Chapter 7 — The Star Wakes Alone
969 Words
POV: Seraphyne
I woke screaming.
Not from pain.
From memory.
Stars were dying in my veins when my eyes opened. Constellations burned behind my lids, collapsing into ash as breath slammed back into my lungs. My body arched violently as power surged through nerve and bone in a wake so violent it cracked the crystal beneath me.
“Healers!” someone shouted.
Hands tried to hold me down.
They failed.
Starfire exploded outward in a blinding shockwave, hurling healers across the chamber like leaves in a storm. The wards screamed in protest as ancient glyphs ignited along the walls to contain me.
But it wasn’t rage that tore from my chest.
It was loss.
I felt it before anyone spoke her name.
Liana.
Her light was gone.
Her song extinguished.
Her bond—severed.
The silence where she should have been was wrong.
I staggered upright, clutching my chest as the truth struck like a blade straight through the core of my soul.
“She’s dead,” I whispered.
No one answered.
Their silence confirmed everything.
The room blurred as Alex appeared in front of me, her hands glowing with careful moonlight, not to restrain—only to steady.
“Seraphyne… breathe. You’ve been comatose for thirty days. You nearly burned yourself out when the blade struck Liana.”
The memory snapped into place.
The assassin.
The poison.
Liana stepping in front of death meant for me.
My scream shattered the last of the warded mirrors.
Stars rained through my veins as grief detonated.
“I was supposed to die,” I sobbed. “Not her. Not the one who raised him when no one else could.”
Riley stood just behind Alex, her eyes rimmed red. Mason was farther back in the shadows, arms crossed around a wound that had never truly healed.
And in the doorway—
Damieon.
Fourteen years old.
Standing alone.
His aura had changed.
No longer just prince.
No longer just heir.
He stood in the gravity of loss now.
I reached for him.
He did not come closer.
“You woke,” he said quietly. “Good. My mate lives.”
My heart shattered at the distance in his voice.
“Yes,” I whispered. “Because your aunt died for me.”
His eyes flickered—but he did not look away.
“She died because Nytherion sent a god-forged blade into our home.”
The room fell silent.
Alex stiffened. Riley drew in a sharp breath.
Damieon stepped forward at last.
But not toward me.
Toward the stars.
“I won’t hide anymore,” he said. “And I won’t be protected like fragile glass. If Nytherion fractured himself across realms, then I will hunt every fragment.”
Mason moved at once. “You’re not leaving alone.”
Damieon shook his head. “I am.”
“No,” Mason growled. “You’re a child.”
Damieon finally turned.
For the first time since Liana’s death, his voice rose.
“I am an orphan with a mate asleep in a star-prison and gods hunting my blood.”
The room shook as royal dominance flared.
“I am done being a child.”
The Moon shuddered outside the palace.
Alex stepped forward slowly. Gently.
“You leave, and Nytherion will follow.”
“That is the point,” Damieon said.
Riley’s voice was barely a whisper. “You’ll die.”
“I might,” he said calmly. “But he will not get her.”
Silence reigned.
Then I spoke.
“He’s right.”
All eyes snapped to me.
“Nytherion tracks star-blood across bonded lines. As long as Damieon remains within the realm, he will come again. Stronger.”
Alex’s jaw tightened. “You’re saying exile.”
“I’m saying protection through distance,” I whispered. “The farther Damieon moves beyond the core realms, the weaker Nytherion’s tracking becomes.”
Riley’s fists trembled.
“And what about you?”
I looked at the crystal beneath my feet.
“I will remain hidden in a star-sealed sleep. If I wake fully… Nytherion will feel it across existence.”
Damieon finally approached me then.
Slow.
Careful.
His power hummed with restrained storm.
“Do you choose this?” he asked quietly.
“Yes.”
“Or are you sacrificing yourself again?”
I met his eyes.
“For you?”
Always.
He nodded once.
Then turned to Mason.
“You will not follow.”
Mason’s breath fractured.
“I already lost one mate.”
Damieon’s voice softened, barely.
“You won’t lose me. But you will raise me through distance.”
The words cut deeper than any blade.
By nightfall, the exile was prepared.
A star-gate forged from ancient lunar crystal and celestial bone shimmered on the eastern cliff beyond the palace walls.
Alex stood beside me as I was laid once more within the star-seal, my body encased in living crystal that hummed in harmony with the cosmos.
Riley pressed her forehead to mine.
“We’ll bring you home,” she whispered.
I smiled weakly. “He will.”
Damieon approached last.
No fear in him now.
Only gravity.
“You are my mate in blood and sky,” he said. “No realm will break that.”
“Come back alive,” I whispered.
He placed his hand against the crystal.
Stars flared.
“I will come back as king.”
Then he turned.
And walked into exile.
Across the veil of worlds, Nytherion awakened.
Not fully.
Not yet.
But enough.
“Run,” the dark god murmured with amusement. “The farther you go… the sweeter your return will be.”
And beneath the silent stars…
The future stepped into shadow.
A lone heir.
A sleeping star.
And the god who would burn the heavens to claim them both.
- Writer
