Kael's POV
Pain.
Three hundred years without feeling anything in my left hand, and now it's like someone poured molten silver into my veins.
The stone that's been part of me for longer than I can remember—it's cracking. Breaking. Pieces fall away and I can see skin underneath. Human skin. Flesh that shouldn't exist anymore.
I fall to my knees.
"Stop!" I gasp at the girl. "Whatever you're doing—stop!"
But she's not doing anything. She just stands there, eyes wide with shock, her palm blazing with silver light. The Moonmark. The thing I hoped I'd never see again.
The last person who had that mark destroyed an entire kingdom.
And now one's in my courtyard, accidentally ripping my curse apart.
The pain finally fades. I look down at my hand. Half of it is normal now—tan skin, human warmth. I can feel the cold stone under my knees. I can feel the wind.
I haven't felt wind in three hundred years.
"I'm sorry," the girl whispers. Her voice shakes. "I didn't mean to—I don't know what happened—"
"You need to leave." I push myself up, keeping distance between us. "The gates are still open. Run. Get as far from here as you can."
"The Shade Wolves are out there!"
"Better them than me!" I don't mean to shout, but the words come out harsh. "Do you understand what you just did? The curse isn't just on me—it's holding back something much worse. If you break it completely—"
The ground trembles.
We both freeze.
"No," I breathe. "No, no, no."
"What's happening?" The girl—Elara, the rabbit called her—grabs onto a broken fountain for balance.
"The barrier." I can feel it weakening. The magical wall that keeps the worst things in the deepest parts of the wasteland, away from the Keep, away from Stellaris. "It's connected to the curse. When you damaged my curse, you damaged the barrier."
Another tremor. Stronger this time.
In the distance, something roars. Not the Shade Wolves. Something bigger. Something that shouldn't be awake.
"I didn't know!" Elara's eyes fill with tears. "I'm sorry—I'll leave—I'll—"
"It's too late for that." I look past her at the open gates. Already I can see shapes moving in the darkness. Not just wolves anymore. Other things. Drawn by the weakened barrier like sharks to blood. "Get inside. Now."
"But you said—"
"I said a lot of things. Most of them don't matter if we're both dead." I stride past her toward the gates. "Nim! I know you're still here. Make yourself useful."
The three-eyed rabbit pops up from behind a dead bush. "Finally talking to me after forty years of ignoring me? I'm touched."
"Seal the courtyard entrance. Everything you've got."
"Oh, we're in that much trouble?" Nim's third eye glows bright. "Fun!"
He hops to the gates. Silver light erupts from him, forming threads that weave across the opening like a giant spiderweb. It won't hold long, but it might buy us minutes.
I turn back to Elara. She hasn't moved. Just stands there shaking, looking at me like she's trying to decide if I'm going to kill her.
Fair question.
"Inside," I repeat. "Unless you want to see what a Bone Crusher looks like up close."
That gets her moving. She runs for the Keep's entrance. I follow, my newly-human hand clenching and unclenching. It feels wrong. Too soft. Too vulnerable.
I slam the door shut behind us. The sound echoes through the empty halls.
We're in the main hall now. Dark. Cold. Abandoned. I haven't had a real guest in over a century. The last tribute ran screaming after three hours. Before that, one tried to stab me in my sleep. Before that, one just sat in a corner and stared at the wall until she stopped eating.
"What now?" Elara asks. Her voice is small in the huge space.
Good question.
I should take her to a room far from mine. Lock her in. Keep her safe and separate until I figure out how to get her out of here without breaking the curse further or getting her killed.
But I can feel it—the pull between her Moonmark and my curse. Like two magnets trying to connect. Every second she's near me, the magic wants to react.
"Your palm," I say. "Let me see it."
She hesitates, then holds out her left hand. The Moonmark glows softly in the dim light, a perfect silver crescent right in the center of her palm.
"Do you know what this is?" I ask.
"My family said it's a curse. That it makes me able to absorb dark magic."
"It's not a curse. It's a crown." I don't touch her hand, but I can feel the power radiating from it. "The royal line of Lunaris marked their heirs with this. My kingdom. The one that doesn't exist anymore."
Her eyes widen. "Your kingdom?"
"I was a knight. The captain of the royal guard. When the Sorcerer King attacked, I tried to protect the royal family. I failed." The memories are old but still sharp. "The last thing the Moon Queen did before she died was curse the Sorcerer King. She bound him to this land, made him immortal, forced him to guard the very wasteland he created as penance."
I hold up my stone hand.
"I'm not the Warden," I say quietly. "I'm the Sorcerer King. The monster your people tell stories about. The one who destroyed Lunaris and created the Scorched Wastes."
Elara's face goes pale. "You're... you're the villain."
"Yes."
"Then why are you protecting Stellaris? They built their city on your kingdom's grave."
"Because the Queen's curse doesn't care about irony. It just cares that someone guards this wasteland and keeps the dark things from spreading. She made sure I'd spend eternity protecting the land I destroyed. Poetic justice." I let my hand drop. "And now you've weakened the curse. Which means the dark things are waking up. And Stellaris is in danger."
A crash from outside makes us both jump. The gates are shaking. Nim's barrier won't hold much longer.
"What do we do?" Elara whispers.
I look at her—this girl with the Moonmark, descended from the very queen who cursed me. Fate has a sick sense of humor.
"The curse and your mark—they're connected. You weakened it accidentally, which means theoretically you could strengthen it too." I move toward the stairs leading deeper into the Keep. "There's a ritual chamber below. If we're lucky, we can use your power to reinforce the barrier before something catastrophic happens."
"And if we're not lucky?"
"Then the barrier falls, the wasteland spreads, and Stellaris gets swallowed by the same darkness that destroyed Lunaris."
She follows me. "No pressure, right?"
Despite everything, I almost smile. Most tributes are crying by now. This one makes jokes.
We descend into the lower levels. The air gets colder. The walls are carved with ancient symbols that glow faintly as we pass—the Queen's magic, still embedded in the stone after three centuries.
"Can I ask you something?" Elara says behind me.
"Now?"
"Why did you destroy Lunaris? What made you become... what you are?"
I stop walking. The question hits harder than it should.
"Grief," I say finally. "I lost someone. Someone who meant everything. And I thought I could use dark magic to bring her back. But dark magic doesn't give—it only takes. It took my humanity, my kingdom, everyone I loved. And it gave me nothing but this curse."
Silence.
"I'm sorry," Elara says softly.
"Don't be. I earned this."
We reach the chamber. It's circular, with symbols carved into every surface. In the center is a stone altar with channels cut into it, meant for blood magic.
"What do I do?" Elara asks.
"Place your hand on the altar. I'll guide the magic. Your Moonmark should—"
The door slams shut behind us.
We spin around.
Standing in front of the sealed door is a figure made of shadow and smoke. It has the shape of a man, but wrong—too tall, too thin, with eyes that glow red.
"Well, well," it says in a voice like grinding stones. "The Sorcerer King and a Moon-Marked girl. Together. How deliciously ironic."
I step in front of Elara. "Theron. You're not supposed to be awake."
"Your weakening curse woke me, old friend." The shadow-thing—Theron, the first dark creature I ever created—grins with too many teeth. "And I came to thank the girl who freed me."
He looks at Elara.
"Hello, little Moon Princess. Would you like to know a secret? The Sorcerer King isn't trying to save you. He's trying to use you. That ritual he mentioned? It doesn't strengthen the barrier."
Theron's grin widens impossibly.
"It transfers the curse. From him to you."
Elara looks at me, betrayal dawning in her eyes.
"Is that true?"