Seraphina Frostscale's Arc

Chapter 9 of 11

Inside the ice queen's den, Valxara drew the binding spell in frost on the floor. Seraphina knelt beside the marks. The dark dragon had once been her enemy, mate to the corrupted dragon who nearly killed her. Now she taught the spell that would let Seraphina lock her beast behind a door and open it at will. Draven stood at the wall, sword on his back, red eyes fixed on her. His touch had always steadied her. His love had held her humanity in place through every shift. "Begin," Valxara said. "Hold the beast. Speak the words. Turn the door." Seraphina reached for the light in her chest. It burned like a second heartbeat, waking under her hand. She spoke the first words. The frost lines on the floor glowed white. The beast rose in her, clawing, and she gripped it the way she always had. She looked at Draven. "No," Valxara said. "Not him. You hold this alone. He cannot anchor you inside your own shell. The door is yours to shut." Seraphina looked away from Draven. At once her grip slipped. The beast surged up her throat. Scales spread down her arms. The words broke in her mouth. She had never held the shift without him. Panic ripped the spell apart. The frost lines died. She fell forward on her hands, gasping, half-changed. "Again," Valxara said. She tried again. The same thing happened. Without Draven's eyes to fall into, the beast tore loose. Three times she reached for him. Three times Valxara pulled her back to the marks. Three times the spell shattered. "I can't," Seraphina said. Her hands shook against the stone. "I need him." Draven stepped forward. Glaciana raised one small hand and stopped him. "You leaned on the boy to master the beast," the ice queen said. "That was right, then. It is wrong now. The binding is not a shift you survive. It is a door you own. No one holds a door for you." Seraphina stared at the dead frost lines. The light still burned in her chest, hers alone, sealed in her blood since birth. It had never come from Draven. It had always been her own. She closed her eyes. She stopped searching the room for him. She poured her will down into the light, the way she had woken it. The beast rose. She did not fight it and she did not run to Draven. She gripped it with her own hands. She spoke the words. Her voice held. The frost lines flared white and still. The beast pulled hard at the door, then folded inward. The spell locked shut in her chest with a click she felt in her bones. Seraphina opened her eyes. She had held it alone. "The door is yours," Valxara said. "Now use it to end the corruption forever.”