Page 18 of A Touch of Darkness (Chronicles of the Cursed #1)

The air is sharp, biting against my skin. The moon above is a gorgeous crescent, enormous, silver light bathing the clearing around me as it hangs low in the sky. Towering trees line the edges, their skeletal branches seemingly clawing at the night sky. Everything feels alive and wrong all at once.

Then I see him.

Lucian stands at the center of the clearing, his broad shoulders heaving with labored breaths. He looks different. His hair is disheveled, a rich sable brown under the moonlight, and there’s no icy control in his expression, it isn’t as alluring. Instead, there’s raw fear and rage carved into his face.

Blood stains his hands. His white dress shirt hangs in tatters, exposing the lean muscle underneath, and there’s a jagged cut across his cheekbone. Despite his obvious strength, he’s on the verge of collapse, as if he’s been running for hours.

And then I see her—but at the same time it’s me.

My face, my body…me.

My breath hitches.

How could it be that we look one and the same?

She steps out from the shadows like a specter, her movements smooth and deliberate. She’s beautiful, in the way a rainstorm is beautiful—wild, dangerous, and devastating. Her long, dark hair is tied up and away from her face, and her deep-set eyes burn with unbridled power. She carries herself like a queen, every step deliberate, every gesture precise. Spine ramrod straight as she nearly floats along the grass.

“Did you think to flee me, Lucian?” Her voice is low, measured, but it carries the immensity of rolling thunder. “You have always been a fool, but never more so than now.”

Lucian stumbles back, his fists clenched. “I sought no quarrel with you, Seraphina!” he cries, his voice raw. “I did what I had to do. You would have done the same in my place.”

Her lips curl into a cold smile. “You presume to know what I would do? That I would betray the sacred bond between us? You think me as weak and selfish as you?”

“I betrayed nothing!” His voice cracks, desperate. “You cannot see the truth of it because you’ve always blinded yourself with ambition!”

“Ambition?” Her tone sharpens, venomous, like a snake in the night. “You speak of ambition, yet it is you who chose power over honor, over love, over me—over our child.”

Lucian falters, his shoulders sagging as though her words have struck him like a blade. “I did it to survive,” he says, quieter now. “To protect us both. You don’t know what they threatened me with—what they would have done had I refused.”

Her eyes narrow, glowing faintly with a dangerous light, the moon reflecting in her orbs. “You dare invoke protection as your justification? When it is you who has brought ruin upon us?” She takes a step closer, her voice rising. “You shattered everything. My trust, my heart, the very foundation of all we built together.”

Lucian drops to his knees, his head bowed. “I regret it,” he whispers. “Gods, Sera, I regret it more than you could know. But I am no match for you. Do what you must.”

Her jaw tightens, and for a brief moment, something like sorrow flickers in her gaze. But it’s gone as quickly as it appeared. “You speak as though this absolves you,” she says, her voice trembling. “It does not. Nothing will. I’ve already done what was needed, but if I must, I can carry on.”

The wind picks up, and the air around her hums with power. Ancient words spill from her lips, low and resonant, as the ground trembles beneath them as I stand by, here but not.

“By the blood you have spilled, by the trust you have broken, by the love you have forsaken ? —”

Lucian’s head snaps up, panic flaring in his eyes. “Seraphina, no! I cannot continue on like this! I’ve only a small taste of it and I know I’ll never survive it!”

But her voice rises, carrying the load of an unyielding enemy. “Eternal night shall be your prison. Eternal hunger shall be your chains. Eternal solitude…” Her voice breaks, but she does not falter. “Shall be your punishment.”

The moon darkens as clouds spiral across the sky, the clearing bathed in shadow. The wind howls, tearing through the trees, and Lucian’s screams pierce the night as he clutches his chest.

I feel it—Seraphina’s magic ripping through him, shredding his humanity and replacing it with something dark and monstrous. His veins turn black, his body contorting in agony as if he’s being unmade and remade all at once. As if she’s creating and re-creating him to suit her.

Seraphina watches, her face a mask of cold resolve, though her hands tremble ever so slightly.

“I loved you, Lucian,” she whispers, so quietly I almost don’t hear it. I swear I see a lone tear roll slowly down her cheek. “But love cannot undo betrayal.”

Lucian collapses to the ground, his body still, the clearing eerily silent. For a moment, he doesn’t move.

And then his eyes snap open.

And what I see is danger personified.

They gleam with a predatory hunger that sends a chill down my spine. Slowly, he rises, his movements deliberate, almost inhuman and vastly different than who he is today.

Seraphina takes a step back, her expression unreadable. “It is now done,” she murmurs.

Lucian stares at her, and for a fleeting moment, I see the man he once was—the man who loved her. But it vanishes, replaced by a cold, empty smile.