The chamber was too bright.
Too hot.
Too wrong.
The burning brazier in the center roared with a hungry, sun-colored flame — an abomination in a vampire palace. Ariaxa could barely think through the heat searing her skin, through the ropes cutting into her wrists, through the panic clawing at her throat.
Seren stood between the rebels, a queen of shadows draped in white silk, smiling like this was the night she had awaited her entire life.
“Surprised?” she purred, stepping toward Ariaxa with slow, predatory grace. “You shouldn’t be. I’ve been planning this for weeks.”
Ariaxa glared. “You’re working with Elyndor rebels?”
“Working with,” Seren corrected, voice dripping sweetness. “Feeding. Guiding. Manipulating.” She twirled a strand of her hair around one finger. “I gave them everything. Guard rotations. Harem routes. Council schedules. Even Kaedan’s moments of weakness.”
Ariaxa’s stomach twisted. “You betrayed the entire palace.”
Seren shrugged, delighted by the accusation. “Betrayed? No. Gambled. And it paid beautifully.”
She stepped closer until her breath ghosted across Ariaxa’s cheek.
“Elyndor will rise,” Seren whispered. “The rebels will restore the Sun Kingdom. And when the dust settles, they promised me a throne beside whoever claims the crown.”
Ariaxa spat the words: “You’re lying.”
Seren chuckled. “Oh, Sun Princess, if only you understood how desperate your people are for a symbol. A prophecy. A savior.”
She gestured to the rebels surrounding the brazier.
“They believe you will bring Elyndor back from ash.”
Her smile sharpened.
“But I? I don’t need your symbolism.” She leaned close, brushing her lips near Ariaxa’s ear. “I just need Kaedan dead.”
Ariaxa recoiled, disgust twisting through her. “I’ll never help you.”
Seren’s expression shattered — the smile gone, rage flashing like a blade.
“You ungrateful little sun-born wretch,” she hissed. “Everything I do is for this moment — and you still think yourself too noble to take your own kingdom back?”
“I would rather die,” Ariaxa said.
Seren’s jaw clenched. The chamber temperature seemed to rise with her fury.
“Then die you shall.”
She lifted her hand.
“Place her on the slab.”
Rebels surged forward.
“No — don’t— DON’T TOUCH ME—!” Ariaxa struggled, kicking, twisting, teeth sinking into someone’s arm. A rebel cursed and backhanded her across the face.
Her vision sparked white.
Then they slammed her down on a stone altar carved with spiraling solar sigils. Her head cracked against the cold slab, stars bursting behind her eyes.
They bound her ankles.
Her wrists.
Her chest.
Pinned like a sacrifice.
Seren approached the brazier and lifted a bowl of burning sun-glyph powder — Ariaxa recognized the scent instantly. Solar magic, highly concentrated, used in Elyndor as a last resort to purge cursed metals.
And here… used to burn off a vampire collar.
Violently.
Fatally.
Seren tilted the bowl toward Ariaxa’s throat with a dreamy sigh. “Do you feel it? The heat? The prophecy burning awake inside you?”
Ariaxa clenched her jaw, refusing to give her the satisfaction of fear.
But the heat…
The heat grew unbearable.
The sun-glyphs around the brazier awakened — blazing gold, swirling faster, pulsing with magic that felt like her bloodstream was being pulled from her body.
A rebel pressed his fingers to the metal collar around her neck.
“Begin,” he ordered.
Seren’s eyes glowed. “Burn it.”
The rebels sprinkled the sun-glyph powder along the edges of Ariaxa’s collar.
The metal hissed.
Then screamed.
And then—
HER scream ripped from her throat.
“AH—! STOP—!!”
It felt like fire was sinking into her skin, burrowing under the metal, fusing to her bones. She gasped, choking, back arching violently against the restraints. Tears streamed down her temples, falling into her hair.
Seren watched with rapture, fingers pressed together. “Beautiful.”
“P-please—” Ariaxa’s voice broke, the words escaping before she could stop them. “It burns— it— it’s killing me—!”
Seren stepped closer, brushing Ariaxa’s cheek tenderly as she writhed. “You’ll live long enough. The collar is vampire-forged — it will resist. But your flesh…” She smiled softly. “Your flesh will melt.”
Another handful of powder hit the metal.
The collar flared bright white.
Ariaxa screamed again, throat tearing as the burning tore into her skin, dripping agony down her spine, spreading through her skull like fire ants chewing inside her bones.
“STOP!” she gasped. “P-please— stop—!”
Seren tilted her head. “You refused my offer. So now I’ll give Kaedan a gift.”
Ariaxa’s eyes fluttered, vision blurring. “What… gift…?”
Seren whispered:
“Your death.”
Ariaxa’s heart seized.
Seren leaned down, her voice soft and venom-sweet. “He loves you, you know.” A mocking pout. “I almost feel sorry for him. Watching him break after he loses the only thing he still cares about will be… exquisite.”
“The Emperor will burn,” one rebel muttered. “And Elyndor will rise.”
Seren’s smile sharpened like a blade.
“Raise the heat.”
A rebel grasped a metal rod heated in the brazier.
Ariaxa saw the ember glow at its tip.
Her scream lodged in her throat.
“NO — PLEASE — NO—!!”
The rod lowered toward the collar, toward her throat—
—when the chamber SHAKED.
A tremor.
A BOOM.
Then another.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
Rebels froze.
Seren blinked.
A third BOOM — louder, furious, echoing like a god striking the door with lightning.
“What—” a rebel began.
BOOM.
The stone doors bulged inward.
“Impossible—” another whispered.
Seren’s eyes widened for the first time all night. “No. No, he can’t— he wasn’t supposed to find—”
BOOOOOOM.
The doors EXPLODED INWARD, shattering into dust and rubble.
And through the swirling smoke —
Kaedan stepped into the chamber.
Eyes glowing blood-black.
Fangs bared.
Veins lit with fury.
Wings unfurling like death’s shadow.
He saw Ariaxa.
Pinned.
Burning.
Screaming.
And the world went still.
Until his voice — low, lethal, feral — filled the chamber:
“Touch. Her. Again.”
The flames in the brazier flickered.
Every rebel recoiled.
And Kaedan roared.