A Test of Power
420 Words
Kael wasted no time.
“We need to see what the curse has done to you.”
Seraphina tensed. “What does that mean?”
Kael motioned to the far side of the chamber, where a wide expanse of stone stretched, empty and unmarked. “I need you to call it.”
Her blood ran cold. “Call… what?”
Kael’s gaze didn’t waver. “The power inside you.”
Seraphina stepped back. “I don’t even know if I have power.”
“You do,” Kael said smoothly. “The shadows wouldn’t have come for you otherwise.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but stopped.
Because he was right.
The mark on her wrist. The wraith’s attack. The barrier that had stopped it.
Something inside her had awakened.
And now, Kael was asking her to face it.
Seraphina exhaled shakily. “What if I can’t control it?”
Kael tilted his head. “Then I’ll stop you.”
His confidence was infuriating. But also… reassuring.
Seraphina squared her shoulders. “Fine.”
She stepped onto the stone floor, the cold seeping through her slippers. The room was silent, save for the faint crackling of torches on the walls.
Her heart pounded.
She closed her eyes.
And she reached.
At first, there was nothing. Only the steady rise and fall of her breath.
Then—
A pulse.
Like something waking up.
Seraphina inhaled sharply. The mark on her wrist burned, heat spreading up her arm, curling in her chest.
The shadows in the room shifted.
She gasped.
A tendril of darkness slithered across the floor, moving toward her like a living thing.
Her fingers trembled. “Kael—”
“Focus.” His voice was calm, steady. “Control it.”
She clenched her hands, trying to will the power to obey. But it was wild. Unrestrained.
The shadows lunged.
Kael moved.
He was in front of her in an instant, his hand gripping hers.
The moment his skin touched hers, the shadows stilled.
Seraphina sucked in a breath.
Kael’s hand was warm—too warm. And the mark on her wrist was no longer just hers. It had spread.
Across his fingers. His palm.
Kael swore under his breath, his grip tightening. “It’s stronger than I thought.”
Seraphina stared at him, her chest rising and falling rapidly. “What does this mean?”
Kael’s eyes met hers.
“It means the curse isn’t just claiming you,” he murmured.
“It’s claiming us both.”
- Writer
