Seraphina's POV
The woman with white hair launches a sphere of dark energy straight at my chest.
I don't have time to think. Don't have time to be scared.
Cassian shoves me aside and takes the blast himself. It hits him hard, sending him crashing through a stone pillar.
"Cassian!" I scream.
"How touching." My supposed sister floats down from the rubble, her red eyes glowing. "The big bad Lycan playing hero. But you can't protect her forever, Your Majesty. Eventually, I'll get what I came for."
She raises both hands, and the ground beneath my feet cracks open.
I roll away just in time, my heart hammering. "Who are you? What do you want?"
"I told you. I'm your sister." She tilts her head, studying me like I'm an insect. "Though I go by Morgana now. Our birth name was... complicated."
"Liar!" I grab Lucy's dagger from Cassian's belt where he dropped it. "I don't have a sister!"
"You don't remember because you were too young. We were barely six months old when they separated us." Morgana's smile is cruel. "Mother gave birth to twins—both with the moon blood. But two heirs with that power? Too dangerous, they said. So they kept you, the sweet docile one. And they gave me to the Blood Witches."
She spreads her arms, dark energy crackling around her. "They turned me into this. A perfect weapon. Trained me my whole life for one purpose—to kill you when the time was right."
"Why now?" I demand, trying to buy time. Where is Cassian? Is he okay?
"Because you're about to marry the Lycan King and unlock his full power." Morgana's eyes narrow. "The binding ceremony between a Lycan and someone with moon blood creates a connection that breaks all seals, all limits. He becomes unstoppable. And you?" She laughs. "You become his weakness. His one vulnerability."
My mind races. That's what Cassian was trying to tell me. My bloodline wasn't just rare—it was the key to his power. And his downfall.
"So the prophecy about the Emperor's bride dying wasn't about a curse," I realize. "It was about you. You were always meant to kill whoever he chose."
"Smart girl." Morgana claps mockingly. "But you're missing the best part. See, when I kill you and drink your blood before the binding ceremony completes, I absorb your moon blood. All that power becomes mine. And then..."
She grins, showing those sharp teeth again. "Then I marry the Lycan King myself. Become Empress. Rule the empire with a god at my side."
"You're insane."
"I'm efficient." She lunges at me faster than before.
I barely dodge, slashing with the dagger. The blade cuts her arm and she hisses, jumping back.
"You have some fight in you. Good." She licks the blood from her wound. "I was worried this would be too easy."
"It will be impossible," a voice growls from behind me.
Cassian stands, brushing rubble from his shoulders. His eyes are glowing pure silver again, and the markings have returned to his skin—brighter than before.
"You can't have her, witch."
"Oh, I think I can." Morgana raises her hands, and suddenly twenty more figures appear around the arena. All wearing black armor. All with red eyes glowing.
"Blood Witches," Commander Aldric breathes beside me. When did he get here? "An entire coven."
"They've been planning this for years," Morgana announces. "Every failed assassination attempt, every disrupted ceremony—all part of the plan to keep the binding from happening until I was ready. And now I am."
The Blood Witches begin chanting. Dark energy swirls in the air, forming a barrier around the entire arena.
"No one leaves until the girl is dead," Morgana declares. "Not the Emperor, not his guards, not anyone. This ends tonight."
Cassian moves to stand in front of me, his body tense with power. "If you want her, you go through me first."
"With pleasure." Morgana signals her coven.
They attack as one.
What happens next is chaos. Cassian moves like lightning, his Lycan power fully unleashed. He tears through Blood Witches with his bare hands, silver energy exploding from him in waves.
Commander Aldric and his guards fight beside him, but they're outmatched. These aren't normal witches—they're weapons, just like Morgana.
I want to help, but I'm useless. I have a dagger and no training. I'll just get in the way.
Then I remember the letter. Cassian's letter mentioned something about moon blood being a power, not just a trait.
But I don't know how to use it. Don't even know what it does.
A Blood Witch breaks through Cassian's defense and comes straight for me. I slash with the dagger, but she's too fast. She grabs my throat and lifts me off the ground.
"Such weak blood," she hisses. "Such a waste."
My vision starts going dark. I claw at her hands but can't break free.
Is this how I die? Again?
No. No, I refuse.
I think about everything I've survived. Poison. Betrayal. Time travel. My own family trying to kill me.
I didn't come back from death just to die in a different way.
Something inside me snaps. Like a dam breaking.
Heat floods through my body, starting in my chest and spreading outward. My skin begins to glow—not silver like Cassian's markings, but pure white light, bright as the full moon.
The Blood Witch screams and drops me, her hands burning where she touched me.
I fall to my knees, gasping. What was that?
"Impossible," Morgana whispers. I look up to see her staring at me in shock. "You awakened it. Without training, without preparation—you awakened your moon blood."
The white light fades from my skin, but I can still feel it inside me. Warm. Powerful. Waiting.
"What is this?" I ask, staring at my hands.
"Your birthright." Cassian appears beside me, helping me stand. He's bleeding from multiple wounds but still standing. "Moon blood isn't just a trait, Seraphina. It's a power source. The rarest magic in existence. It can heal, destroy, and most importantly—"
"It can bond with Lycan blood to create something unstoppable," Morgana finishes bitterly. "That's why they separated us. Two moon blood heirs together would be too powerful. But one with training..." She looks at her hands, at the dark energy swirling there. "One twisted into a weapon could kill the other and take it all."
"That's not happening," I say firmly, the warmth still pulsing in my chest. "You're not taking anything from me."
Morgana's face twists with rage. "We'll see about that."
She raises both hands and the entire arena shakes. Cracks spread across the ground. The barrier around us grows darker, tighter.
"If I can't have your blood willingly, I'll drain it from your corpse." Her voice echoes with dark power. "Blood Witches! Forget the Emperor! Kill the girl! Kill her NOW!"
Every witch in the arena turns toward me.
Twenty pairs of red eyes lock onto their target.
Me.
Cassian steps in front of me again, but I can see he's barely standing. He's fought too hard, used too much power.
"Seraphina," he says quietly. "When I tell you to run, you run. Don't look back."
"I'm not leaving you—"
"You have to. You're the key to everything. If you die, my power dies with you. The empire falls. Lucien's allies take over." He looks at me over his shoulder, his silver eyes intense. "You're more important than you know."
"And you're more stubborn than you think," I shoot back. "We're in this together, remember? You said it yourself—we're allies."
A small smile crosses his face. "Allies. Right."
The Blood Witches begin their final attack, rushing toward us from all sides.
I grip the dagger tightly, that strange warmth building in my chest again. I don't know how to use moon blood power. Don't know how to fight.
But I'll figure it out. Or die trying.
Again.
The witches are ten feet away.
Five feet.
Cassian's hand finds mine. His fingers lace through mine, and suddenly that warmth in my chest explodes into a inferno.
Silver light erupts from Cassian. White light erupts from me.
The two energies collide—and fuse.
The resulting blast of power levels half the arena.
When the light fades, Morgana is on her knees, her Blood Witches scattered and unconscious around her.
And I'm standing with Cassian, our hands still joined, power crackling between us.
"That..." Commander Aldric stares at us in awe. "That was the true binding. The connection between Lycan and moon blood."
Morgana looks up at us with pure hatred. "No. No, this isn't how it ends. I was supposed to—"
"You were supposed to fail," a new voice says.
Everyone turns.
An elderly woman in white robes appears from the shadows. She moves toward us slowly, leaning on a staff.
"High Priestess!" Commander Aldric gasps. "But you were dying in the temple—"
"I was playing dead to draw out the real traitors." The High Priestess's eyes are sharp despite her age. "And it worked. We now know the Blood Witches have infiltrated the palace. We know they've been trying to prevent the binding ceremony for years."
She stops in front of Morgana. "And we know this poor child was taken from her family and twisted into a weapon against her own blood."
"Don't pity me," Morgana spits. "I chose this. I chose power."
"You chose nothing." The High Priestess's voice is sad. "You were a baby. They stole your choice."
She turns to me. "Lady Seraphina. Do you know what moon blood truly means?"
I shake my head, still holding Cassian's hand.
"It means you're descended from the Moon Goddess herself. A daughter of the divine." The priestess smiles gently. "And your sister is too. Two pieces of the same whole, separated at birth."
"Why?" I whisper. "Why separate us?"
"Because together, you would have been too powerful. The moon blood prophecy says twin daughters will either save the world or destroy it." The priestess looks between me and Morgana. "One will choose light. One will choose darkness. And their final battle will decide the fate of all."
My blood runs cold.
"So all of this—the assassination attempts, the curse story, the arena attack—was building to this? To me fighting my own sister?"
"Yes." The priestess nods gravely. "And I'm afraid the battle has only just begun."
Morgana starts laughing. It's a broken, bitter sound.
"You think this is over?" She stands, her body glowing with dark energy. "You think because you awakened your moon blood, you've won?"
She pulls something from her armor—a black crystal pulsing with purple light.
"This is a soul stone. It contains the essence of every Blood Witch who has ever lived." Her eyes gleam with madness. "If I can't have the power of moon blood, I'll take something better."
"No!" The High Priestess rushes forward. "If you activate that, you'll lose your humanity! You'll become—"
"A monster?" Morgana crushes the crystal in her hand. "I've always been a monster, Priestess. They made sure of that."
Dark energy explodes from her, so powerful it creates a shockwave that throws everyone back.
When we look again, Morgana has changed.
Her white hair is now black as night. Her red eyes burn like hellfire. And wings—massive black wings—unfold from her back.
"Now," she says, her voice echoing with a thousand whispers. "Now we have a fair fight."
She launches into the air and releases a blast of power so strong it tears the barrier apart.
The entire arena begins to crumble.
"Everyone evacuate!" Cassian shouts. "Get the citizens to safety!"
But Morgana isn't aiming for the citizens.
She's aiming for me.