Lorcan was the first to recover, his expression instantly snapping back from raw pain to rigid control. His pupils, once merely amber, now glowed with a fiery intensity.
"Kael," he commanded, his voice tight and slightly raspy.
"Summon the Head Mage. Now."
Kael, who had watched the entire scene, bowed swiftly and vanished from the doorway with a silent efficiency that was starting to annoy me. I was still clutching my shoulder, the memory of that scorching cold battling the fiery heat of the Sun-Fire surging under my skin.
Lorcan looked down at the cream-colored silk fabric he had draped over me. It now had a faint, glittering scorch mark near the edge where his hand had rested. He nudged the silk off my shoulder with his foot, distancing himself from me immediately.
"You are volatile," he stated, leveling the accusation at me as if I were a poorly calibrated machine. "We knew your power was untamed, but the active rejection… it is far more severe than the histories predicted."
"Good," I muttered, finding a perverse satisfaction in having hurt him. "Maybe the curse should just take you and leave me out of it."
He ignored the comment, already shifting his focus to the problem at hand. "The forced bond will be excruciating for both of us. It could kill you, and if it kills you before the magic binds, the Sun-Fire essence will be lost and the curse will certainly consume me within the hour."
His lack of emotion regarding my potential death was oddly motivating. I was suddenly determined to survive just to spite his calculated detachment.
The chamber doors opened again, and Kael returned, ushering in a Fae who looked significantly older and less polished than the rest of the Court. The Head Mage was draped in robes the color of aged parchment and his face was a roadmap of fine wrinkles. His eyes were a striking, unsettling shade of violet. They looked like they had seen a lot. The poor man.
He didn't bow deeply, he just gave Lorcan a respectful but swift inclination of his head. "My King. Kael said you required an immediate assessment of the Solar." His violet eyes swept over me, and I felt a faint, invisible pressure which was most likely an attempt to probe my internal power. I rolled my eyes internally, very subtle.
"She is not merely untrained, Alaric," Lorcan stated, bypassing pleasantries. "Her magic actively repelled my touch. The physical reaction was violent. Can the bonding ritual be performed without disintegrating her?"
Alaric approached me cautiously, treating me like a viper in a jar. He held out a hand, and a small, delicate sphere of swirling, bluish-white light formed above his palm. It looked like captured moonlight.
"It is a question of resistance, My King," Alaric said, speaking to Lorcan but watching me. "If the Solar essence is rejecting the Shadow-Curse, the merging forces will tear her apart before they can unify."
He slowly brought the sphere of light toward my chest. As it drew near, the static beneath my skin intensified. It was trying to pull the light in and consume it.
Just before the sphere touched my shirt, a faint snap echoed in the chamber. The sphere shattered, exploding into harmless, cold sparks that showered over me.
Alaric sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Ah. There is the problem."
"What problem?" I demanded, brushing the cold sparks off my skin.
"A blockade," the mage explained. "Your magic is not merely untrained, Seraphina Lyra. It has been sealed like we already suspected. Before the attack on them, the Solar mages must have placed a complex ward on you. It is a powerful barrier designed to hide you from the Shadow-Curse and suppress the Sun-Fire from the inside."
I remembered the constant hum, the strange power that only erupted when I was shocked or panicked. "So I was suppressed."
"Precisely," Alaric confirmed. "The Sun-Fire is trapped behind a wall. The reaction you had just now to the King's curse was a small, momentary break in that seal. The power is fighting to get out but the seal is holding it back."
This is crazy. Who even put a seal on me and why? I have always wondered who my birth parents were. My grandmother never told me until she passed away.
The Head Mage looked gravely at Lorcan. "My King, this is severe. The bonding ritual requires the Solar's power to flow freely into the Shadow-Curse willingly. If we try to force the connection while this seal holds, the pressure will be catastrophic. She will combust, and the resulting magic feedback could kill us all, perhaps instantly fulfilling the curse."
Silence descended. Lorcan's hands were now clenched at his sides, his jaw taut. For the first time, I saw a flicker of true fear in the depth of his eyes. Perhaps, fear of the failure of his last chance.
"Then what is the solution, Alaric?" Lorcan's voice was barely a whisper.
"We must weaken the seal before the ceremony," the mage replied. "We need her to use her power, intentionally. To chip away at the wards from the inside. She must consciously summon the Sun-Fire, even in small bursts, to alleviate the pressure."
He turned to me, his violet eyes holding a mixture of pity and professional urgency. "You have two days, Seraphina. You must learn to summon the power that has been suppressed your entire life. You must become the fire you are meant to be. If you enter the bond with a sealed, pressurized essence, you won't just die; you will tear a hole in this world and the mortal one you came from."
Lorcan stepped forward, his shadow aura seeming to press against the chamber walls. He reached out to hover his hand an inch from my face. I could feel the cold radiating from his palm.
"I have given you three days, Seraphina Lyra," Lorcan said, his gaze hard, demanding. "Now you have two. I will not die because you are afraid of your own light. You will train. You will learn to control the Sun-Fire. Alaric, assign her a guard and a trainer. Now."
He turned and strode out. I was left staring at the empty doorway, the pressure of the coming wedding now overshadowed by a new goal. I had to learn how to wield fire for my sake and that of the man I hated.