Bound By His Curse

CHAPTER 9

SERAPHINA POV:

The door slammed shut behind Arabella, leaving only the soft golden glow lingering around us, quiet and warm, like sunlight trapped in the air. Cassian didn’t let go of me right away. He held me close, his arms wrapped tight around my waist, his face buried in my hair, breathing in deep, steady breaths—breaths that no longer came with pain, no longer carried the heavy weight of the curse that had haunted him his whole life.

Slowly, he pulled back just enough to look at me, his dark eyes bright and clear, no shadow of suffering clouding them anymore. He lifted a hand, brushing his thumb gently over my cheek, his touch soft and reverent, like he still couldn’t believe I was real, that we had actually changed the impossible.

“You feel it, don’t you?” he whispered, his voice low and thick with emotion. “The difference. Before… every time you helped me, you got lighter, and I got whole. Now… I feel strong enough for both of us. And you—you look like you again.”

He was right. For months, I had been fading, my energy draining away little by little every time I absorbed his pain. But now, for the first time since we’d bonded, I felt full, warm, steady. The dull ache that had lived in my bones for weeks was gone, the fog that clouded my mind had lifted, and the color was slowly creeping back into my cheeks. The legend had been right. Love hadn’t just softened the curse—it had rewritten the rules entirely.

I smiled up at him, looping my arms around his neck, happy and safe in a way I had never dared to hope for. “I feel it. It’s like… we’re not two people fighting separate battles anymore. We’re one. Whatever you carry, I carry too. Whatever I give, you give back. It’s equal now.”

Cassian leaned down, pressing a soft, sweet kiss to my forehead, then to my cheek, before his lips found mine—gentle, warm, and full of every feeling we had hidden for so long. There was no contract here, no obligation, no curse forcing us together. This was choice. This was love.

When we finally pulled apart, he laced his fingers through mine, holding my hand tight as he led me out of the room, toward the private library where all his family’s oldest records were kept.

“We won today,” he said, his voice firm and determined. “But Arabella was right about one thing. This isn’t over. The curse is weakened, not gone. I can still feel it, deep down, waiting. And as long as it exists, we’re in danger. We need to know everything. Every secret, every rule, every way to break it forever. No more hiding, no more guessing. We find the truth, and we end this for good.”

We spent the rest of the day and late into the night going through stacks of old books, scrolls, and journals—some so old the pages crumbled at the touch, written in languages and symbols that took us hours to translate. Cassian knew every corner of this history better than anyone, having studied it for years, but now he looked at it with new eyes, now that we knew love was the missing key no one had ever found before.

It was almost dawn when we found it, tucked away at the very end of a thick leather-bound volume titled The Bonds and Burdens of the Valemont Line.

“Here,” Cassian breathed, his finger tracing over the faded words, his voice tight with focus. “Listen to this. The curse is born of a bargain made centuries ago: the first Valemont traded his family’s peace and freedom for wealth, power, and long life. But such gifts always come with a price. The darkness that fuels the magic will eat at the heir’s soul, body, and mind, until nothing remains.”

He paused, turning the page carefully, his hand gripping mine tighter.

“Only one thing can break the curse completely: a bond of true, equal love between the heir and the one born to carry the burden. When the scales are balanced, when neither gives more than the other, the darkness loses its power. But the bond must be sealed, and the bargain must be undone. To break the curse forever, you must return what was taken, and face the source of the magic itself.”

I frowned, leaning closer, reading the words again. “Return what was taken? What does that mean? And what is the source?”

Cassian shook his head, his expression dark and serious. “I don’t know. There’s more… it says the source is hidden deep within the old Valemont estate—the original family home, abandoned decades ago, deep in the mountains outside the city. No one goes there anymore. They say it’s too dangerous, too full of the old magic, too tainted by all the generations of suffering that happened there.”

He looked at me then, his eyes filled with fear—not for himself, but for me. “And it says something else. The final ritual… it won’t be easy. Even with our bond balanced, even with our love, it will test us. It will try to break us, to turn us against each other, to make us choose between our own lives and each other’s. And anyone who tries to interfere… anyone who tries to use the curse for their own gain… will be consumed by it instead.”

A cold knot tightened in my stomach. I knew exactly who that meant.

Arabella.

She wasn’t just angry or humiliated. She was greedy, desperate, and she knew everything now. She knew about the old estate. She knew about the ritual. And she knew that if she could get there first, or sabotage us… she could still get everything she wanted. Or destroy everything we had, just out of spite.

As if on cue, the heavy wooden doors of the library burst open, and one of the senior servants ran in, breathless and pale, his uniform disheveled.

“Mr. Valemont! Mrs. Valemont! I’m so sorry to disturb you, but… we just got word. Miss Arabella… she went to the police. And to every major newspaper in the city.”

My blood ran cold. “What did she say?”

The servant swallowed hard, his eyes darting between us. “She told them everything. She told them about the curse. She told them that you were dying, Mr. Valemont, that you were some kind of monster kept alive by dark magic. She told them that Mrs. Valemont was holding you hostage, or using magic to control you… she twisted everything. She made it sound like you’re both dangerous, like you’re a threat to everyone around you.”

Cassian swore under his breath, his jaw tightening. “She knows she can’t get to us directly anymore, so she’s turning the whole world against us. She wants to isolate us. She wants to make us run, or hide, or fight a war against the whole city while she does whatever she’s planning.”

He stood up, pulling me to my side, his arm wrapped firmly around my waist, protective and strong.

“She also said something else, sir,” the servant added, his voice quieter now. “She told everyone that the only way to ‘save’ you, or to stop the curse from spreading, is to go to the old estate. She said she’s going there today, to ‘destroy the source of the magic’ herself. And half the reporters and even some officials are following her. They believe her, Mr. Valemont. They think she’s the victim here, the only one who can save everyone.”

My heart dropped. We knew exactly what she was doing. She wasn’t going there to destroy anything. She was going there to take the power for herself. She had seen what the curse could give Cassian—wealth, power, influence, long life. Now she wanted it all, and she didn’t care what it cost her, or what it cost us.

And if she got to the source before we did… if she touched the magic, tried to twist it to her own will… the book had said it clearly. Anyone who tried to use it for gain would be consumed. But if she messed with the source, she wouldn’t just destroy herself. She would destroy the only chance we had to break the curse forever. She would drag us down with her, and everything we had fought for, everything we had sacrificed, everything we had built… it would all be gone.

Cassian looked down at me, his eyes dark and determined, no trace of fear left in them—only resolved. He squeezed my hand tight, lacing our fingers together, sealing our promise.

“We leave now,” he said, his voice calm and final. “We get there first. We finish this. Whatever happens, whatever comes, we face it together. Just like we promised.”

I nodded, standing straighter, ready for whatever was coming. We had survived being forced into a marriage. We had survived the pain and the secrets and the lies. We had survived losing ourselves and finding each other again. We had turned a contract into love, and a curse into a bond that could conquer anything.

But as we hurried out of the library, heading toward the car that would take us to the old estate, I knew one thing for certain: the hardest, most dangerous part of our journey was only just beginning. And this time, there would be no rules, no safe spaces, no second chances.