Sera's POV
Silver light explodes from my hands as the first guard reaches me.
He flies backward like a rag doll, crashing into three others. They all collapse in a heap, groaning.
I stare at my glowing palms. What is happening to me?
Sera, run! Cassian grabs my arm, pulling me toward the door.
I yank free. Don't touch me!
High Prophet Maren's shrill voice cuts through the chaos. Seal the temple! The Void-Born is corrupting the divine order!
More guards pour into the hallway. At least twenty of them, all wearing armor covered in prophecy symbols that glow gold. They raise their hands, and magic crackles between their fingers the kind of fate-magic that's supposed to bind people to their destinies.
They shoot beams of golden light at me.
I throw my hands up, expecting to die
The magic hits an invisible wall around me and shatters like glass.
Everyone freezes.
Impossible, Maren whispers. Fate-magic always works.
I look at my hands again. The silver light is getting brighter, spreading up my arms like living fire. It doesn't hurt. It feels like... freedom.
She's immune to prophecy magic! one guard yells. How is she immune?
I don't know. I don't understand any of this. But I'm not staying here to find out.
I run.
Cassian runs beside me. Left! Take the left corridor!
I said don't help me! I shout, but I turn left anyway because guards are coming from the right.
We sprint through twisting hallways. My bare feet slap against cold stone. Behind us, boots thunder and voices yell orders. The whole temple is waking up an alarm bell starts ringing, loud and harsh.
The servants' stairwell is ahead, Cassian pants. It leads to the palace gardens. From there
From there I die in the gardens instead of my cell? I snap. Great plan, Your Highness.
I'm trying to save you!
You should've saved me three days ago!
We burst through a door and suddenly we're outside. Cool night air hits my face. Stars glitter overhead in their perfect patterns the same stars that gave everyone else their prophecies but ignored me at birth.
We're on a balcony halfway up the temple. Below us is the palace garden, then the city, then... nothing. Just the cloud-sea, a white ocean of mist that stretches forever. People say if you fall into the cloud-sea, you fall until you die.
Guards explode onto the balcony behind us. Ten of them, with more coming.
We're trapped.
Cassian draws a sword from a fallen guard and steps in front of me. Stay back.
How noble, I say bitterly. Now you want to protect me.
I've always wanted to protect you! He doesn't take his eyes off the guards. The magical oath was killing me, Sera. Every time I tried to speak against your sentence, it felt like my chest was being crushed. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't
Then you should've died trying! The words rip out of me. If you really loved me, you would've died trying!
Cassian flinches like I slapped him.
The guards advance slowly, weapons ready. Their captain a tall woman with cold eyes speaks. Prince Cassian, step away from the prisoner.
No, Cassian says simply.
Your Highness, she's breaking prophecies just by existing. People in the city are reporting their destiny marks fading. She's unmaking the divine order. She must die.
I look down at my glowing hands. I'm breaking prophecies? How?
Then I see them golden threads. Thin, shimmering threads attached to every guard, stretching from their chests up into the sky. I blink hard, but the threads don't disappear.
Do you see something? Cassian asks quietly.
Threads, I whisper. Golden threads connected to everyone.
His eyes widen. Prophecy threads. You can see prophecy threads?
I reach toward the nearest guard's thread without thinking. My fingers brush it
The thread snaps.
The guard screams and clutches his chest. The glowing prophecy symbols on his armor go dark. He falls to his knees, gasping. My destiny... I can't feel my destiny anymore!
The other guards stare in horror.
I stare at my hand in shock. I just... unmade his prophecy? With a touch?
Demon! the captain shrieks. She's a demon sent to destroy us!
All nine remaining guards attack at once.
Cassian fights three of them, his sword flashing in the starlight. He's good really good but there are too many.
The other six come for me.
I don't think. I just react. I grab at the air where their prophecy threads glow, and I pull.
Six threads snap simultaneously.
All six guards collapse, screaming about their lost futures.
Power floods through me wild and huge and terrifying. The silver light around me blazes so bright that everyone has to look away. I feel every prophecy in the entire temple, thousands of golden threads all tangled together like a massive spider web.
And I could break them all. Right now. I could free everyone from their destinies.
Or I could destroy them. I don't know which.
Sera! Cassian's voice sounds distant. Sera, you need to control it!
But I can't control it. The power is too big, too overwhelming. It's pulling me apart from the inside.
More guards flood onto the balcony. At least thirty now. High Prophet Maren appears behind them, her face twisted with rage.
Kill her! Maren commands. Kill her before she unmakes everything!
The guards raise crossbows.
Cassian jumps in front of me, arms spread wide. No!
Move, Prince Cassian, or you die with her!
Then I die with her!
My heart cracks. Even now, even after everything, he's trying to save me.
But we're surrounded. There's no escape. Thirty crossbows pointed at us. The cloud-sea behind us. And my power burning through me like wildfire.
Maren raises her hand. Fire.
Thirty fingers tighten on triggers.
Time seems to slow down.
I look at Cassian's back, at the prince who loved me in secret, who wrote me letters but couldn't fight for me when it mattered. I look at the guards ready to kill us both. I look at the prophecy threads connecting everyone to their fates.
And I make a choice.
I grab Cassian's hand, pull him backward with all my strength, and jump off the balcony.
We fall together into the cloud-sea.
Cassian screams. The wind tears the sound away.
We're falling, falling, falling into white mist that swallows us whole. This should kill us. Everyone knows you can't survive the cloud-sea.
But as we plunge through the clouds, I see something impossible below us
A massive griffin with dark wings, flying up to meet us.
And riding on its back is a man with dangerous eyes who's somehow expecting us, his arm already reaching out to catch me.
The last thing I hear before he pulls me onto the griffin is his voice, rough and certain:
I've been waiting for you, Sera Luminhart.
Then everything goes dark.