_____TAHLIA SERAPHANE_____

The blade punched through my chest before my mind even understood what had happened.
The pain didn’t stab — it consumed, blossoming hot and monstrous from my heart outward.

My knees hit the floor with a dull thud.
My breath fractured in my throat.

For a moment, everything faded—
Until I saw him.

Through the sliver between the closet doors—
two wide, terrified eyes.

Mi’kael.
My boy.

A sharper agony tore through me.

The blade slid out of my back with a sickening rip, a fresh surge of heat spilling down my spine, soaking my robes.

I swayed but forced myself upright.
I had to move.
Had to protect him.

Then I saw the face of the man holding the blade—
the faint shimmer of his cloaking weave glitching from the motion.

Caelus.

His expression twisted with satisfaction as his gaze drifted toward the closet.

No.

No.

Every muscle howled as I threw myself forward, clutching his leg with shaking hands.

He snarled, phasing slightly as his cloaking distorted the air around him. The room was silent—unnaturally so. He’d activated a dampening field.

No alarms.
No escape.
Just us.

His boot crashed into my ribs.
Then again.
And again.

But I held on.
I would break before I let go.

Stay away from him… stay away from my son…

_____MI'KAEL SERAPHANE_____

I should’ve run.
Should’ve screamed.
Should’ve done something.

Instead, I watched.

Watched her collapse under every kick.
Watched her blood pool around her like a dark halo.
Watched her arms twitch as she tried to fight back.

My throat tightened, but no sound came out.

The intruder moved — just enough for the moonlight to paint his face.
And when the cloaking weave flickered again, bending the light in fractured colors, something inside me clicked.

A cruel smile.
Eyes like frozen metal.

Caelus.

The name landed like a blade in my gut.

He turned, blood on his fingers, and pointed at me.

“This is your doing. Those with the Mark only bring ruin.”

His voice slithered straight into my chest.
Deep.
Cold.
Poisoning everything it touched.

Maybe he was right.
Maybe I was the reason she suffered.
Maybe if I wasn’t born—

_____TAHLIA SERAPHANE_____

Even through the roaring in my ears, I heard Mi’kael’s breath catch.
He believed it.
He believed that monster.

Fury ignited deep in my bones.

I pushed myself up — an inch, then another — every movement a scream through my veins. Blood leaked from the corner of my mouth as I glared up at Caelus.

“The only one making me suffer…” I rasped, “is you.”

He paused.

“You want him broken,” I forced out, every word a battle. “You want him to think he’s a curse.”

Blood dripped from my lips as I spat at his feet.

“I will never let you have that.”

Caelus’s amusement flickered, a twisted smile forced onto his deadened features.

“Still proud,” he murmured. “Even now.”

I felt the cold creeping in.
My vision fading at the edges.
But I held his gaze, unbreaking.

At last, he turned away.

“I’ll grant you mercy,” he said, stepping toward the door. “A few minutes. Let him say goodbye.”

The door slid open.
His silhouette vanished into the night.

And I was alone, dying… but victorious.

_____MI'KAEL SERAPHANE_____

I crawled toward her, slipping in blood, my limbs shaking so violently I could barely stay upright.

“Mom… Mom…”

She lay crumpled, her breathing shallow and broken.

I pulled her into my arms. Her head tilted against my shoulder, her warmth fading fast.

“This is my fault…” I choked. “All of it. If it weren’t for me—”

Her hand lifted — barely — brushing my cheek.

“Don’t…” she whispered, “ever think that way.”

My tears dripped onto her bloodstained robes.

“My only regret…” she breathed, voice fading, “…is that I won’t see the great man I know you’ll become.”

Her eyes softened. A final, gentle glow.

“I love you… my son…”

Her chest rose… once.
Then fell.

And did not rise again.

The silence that followed crushed me more than any scream I could’ve made.
I held her, rocking, sobbing, begging—

But the world didn’t move.
Didn’t answer.
Didn’t care.

_____AZRAEL SERAPHANE_____

The scream hit first — raw enough to stab straight through the corridors.

I ran, my heartbeat thundering louder than my footsteps.

When the smell of blood hit, I pushed harder.

I reached the common room—

And froze.

Mi’kael knelt on the floor, drenched in red.
Mother limp in his arms.
His hands shaking violently.

He looked at me, eyes wild and wet and begging.

“She’s just sleeping,” he whispered.
“She’ll wake up… right?”

My legs gave out beneath me.

Nothing would ever be the same.