The morning after feels different.
Lighter.
Like the castle itself has paused to listen.
The stones don't groan so much beneath my feet. The wind that usually screeches through the halls moves softly now, almost like a lullaby. I don't know what happened in the garden exactly, I only know something shifted.
Kael hasn't spoken to me since.
But today… he looks at me.
Not in anger.
Not in pain.
Just looks. Like he's finally seeing something he's been trying not to for a very long time.
So when he appears at my door just past noon, cloak half-thrown over one shoulder and shadows trailing like reluctant pets, I don't ask questions.
I follow him.
Down the stairs. Past the west wing. Beyond the locked doors and enchanted mirrors and portraits with eyes that sometimes blink when you're not looking.
We keep walking until the air turns cold and still. Until even the shadows seem unsure of themselves.
Until we reach a door that looks older than time itself.
It's not made of wood or stone, but of bone.
Carved. Twisting. Beautiful in the most terrifying way.
Kael doesn't hesitate.
He presses a hand against the center and whispers something I don't understand. A language I've never heard before, but one that tastes of sorrow and blood and memory.
The door groans. Then opens.
Behind it is a spiral staircase, leading down into darkness.
Still, I don't stop.
Because he doesn't stop.
And because part of me already knows, whatever waits down there is the truth I asked for.
It takes minutes.
Or hours.
Time doesn't work right here. I feel it slipping away, curling at the edges of my mind.
When we finally reach the bottom, I'm breathless.
Not from fear.
From what I see.
The chamber is vast.
Circular.
And lit by floating flames that hang in midair like sleeping stars.
The walls are covered in runes glowing softly, pulsing like a heartbeat. At the center, there's a pool of silver water, still and mirror-like, surrounded by black roses growing from the stone.
I know this isn't just any room.
It's the heart of the curse.
Kael walks to the pool. He kneels beside it, his fingers brushing the surface like he's afraid to wake it.
"This is where it began," he says quietly. "Where they bound the magic. Where they used her… to chain it to me."
I step forward. "They?"
"The high mages," he replies. "My father's counsel. They said they could save her. That they could stop the decay that was consuming her soul. But they lied. They wanted the magic. This magic."
I stare at the pool. "And they used her as a vessel."
He nods once. "They needed a tether. Something beautiful. Something beloved. They told me I had to anchor it with love, or it would destroy her instantly."
He swallows hard.
"I did what they asked."
"But it destroyed her anyway," I whisper.
"No," he says bitterly. "I destroyed her. Because I gave the magic a name. I gave it a face to remember."
His hands shake.
"She screamed," he says. "She screamed until the walls cracked. And when it was over, when her body collapsed, the magic didn't die with her. It burrowed into me. It used my grief like a bridge."
I reach for his hand.
He lets me take it.
"Kael," I say, voice trembling, "you didn't destroy her. You loved her."
"And it wasn't enough," he whispers. "That's what curses are. They're not born from hatred. They're born from love twisted too far."
We're quiet for a long time.
Then he lifts my hand to his lips.
Softly. Carefully. Like it's the first time he's touched something without breaking it.
"I brought you here," he says, "because I don't want to lie to you anymore. You asked me for the truth. This is it."
bloom
I look around again.
At the pool.
The runes.
The flowers blooming in a room with no sun.
"And what happens if we try to break it?" I ask.
Kael's gaze flickers to the pool. "Then it will fight back."
"Will it kill you?"
"I don't know," he says honestly. "But if we do nothing… it will kill me. Slowly. Quietly. From the inside out."
I kneel beside him. "Then we fight."
His eyes snap to mine. "Even if it means losing me?"
I lean in.
Close enough for him to feel my breath.
"I'd rather lose you fighting for your soul… than watch you die with your heart buried in the past."
Kael closes his eyes.
For a moment, I think he might shatter again.
But then he opens them, and they burn brighter than I've ever seen. Like fire and frost all at once.
He takes my other hand and places it over the pool.
"Then let me show you," he says, "what the curse remembers."
The moment my skin touches the water, the chamber dissolves.
And I fall.
Into memory.
Into his grief.
Into everything the shadows never wanted me to see.