Seraphina's Arc

Chapter 3 of 4

Seraphina waits until midnight, then slips back to the orphanage. The door stands open like the keeper promised. Inside, the air smells like rot and old wood. She moves through the dark hallway, past rooms with empty beds and torn curtains. The archive should be in the basement. She finds it on the second floor instead. A massive wardrobe stands against the far wall of what used to be a dormitory, its carved doors already open. Through them, shelves stretch back impossibly far, lined with red spines that glow faint in the dark. She steps closer. Her wings snap forward so hard she gasps, yanked toward the wardrobe like iron to a magnet. The pull isn't like before — not a gentle tug through the city. This is violent. Hungry. She braces against the doorframe, but her wings drag her another step. Something inside that archive recognizes what she is. And whatever it knows, the keepers were right to seal it away.