even if he deserves it, can I become a killer?
I don't know. And that terrifies me more than anything.
A guard's shout jerks me from my thoughts. I peer out the window and see them all standing, staring south at something I can't see from this angle.
Gods above, one whispers. I've never seen it this close before.
The Black Fortress, another says, his voice filled with dread. We're closer than I thought.
My heart pounds as I push the carriage door open and step out.
The guards don't try to stop me. They're too busy staring at the horizon.
I follow their gaze and my blood turns to ice.
There, rising from the volcanic wasteland like a wound in the earth itself, is a fortress of black stone and iron. It's massive—bigger than any castle I've ever seen, built into the side of a mountain that glows red with volcanic fire. Towers reach toward the dark sky like claws. Walls thick enough to withstand armies circle the structure. And at the very top, a single window burns with crimson light.
That's where he lives, Commander Thane says quietly behind me. The Blood King. Tomorrow, that's where you'll die.
As if in response to his words, something happens.
The red light in that high window suddenly blazes brighter, so bright it hurts to look at. Then it goes out completely, plunging the fortress into darkness.
One of the guards makes a strangled sound. He knows we're here. The Blood King knows his bride is coming.
The temperature drops so fast I can see my breath. The volcanic glow on the horizon pulses once, twice, like a heartbeat.
And in the sudden silence, I hear it, a sound that shouldn't be possible from this distance but carries on the wind anyway.
Laughter.
Deep, dark, and utterly without mercy.
The Blood King is laughing.
And somehow, I know he's laughing at me.