The night stretched endlessly over Seraphina's mansion, the air thick with the scent of burning herbs and fear.
Thunder rolled across the distant hills like an omen, and every flash of lightning illuminated the dread in her pale, fever-stricken face.
She sat upright in bed now—barely—but the fire in her eyes refused to dim.
The call with Bianca had ended abruptly, the silence that followed heavier than any answer.
Bianca's pause, that uncertain tremor in her breath… it told Seraphina everything she needed to know.
"Bianca," she whispered into the quiet room, her voice shaking with anger and realization. "You're hiding something from me."
Her fingers curled around the edge of the sheets, trembling with a mix of rage and exhaustion.
The dark veins under her skin pulsed, glowing faintly as if something unholy moved within them.
The curse wasn't just spreading..... it was alive.
The door creaked open.
