Ophelia's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Seraphina reached the bottom of the stair. The forest swallowed her boots in mist. Trees rose black on every side, and no road cut through them. She turned in a slow circle. Every direction looked the same. The castle and its ball lay somewhere past these woods, but no path led her there. Her beast pressed against her leg, its red eyes scanning the dark. "Which way?" she whispered. The beast had no answer. It only growled at the trees. Behind her, a voice came soft through the mist. "You will lose yourself in there." Morgana stood at the broken door above. Her black gown dragged on the stone. The white in her hair caught the last moonlight. She did not climb down. She only watched, her hands folded tight, the way she had watched Seraphina her whole life. "Then help me," Seraphina said. "Come back inside." Morgana's voice cracked. "That is my help." Seraphina shook her head. She had broken the door. She would not walk back through it. She looked at her hands instead. Her mother had called the magic in her blood a curse. But her mother had also used it to cage her. Seraphina knelt in the wet leaves. She pressed both palms flat to the ground. She did not know the words, so she said her wish aloud. "Show me a guide. Send me something that knows these woods." Darkness poured from her fingers. It spread across the forest floor and sank into the roots. The mist pulled tight. The beast backed away, growling low. For a long moment nothing moved. Then hoofbeats. Slow and even, coming closer. A unicorn stepped from the trees. Its coat was black as pitch. A single horn rose from its brow, pale and sharp. A gold saddle sat on its back, the leather carved with runes that glowed warm against the dark. It stopped before Seraphina and lowered its head. The horn passed an inch from her horns, as if in greeting. Seraphina stared. The magic her mother feared had not made a monster. It had made this. "That is old power," Morgana called down. Her voice had changed. It held something close to fear. "You do not know what you called." "I know it came." Seraphina rose. She touched the unicorn's neck. The horse did not flinch from her hands or her horns. She set her boot in the gold stirrup and pulled herself up. The saddle fit her like it had waited. She looked back at her mother one last time. Morgana's hand lifted, then fell. Seraphina turned the unicorn toward the trees. It stepped forward, sure of the way. Her beast loped beside them. The mist opened to let them pass, and for the first time a clear path ran through the forest. She rode into it without looking back.