The Fifth Night
1331 Words
CHAPTER 18: The Fifth Night
Five days.
That’s all I had before the Council's deadline. Before they voted to seize the Blade of Severance and decide the fate of the bond without me.
Five days to prove I wasn’t the threat they feared.
And five days to find out if I truly was.
The palace wore tension like a second skin.
Servants moved quietly, always watching. Guards rotated faster, changing positions every few hours, as if afraid of spies in their own ranks. The nobles still loyal to Lucien walked the halls stiffly, flanked by protection.
The rest?
They gathered in corners, cloaked in silks and secrets.
And always… Malthas lurked in the distance. Wounded but unbroken. Rumor claimed he was healing with dark magic, somewhere in the lower crypts. No one dared seek him out not yet.
I spent the first of my five days in the training hall. Alone.
The dagger wasn’t a weapon I could swing. It pulsed, responded to will, to emotion. It wasn’t about strength. It was about resolve.
And I was tired of being afraid of it.
The next night, I bled.
Not in battle.
In ritual.
Zara helped me prepare the sacred circle in the old library, using symbols found in Lysandra’s journals words not spoken aloud in centuries. She drew them in ash, chalk, and salt. I pricked my finger and let my blood drip into the center of the seal.
“I still don’t like this,” Zara muttered. “Blood rituals never end well.”
“I need to know what’s inside me,” I said. “What she left behind.”
“It’s not just her, Aria. You said it yourself—you feel more than her. There’s something ancient in you now. Something awakened.”
“I don’t want to be afraid of it anymore.”
I sat inside the circle and closed my eyes.
The flame greeted me instantly.
It wasn’t a dream. Not fully.
It was memory conscious memory.
But this time, I wasn’t just seeing Lysandra.
I was her.
Standing in an ancient hall, crown heavy on my head, her love a vampire prince with dark eyes and soft hands kneeling before her. Their kingdom had betrayed them. He was dying. And in her grief, she made the curse.
A bond that couldn’t be broken.
A curse passed down until it reached… me.
But the vision didn’t end there.
The scene shifted.
A figure stepped out of the shadows.
A cloaked man.
Not her prince.
Someone else. With crimson eyes no, not red. Deeper. Black-ringed. Cursed.
He whispered to her. Promised to bind her curse to a star. To power.
“Let them suffer as you have,” he said. “Let the pain echo through time.”
Lysandra nodded.
She was crying.
But she accepted.
I gasped awake.
Zara caught me before I hit the floor. “What did you see?”
“Someone else was involved,” I panted. “Lysandra wasn’t alone. She didn’t create the curse by herself.”
Zara frowned. “Who?”
“I don’t know.” I rubbed my temples. “But his eyes they weren’t normal. He was feeding on her grief. Encouraging it. Binding it to something darker.”
“A god?”
“A demon?” I shook my head. “Maybe just… ancient magic twisted by emotion.”
Zara’s voice dropped. “What if… what if that part is inside you, too?”
I met her eyes. “Then I need to fight it.”
By the third day, the castle grew colder.
The skies didn’t just darken. They thickened, clouds swirling unnaturally above the spires. Animals fled the forests. The eastern trees bowed as though under unseen pressure.
Even Lucien felt it.
He found me at dusk, standing by the windows of the war room.
“It’s starting,” he said.
“The unraveling?”
“The curse reacting. To you. To the council. To all of it.”
I turned to him. “Then we don’t have time to wait.”
He pulled something from his pocket a locket.
“I had it made for you,” he said softly. “It’s spelled with my blood. If anything happens if you’re ever in danger it will call me.”
I took it with shaking fingers. “You think they’ll move against me before the vote?”
He looked down. “I think they already have plans.
That night, the shadows came.
I should have known the danger would come while I slept.
But I hadn’t expected it to come from inside my own chambers.
The blade came first.
Glinting in moonlight. A whisper of air over my throat.
My eyes snapped open as the assassin pressed down.
I twisted, just barely avoiding the full slice pain ripped across my collarbone. I screamed.
The guards didn’t come fast enough.
But Lucien did.
The door burst open, and with a growl that didn’t sound human, he threw the assassin off me, his claws tearing into flesh. Blood sprayed the walls. The figure crumpled, dead before he hit the floor.
Lucien turned to me, face still twisted, eyes glowing.
“Aria” he dropped to his knees. “You’re hurt.”
I was shaking. “Just… just a cut. I’m okay.”
“No,” he said, fury in every line of his face. “This ends now.
We stormed the council chambers at dawn.
Lucien didn’t ask for permission.
He kicked the doors open.
I stood beside him, bandaged but unbowed, the dagger visible on my belt. I made no effort to hide it anymore.
Elder Varion stood from his seat. “What happened?”
“An assassin,” Lucien snapped. “In Aria’s private chambers.”
Gasps echoed. A few councilors shifted uneasily. But others… didn’t look surprised.
Lord Malric folded his arms. “We have no proof it was sent by anyone here.”
Lucien snarled. “You don’t get to play diplomat. Someone tried to murder the bloodbound heir.”
Varion’s gaze settled on me. “And yet she’s still standing.”
I stepped forward. “I’m not afraid of you.”
“You should be.”
That came from someone else. A woman to the left of the dais. Lady Cyrisse, high mage of the outer houses.
She stood slowly. “The bond is too unstable. The curse is responding to her. If we don’t act, she’ll destroy this realm.”
I felt the fire rise in my chest.
“Then try it,” I said. “Take the dagger. Break the bond.”
I pulled the blade free.
Held it toward her.
“Go on,” I said. “Kill me. Kill him. See if it saves you.”
Silence.
No one moved.
Because they were all cowards.
When the chamber emptied, Elder Varion remained.
“You’ll have to do more than speak,” he told me.
“I know.”
“There’s power building in the city. The curse isn’t just in your blood anymore. It’s leaking.”
“Then help me contain it.”
He gave a single nod.
“I will. But you must be ready, Aria. The vote is only two days away. And if they win… they’ll take everything from you.”
I touched the dagger again.
“No,” I said. “Not everything.
That night, Lucien found me in the garden.
The stars had vanished behind the cursed clouds, but he held a candle between us.
“For light,” he said.
“For hope,” I replied.
We didn’t speak again for a long time.
He pulled me into his arms, his heartbeat steady.
“You don’t have to carry this alone.”
“I know,” I said. “But I was born to carry it.”
He kissed my forehead.
“Then let’s walk through the fire,” he whispered, “and come out on the other side.”
Together.
- Writer
