"Find her!"
Lucian's voice echoed through every corner of the manor, sharp enough to rattle the frost clinging to the walls. Panic, raw and unfamiliar, twisted in his chest. Even the ashes… her ashes… were gone.
"Call the phoenix experts!" he snapped, his breath harsh, eyes wild as they scanned the empty hall. "Ask them what happens when they die! Where and when they rise again!"
The maids and guards scattered, their footsteps echoing through the icy corridors.
Lucian stood in the center of the hall, his pulse pounding against the quiet. The cold inside him had never felt this heavy.
Lucian stood in the center of the hall, his pulse pounding against the quiet. The cold inside him had never felt this heavy.
"Call Sebastian back! Now!"
"I'm here, Lord." Sebastian appeared from the far corridor, his breathing uneven from haste, frost still clinging to his shoulders.
Lucian turned to him sharply. "She's gone. Not a trace left... no body, no flame, nothing." His voice cracked slightly, then steadied again, low and sharp. "Tell me, Sebastian. Can a phoenix vanish without rebirth?"
Sebastian hesitated. "Not unless…" he paused, eyes narrowing, "something interfered. Their cycle can be broken... if their ashes were taken before the rebirth began."
Lucian's eyes darkened, the frost at his feet spreading outward in an instant. "No—no, you could be wrong… she might take time to rebirth. Call the expert now! And you—" he pointed to one of the maids, "find her ashes. Every speck of them!"
"Lord, calm down…" Sebastian's voice was steady, though his breath misted in the freezing air. "If her ashes are still within the manor, she'll return. You know that."
"Shut up! "Are you a phoenix now?!" Lucian snapped. His glare was enough to ice over the collar of Sebastian's coat. "She can't die… not yet. Not until she brings me the real Lady Celeste! So whatever happens, bring her back to me!"
His voice cracked the air like a blade of frost. For a long moment, no one moved.
He told himself it was anger, not fear. She was a phoenix; she would come back. That was what their kind did. That was the logic he clung to.
So why did his chest feel so… hollow?
Minutes later, hurried footsteps echoed down the hall. Two guards came through the frosted doorway with a man in a wrinkled white lab coat, his badge half-crooked, clutching a tablet like it was armor.
"D-Dr. Alden Phoenix Division, Lord," the man stammered, adjusting his glasses with shaking fingers. He tried to sound professional, but his voice cracked halfway through his own name. Everyone knew Lucian Drake hated phoenixes — their kind, their flames, even their breath.
Lucian's voice came out low, almost a growl. "Explain. If a phoenix dies and the ashes disappear… what happens?"
The doctor froze. "Disappear? As in… completely?"
Lucian tilted his head slowly, and didn't look pleased with that question.
"A—uh so…" He fumbled with his tablet, scrolling through holographic notes. "Um—if the ashes are moved before the rebirth process stabilizes, it can interrupt the cycle. The spirit will look for a familiar anchor. Something it was connected to when alive."
Lucian's brow creased. "An anchor?"
"Yes, anything that still carries their energy… something they touched, kept close, or… bonded with emotionally." The doctor swallowed hard, avoiding Lucian's eyes. "Without it, they might never regenerate properly."
Lucian's expression didn't change, but the temperature in the room dropped a few more degrees. "So you're saying she could be trapped somewhere between life and nothing because of… sentiment?"
"N-not sentiment exactly, sir—"
"Shut up." His voice was quiet but sharp enough to slice through the air. He turned to Sebastian. "Get every record about her. Birthplace, family, coworkers, anyone who's ever spoken to her. I want everything."
Sebastian blinked. "You mean—?"
"Everything," Lucian repeated. "Her files, her apartment, her locker, even her damn social feeds. Trace every item she owned, touched, or ever cared about. If there's even a chance something links her back to this world, I'll find it."
The doctor hesitated. "Sir… with all due respect, if she was a registered phoenix, her identity should've been in the system. But there's no record of her under any division, not even the hidden ones. Whoever she was… she wasn't supposed to exist."
Lucian's gaze snapped toward him, cold and lethal. "Then find out who made her exist."
No one dared move. The frost on the floor crept toward the doctor's shoes, stopping just short of his toes.
"Until I say otherwise," Lucian said, each word clipped with authority, "no one leaves this manor. And no one breathes a word about what happened here. I don't care what it takes… I want her back. And you—" his eyes cut to the doctor, "shut your flame off."
Sebastian's throat tightened, but he only nodded.
Lucian turned away, eyes fixed on the melting spot of ice near where she'd last stood, a faint shimmer of gold still trapped beneath the frost.
He didn't know why he cared.
He just couldn't stand the idea that she might be gone for good.
Lucian's hand curled into a fist at his side. The air around him trembled, glassy cracks spreading across the floor. A chandelier above gave a faint creak before frost laced its edges, snow-like dust drifting down.
Sebastian gave the staff a silent signal to retreat. No one wanted to breathe too loudly near their master when he was like this.
The frost continued to spread until the manor itself seemed to hold its breath. For a moment, the entire world felt frozen… still, suspended.
And somewhere miles away… something stirred.
A faint shimmer rippled across the surface of the dispatch table in the administrative cubicles near Lucian's office, the air above it bending like heat haze. A single drop of golden light flickered, then another, forming a faint outline, fragile, flickering like a candle about to die out.
The air was thick, charged. Then came the sound… a single and shallow gasp.
Seraphina's fingers twitched first. Her lungs burned as if she'd been underwater too long, her body cold, heavy… then alive. She coughed, a sharp, painful breath tearing out of her as light rushed through her veins.
"Welcome back, Miss Seraphina," Maya's voice chimed, bright and cheerful as ever.