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Chapter 6– The Weight of the Shadow
The days that followed blurred together like ink smeared across a page. Seraphina barely slept, and when she did, nightmares plagued her. Every time she closed her eyes, the whispers of the curse filled her ears, its voice like an insistent murmur just beneath the surface of her thoughts. The weight of it was suffocating, pulling at her, urging her to give in, to surrender to the darkness that was slowly consuming her from the inside out.
Lucien was a constant presence in her life now. He wasn't just the haunting figure from the tower anymore—he was her reluctant guide, her connection to whatever she had become. At first, he had been distant, cold as always, but now he seemed to watch her more closely, his eyes flicking over her every move with an intensity that made her skin crawl. And when he spoke, his words were heavy with a certain authority, as if he were preparing her for something she couldn't yet comprehend.
She hated that she needed him. She hated that she was bound to him by more than just the curse. There was something in his presence that unsettled her—a raw, unspoken tension that simmered between them like a storm waiting to break.
It wasn't just the curse that had changed her; it was Lucien, too. There were moments, brief flickers of softness in his otherwise icy demeanor, that made Seraphina question everything she thought she knew about him. But she couldn't trust it—not when everything in her screamed that the darkness was more powerful than anything he could offer.
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One evening, as the sun dipped below the horizon, Seraphina found herself standing in the courtyard of the academy, staring at the setting sky. The air was thick with the scent of night-blooming flowers, their fragrance almost intoxicating, but it couldn't mask the unease gnawing at her insides.
Footsteps approached behind her, and she didn't need to turn to know who it was. Lucien's presence had a weight to it, a suffocating quality that she could feel even before he spoke.
"You're becoming accustomed to the change," he said, his voice low and controlled, as though he were measuring his words carefully.
Seraphina didn't respond immediately. She couldn't. Her thoughts were a tangled mess, and the idea of confronting him about the curse, about everything that was happening to her, felt like stepping into a void.
"I don't know if I can do this," she admitted finally, her voice barely above a whisper. "I feel like I'm losing myself."
Lucien didn't answer right away, and when he did, his words were calm, almost detached. "You aren't losing yourself, Seraphina. You're becoming something else. The question is whether you can control it—or if it will control you."
Her pulse quickened at the cold certainty in his voice. "What if I can't control it?"
"There's no 'what if' about it. You have no choice but to learn how," he replied, stepping closer, the heat of his body radiating against the cool night air. His proximity made her breath catch, a wave of something darker stirring inside her—a dangerous pull she had learned to fear.
She took a step back, away from him, as if the distance might somehow protect her. "Why are you doing this, Lucien? Why are you helping me?"
He paused for a moment, his gaze locking onto hers, and for the briefest of moments, there was something unreadable in his expression—something soft, perhaps even vulnerable. But it was gone before she could fully grasp it, replaced by the familiar coldness she had come to expect.
"I'm not helping you because I want to," he said, his voice laced with an edge she hadn't expected. "I'm helping you because if you lose control, we all lose."
Seraphina felt a chill settle deep in her bones. "We all? You mean you, too?"
His gaze hardened. "You think you're the only one affected by this? The curse doesn't discriminate, Seraphina. It has the power to unravel everything. And when it does, it won't just be you who suffers."
Her mind spun as the weight of his words settled in. For the first time, the gravity of the situation hit her fully. The curse wasn't just a personal torment—it was something far greater, something that could consume everything around her.
Lucien continued, his voice steady, but there was an underlying tension there that she couldn't ignore. "You think I want to be here, guiding you through this? But I'm bound to it, too. My bloodline is tied to the curse as much as yours now."
A knot twisted in Seraphina's stomach. "So, you're saying that you're cursed, too?"
He didn't answer right away, his eyes narrowing slightly. "In a way. But my curse is different. I can survive it because I've learned to control it. But you…" He trailed off, and his gaze flicked to the ground, a fleeting moment of something almost resembling regret crossing his face. "You're still learning."
Seraphina didn't know what to say. She wanted to ask him why, if he was so experienced with this, he hadn't told her sooner. But she held her tongue. Something told her that it wasn't the time for questions.
Instead, she asked the one question she had been avoiding. "What happens if I can't control it?"
Lucien's eyes darkened, his expression hardening into something almost cold. "Then the curse will consume you. And everything you care about will burn with it."
The finality in his voice sent a shiver down her spine. The weight of his words hit her hard, and for a moment, she could hardly breathe. She wasn't sure if it was the curse, the darkness, or Lucien's presence that made her feel so fragile, but it all mixed together in a suffocating haze.
"I won't let that happen," she said, her voice shaky but resolute.
Lucien stepped closer, his presence towering over her, and his eyes locked onto hers with an intensity that made her heart race. "You won't have a choice. You'll have to make a decision soon—whether you'll embrace what's happening to you, or let it tear you apart."
For the first time, Seraphina felt a deep, raw fear course through her veins—not for the curse, but for what Lucien's words meant. The darkness within her, the growing hunger—it was all too real. And she knew that no matter what she chose, nothing would ever be the same again.
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Lucien's shadow loomed over her, heavy and suffocating, but it wasn't just the darkness that seemed to consume her. It was the pull he had on her, the way his presence made her heart race, her mind cloud with confusion. She had no idea what was happening to her, but she knew one thing—her life was no longer her own.
The curse had claimed her, but so had Lucien. And she was afraid that in the end, she wouldn't know which one would destroy her.