Every Prince I Marry Dies

The Void

The silence in the tower was suffocating.

Sera stood motionless, her hand still tingling where Darian Thorne had touched her. The warmth of his skin lingered on her palm like a brand. She could still feel the hum of her Resonance singing beneath her ribs, a sensation so foreign it almost hurt.

He had not left.

She had told him to go. She had warned him. She had practically begged him to flee while he still could. But Prince Darian Thorne simply stood there, his amber-gold eyes fixed on her with an intensity that made her skin prickle.

"You said I should forget I ever met you." His voice was calm. "But I cannot forget a question once it is asked."

"Then un-ask it."

"Is that possible?" He tilted his head. "Can you un-know something you have already learned?"

Sera pressed her fingers to her temples. A headache was building behind her eyes. The familiar pressure of six lifetimes of exhaustion settled onto her shoulders like a wet cloak.

"I do not have time for riddles, Prince Darian. I have six days to live."

"Six days?" He frowned. "The curse kills within seven days. You have a full week."

"Not anymore." She turned away from him. She stared out the window at the floating gardens below. "I refused every prince. I insulted the King. I am a prisoner in this tower. Do you think he will let me live?"

"The King is many things, but he is not a murderer."

"No." Sera's laugh was bitter. "He does not need to kill me. He only needs to keep me here until he finds another prince willing to marry me. And then the curse will do his work for him."

Darian was silent for a long moment. When he spoke, his voice was thoughtful.

"There is a flaw in your logic."

She turned to face him. "What flaw?"

"You said you are the common element. Your blood. Your lineage. Your Resonance kills them." He stepped closer. "But you have not died. You have survived six Attunements. Six magical bonds. Six deaths. That should not be possible."

"Tell me something I do not know."

"The curse feeds on life force." He spoke slowly, as if working through a puzzle. "It consumes the husband's Resonance to stabilize something inside you. But if it is consuming so much power, why are you not overflowing with it? Why are you not stronger?"

Sera opened her mouth. Closed it. She had never considered that.

"Perhaps I am not supposed to understand it," she said finally. "Perhaps I am only supposed to endure it."

"That is what they want you to believe."

Sera's blood ran cold. "What do you mean?"

Darian's expression was unreadable. "The Astral Wardens have records. Ancient records. They mention a curse similar to yours. An 'Echoing Heart' they called it. I found references in the Archive. Fragments. Coded passages. Someone hid the truth."

"You found these records?"

"Fragments." He reached into his robes and pulled out a small leather journal. It was worn, the edges frayed, the leather cracked with age. "I have been searching for seven years. Ever since I realized something was wrong with this kingdom."

Sera stared at the journal. Her hands trembled.

"Why?" Her voice was barely a whisper. "Why would you search for something like this? You do not know me. You have never met me."

Darian looked at her. His amber-gold eyes held something ancient. Something heavy.

"Because I am cursed too," he said quietly. "Just not the same way."

The words hung between them like a blade.

Sera's mind raced. She had assumed he was immune to her curse. She had assumed he was safe. But if he carried his own curse, his own darkness, then everything she thought she knew was wrong.

"You are cursed?" She took a step back. "What kind of curse?"

Darian's jaw tightened. He looked down at the journal in his hands, turning it over slowly.

"I have no Resonance," he said.

"I know. I felt it. A void."

"Yes." He looked up. His eyes met hers. "But it was not always like that. When I was young, I was powerful. My Resonance was... bright. Too bright. The Astral Wardens tested me. They said I had more potential than anyone they had ever seen."

"What happened?"

"I do not know." He set the journal on the table between them. "One day, it was simply gone. I woke up and could not feel the Veil. Could not channel magic. Could not even sense it. I was a void where something brilliant had once been."

Sera studied his face. She searched for deception, for the hidden motives she had learned to expect from every prince who crossed her path. She found only exhaustion. Only grief. Only a loneliness that mirrored her own.

"Your curse," she said slowly. "It takes your power. My curse takes the lives of those who love me."

"Two sides of the same coin." He nodded. "Or perhaps two different curses from the same source."

"What source?"

Darian hesitated. He picked up the journal and opened it to a marked page. Yellowed parchment crackled beneath his fingers. The handwriting was ancient, the ink faded to brown.

"This is a record from the first Astral Wardens," he said. "It mentions something called the 'Devourer.' An entity from the Mistdeep. A being of immense power that was imprisoned centuries ago."

Sera stepped closer. She peered at the page. The words were difficult to read, the script archaic and cramped.

"The Devourer was sealed away," Darian continued. "But the prison required a key. A bloodline bound to the prison itself. A family that would carry the burden of keeping the entity contained."

Sera's stomach dropped.

"The Aethel line," she whispered.

"Yes." Darian looked up. "Your bloodline. The curse is not a punishment. It is a security system. The prison is cracking. The Devourer is leaking out. Your Resonance is the lock. Every time you Attune with someone, the lock tries to use their power to reinforce itself."

"Reinforce itself?" Sera's voice cracked. "It kills them."

"Because their Resonance is not strong enough to stabilize the lock." Darian's eyes were fierce. "The prison requires power. Immense power. The Attunement is a desperate attempt to draw that power from the husband. When it fails, it consumes him instead."

Sera felt the world tilt beneath her feet. She reached out and grabbed the edge of the table to steady herself.

"Six men," she breathed. "Six innocent men died because of an ancient prison I did not even know existed."

"Yes."

She looked at him. Her vision blurred with unshed tears.

"And you?" Her voice shook. "Why does my Resonance not consume you? You have no power. You are a void. There is nothing for the curse to draw from."

Darian smiled. It was a sad, knowing smile.

"Perhaps that is exactly why."

Sera sank into the chair by the window. Her legs would not hold her any longer. She stared at Darian, at the journal on the table, at the impossible truth unfolding before her.

"I do not understand," she said. "If I am the key to the prison, then why does the King keep trying to marry me off? Why does he not know about this?"

"The Astral Wardens keep the secret," Darian said. "Only their highest members know the truth. The King is not one of them. He sees you as a political asset. A way to forge alliances. He does not know he is sentencing men to death."

"But the Wardens know." Sera's voice hardened. "They know what I am. They know what happens to my husbands. And they let it happen."

"Yes."

"Six times." She stood abruptly. The chair scraped against the stone floor. "Six times they watched me marry a man they knew would die. Six times they did nothing."

Darian did not flinch at her anger. "They believe they have no choice. The prison must be maintained. If the Devourer escapes, the entire realm falls into the Mistdeep."

"Then why are you telling me this?" She spun to face him. "You are a prince. You could have stayed silent. You could have let me rot in this tower until the King found me another husband. Why risk everything to tell me the truth?"

Darian rose to his feet. He crossed the room until he stood before her. Close enough that she could see the flecks of gold in his amber eyes.

"Because I believe there is another way," he said. "The Devourer is not the only source of power in this realm. I have been studying the Veil. The prison. The curse. For seven years, I have searched for a solution. I believe I have found one."

"What solution?"

"A new lock." His voice was steady. "A new Attunement. A bond powerful enough to seal the prison permanently. Not through your bloodline. Not through death. Through something stronger."

Sera stared at him. Her heart pounded.

"Stronger than death?"

"Yes." Darian held her gaze. "Stronger than the curse."

He did not look away. He did not flinch. He simply stood there, a man with no power and a cursed secret, offering her something she had stopped believing in.

Hope.

"Do you know what you are asking?" Her voice was barely a whisper. "Every man who loves me dies. Every man who trusts me dies. If you are wrong about this, you will be the seventh."

"I know."

"Six men are dead because of me. I cannot add another name to that list."

"You will not." He reached out. His hand hovered near hers, not quite touching. "I am not like the others. I have seen the truth. I have read the records. I know what I am risking."

Sera looked at his hand. She remembered the warmth of his touch. The hum of her Resonance singing.

"Why?" she asked again. "Why would you risk your life for a woman you do not even know?"

Darian was silent for a long moment. When he spoke, his voice was soft.

"Because I know what it is like to lose everything," he said. "To wake up one morning and find that the person you were is gone. To carry a curse that no one else can see. To be alone, even in a crowd."

Sera's breath caught.

"When my Resonance disappeared," he continued, "I was fifteen years old. I was supposed to be the greatest mage of my generation. Instead, I became a nothing. A void. My family looked at me with pity. The court looked at me with contempt. I spent seven years searching for answers. Seven years trying to understand why I was broken."

"Are you broken?" she asked.

"Perhaps." He smiled. "But perhaps you and I were broken for the same reason. Perhaps we were always meant to find each other."

Sera's heart stuttered. The words hit her like a physical blow.

She had been alone for so long. Six lifetimes of isolation. Six deaths she carried like scars on her soul. She had stopped believing anyone could understand her. Could see her. Could stand beside her without being consumed.

But Darian Thorne looked at her like she was not a curse. Like she was not a walking grave. Like she was simply a woman. A woman who had suffered. A woman who was still fighting.

"Sera." He used her name for the first time. It sounded different on his tongue. Warmer. "I am not asking you to love me. I am not asking you to marry me. I am asking you to let me help you. Let me stand beside you while we unravel this mystery. Let me share this burden."

She wanted to say no. Every instinct screamed at her to push him away. To protect him from the curse that had consumed so many others. To save him from becoming another name on her endless list of the dead.

But she was so tired. So desperately, soul-crushingly tired of being alone.

"Six days," she said finally. "We have six days before the curse would have killed any other prince. If we cannot find a solution by then, you must leave. You must promise me you will leave this tower and never come back."

Darian smiled. It was a real smile. Warm. Hopeful.

"I promise," he said. "Six days. And then we will find another way."

The journal lay open on the table between them.

Sera studied the ancient text, her finger tracing the faded ink. The words were difficult to decipher, but Darian had already translated most of it. His notes filled the margins, precise and careful.

"The Devourer was imprisoned at the heart of the Lumina Veil," he said. "The original Astral Wardens sacrificed themselves to create the prison. They bound their life forces to the Veil itself, using their own Resonances as the seal."

"And my bloodline?"

"One of the Wardens survived. Your ancestor. She carried the key. A piece of the prison bound to her blood." He pointed to a passage. "It says here that the key would be passed down through generations. That the Aethel line would always carry the burden of the prison."

Sera read the passage. Her stomach churned.

"She never told anyone," she murmured. "She kept the secret. Passed it down to her children. And they passed it down to theirs. All the way to me."

"Yes."

"Did they know what would happen?" Sera looked up. "Did they know that their descendants would kill anyone they tried to love?"

Darian hesitated. "The records are incomplete. But I believe the curse was an unintended side effect. The prison was designed to draw power from the key when it was threatened. When the Devourer attacks the prison, the key reacts. It tries to draw in power from the nearest source of strong Resonance."

"Her husband."

"Any strong Resonance." He shrugged. "But the closer the bond, the more the prison can draw. A husband bound by Soul Attunement is the perfect conduit."

Sera closed the journal. Her hands were shaking.

"So every time I fall in love," she said slowly, "the prison tries to use that love to feed itself. And when it fails, it takes the life of the man I love instead."

"Yes."

"And the only way to stop it is to find a stronger source of power. A Resonance strong enough to satisfy the prison permanently."

"Or a way to break the bond between you and the prison entirely." Darian leaned forward. "I have been studying the Attunement ritual. There is a way to reverse it. To unbind a Resonance from its bond. It is dangerous, but it is possible."

Sera stared at him. "You want to break the prison?"

"I want to free you." His amber eyes burned with intensity. "The prison was created by the Wardens. It was their sacrifice, their choice. You did not choose this burden. You do not deserve to carry it."

"And if breaking the bond frees the Devourer instead?"

"Then we will have a much bigger problem." He smiled grimly. "But I believe there is a way to do both. To break your bond and seal the prison at the same time."

"How?"

Darian reached across the table. His fingers brushed against hers. The contact sent a jolt of warmth through her body. Her Resonance hummed in response.

"With a new Attunement," he said softly. "A bond between two people who are already bound to the prison. A bond that would merge our curses instead of consuming one of us."

Sera pulled her hand back.

"You want to Attune with me?"

"I want to save you." He did not look away. "And I want to save myself. I have spent seven years searching for a purpose. Seven years trying to understand why I was made a void. I believe I was made this way so I could be your balance. Your counterweight. The one person the curse cannot consume."

Sera's heart was racing. She could barely breathe.

"You do not know that," she whispered. "You cannot know that."

"I know that I touched you and I did not die." He smiled. "I know that your Resonance is singing, even now, even though you are trying to hide it. I know that I have never met anyone like you. And I know that I cannot walk away from this mystery. From you."

The silence stretched between them.

Sera looked at the journal. At the ancient text. At the notes in Darian's careful handwriting. She looked at the tower walls. The locked door. The guards outside. She looked at her hands, the hands that had held six dying princes.

And then she looked at Darian Thorne.

"You said we have six days," she said. "Let us use them wisely."

The hours passed in a blur of ancient text and frantic notes.

Darian spread his findings across the table. Maps of the Lumina Veil. Diagrams of the prison's structure. Coded passages that took hours to decipher. Sera read everything. She asked questions. She pushed back against his theories. She demanded proof.

And slowly, reluctantly, she began to believe.

The prison was real. The Devourer was real. The curse was real. And there might be a way to break it.

"The key is the location," Darian said, pointing to a diagram. "The prison is not just a magical construct. It is tied to a physical place. At the heart of the Veil, where the waterfall meets the Mistdeep."

"The heart of the Veil is impossible to reach," Sera said. "No one has ever made the journey and returned."

"I have a theory about that." He pulled out another parchment. "The void inside me. The absence of Resonance. I believe it is not a weakness. I believe it is a shield."

"A shield?"

"The Devourer feeds on Resonance. That is how it gains power. But I have no Resonance. I am invisible to it. I could walk into the heart of the Veil and the Devourer would not sense me."

Sera stared at him. "You want to walk into the prison of an ancient entity. Alone."

"I want to walk into the prison with you." He smiled. "You are the key. I am the shield. Together, we might be able to reach the heart of the Veil and break the curse for good."

The idea was insane. Reckless. Suicidal.

Sera found herself nodding anyway.

"Six days," she said. "We have six days to figure out how to reach the heart of the Veil."

"I have already started." Darian gathered his notes. "The first step is escaping this tower."

Sera looked at the locked door. The guards outside. The high windows that overlooked a drop of hundreds of feet into the gardens below.

"And how do you propose we do that?"

Darian's grin was almost boyish. He reached into his robes and pulled out a small object. A crystal. It glowed with a soft, amber light.

"I may have no Resonance," he said. "But I have been collecting artifacts for seven years. This one creates a diversion. A convincing one."

"What kind of diversion?"

He held up the crystal. "A magical explosion. Loud. Bright. Harmless. It will draw every guard in the tower to the east wing."

"Leaving the west wing unguarded."

"Exactly." He tucked the crystal back into his robes. "We will have perhaps thirty seconds. Maybe less. We will need to move fast."

Sera looked at the door. At the guards. At the tower that had become her prison.

"Thirty seconds," she repeated. "And then what?"

"Then we run." Darian held out his hand. "Together."

She stared at his hand. At the warmth in his eyes. At the hope that was slowly, painfully, starting to bloom in her chest.

*Six times,* she thought. *Six times you have trusted a prince. Six times you have lost him.*

But this time was different. This time he was not asking her to love him. This time he was asking her to trust him.

"I will have to take the west stairwell," she said, ignoring his outstretched hand. "The east wing will be chaos. I will need to blend in."

"I have a cloak." He pulled a dark grey cloak from his bag. "It will hide your face. Enough to get you past the outer gates."

"And you?"

"I will be right behind you." He smiled. "I promised I would not leave you alone."

Sera took the cloak. The fabric was soft and heavy. She wrapped it around her shoulders and pulled the hood over her silver-blonde hair.

"Lead the way," she said.

Darian nodded. He moved to the door and pressed his ear against the wood. The guards were talking softly. Laughing. They had no idea what was coming.

He pulled out the crystal. He held it up and whispered a word Sera did not recognize. The crystal began to glow brighter. Hotter.

"Get ready," he murmured.

Sera braced herself.

Darian opened the door a c***k. He tossed the crystal down the hallway. It bounced once. Twice. Then it exploded.

The light was blinding. A deafening roar echoed through the tower. Smoke filled the corridor. The guards shouted in alarm. Boots pounded on the stone floor as they ran toward the chaos.

Sera moved.

She slipped out of the room and ran in the opposite direction. The west stairwell was empty. Her feet flew down the spiraling steps. She could hear Darian behind her. His footfalls were steady. Confident.

They burst through the door at the bottom of the tower. The outer courtyard was empty. The guards had all run toward the explosion.

Sera did not stop running. She ran across the courtyard, past the gardens, toward the outer wall. A small gate stood open. No one guarded it.

They ran through the gate. And then they were outside the Citadel.

Sera stopped. She doubled over, gasping for breath. Her heart was pounding. Her lungs burned.

She looked up at the Citadel behind her. The towers rose against the darkening sky. Somewhere in that chaos, the King would learn that she had escaped.

She looked at Darian. He was breathing hard too. His grin was wide. Exhilarated.

"Thirty seconds," he said. "Give or take."

Sera laughed. It was a broken, disbelieving sound. She had not laughed in years.

"You are insane," she said.

"Probably." He offered his hand again. "But I am also your only hope. So what do you say? Shall we find out what the curse is really protecting?"

She looked at his hand. At his kind, foolish, reckless face. At the future that terrified her and thrilled her in equal measure.

Sera took his hand.

"Lead the way," she said.