Chapter Three – Blood and Boundaries
512 Words
The healer’s quarters were deep in the eastern wing—far enough from the main halls that the silence felt like exile. Elira paced the small stone room, her fingers still tingling from the prince’s touch.
She stared at the sunstone in her palm. It had dimmed again. But for a moment—just a moment—it had blazed like a miniature sun.
That shouldn’t be possible.
Not in this cursed place.
Not around him.
A soft knock pulled her from her thoughts.
An older woman stepped in. Wrinkled, stern, dressed in healer’s robes dyed deep midnight blue.
“You’re lucky to still be breathing,” the woman said calmly.
Elira blinked. “Excuse me?”
“You touched him. And you’re alive. Most would have turned to ash. Or madness.” The woman stepped closer and examined Elira’s hands. “No burns. No scars. Just foolishness.”
“I didn’t mean to touch him. He reached for the stone—”
“I know.” She looked up. “The whole palace felt the shift.”
Elira frowned. “Who are you?”
“Master Healer Tessa. I’ve served here since before Prince Kael was cursed.” She paused, her eyes narrowing. “They sent for you because your light magic may be the only thing that doesn’t destroy him.”
Elira’s breath caught. “I’m not strong enough to break curses.”
“No. But maybe strong enough to hold him together.”
⸻
That night, Elira couldn’t sleep.
She watched the moon rise through a narrow slit in the stone wall, her mind spinning.
What kind of curse made a prince untouchable? What kind of power lived in his blood that not even the kingdom’s high mages could fix?
And why had her touch not killed her—but rattled him?
She didn’t have answers. Only instincts.
So she did what her mentor taught her.
She started a journal.
Night One at Obsidian Palace.
The prince is colder than I imagined. But there is something broken in him—wounded, not cruel.
I don’t believe his curse is only darkness.
Something fights inside him. Something ancient… and afraid.
He should have killed me. But he didn’t.
Maybe he can’t.
⸻
Elsewhere…
Kael’s chambers were cloaked in shadow. He stood before the mirror, shirtless, watching the veins in his chest pulse with that cursed silver light.
It had spread since her touch.
Not like poison. Like… healing.
It terrified him.
“She’s dangerous,” he muttered.
Behind him, the shadows coiled and hissed.
We felt her, master. Light bearer. Soul breaker.
“I won’t let her near me again.”
You already did.
Kael clenched his jaw. The voices inside him never stopped. But since she arrived, they were louder. Clearer. More desperate.
He remembered the warmth in her touch. The way her eyes burned brighter than her magic.
No one had touched him in five years without bleeding.
She had.
And the curse… blinked.
He closed his eyes.
She was a threat.
But he wasn’t sure to whom.
- Writer
