Seraphina had never once set foot outside the tower her mother built from magic. She was twenty years old, and the stone staircase ended at a locked door she had never passed. She woke to moonlight on her face and the warm weight of her beast against her side. The creature was shadow given shape, its red eyes watching her braid of copper hair. She stroked its black fur and whispered the one wish she never said aloud. She wanted someone to see her horns and her dark magic and still want to stay. Her mother climbed the stairs holding a letter. Morgana Ravenwood had raised Seraphina alone inside these walls, and the white streaks in her dark hair caught the candlelight. Her black gown dragged across the floor as she crossed the room. She did not smile. She held the paper out like it might bite. "From the king," Morgana said. "He calls every unmarried woman in the land to a ball. He is choosing a wife." Seraphina took the letter. The wax seal was already broken. Her mother had read it first, as she read everything. The king's name was signed at the bottom in heavy black ink. He ruled this realm, and the rumors reached even their tower. People said he was dead and alive at once, a king of ghouls with hair white as bone. "I want to go," Seraphina said. "No." Morgana's hand closed over hers. "You stay here. You are safe here." "Safe and alone." Seraphina stood. Her beast rose with her, growling low at the tension in the room. "You built these walls to protect me. But no one out there has ever looked at my face. Not once." "Because they would fear it." Morgana's voice cracked. "I kept you hidden so no one could hurt you. The horns, the magic in your blood, they will call you a monster." Seraphina touched the curved horns above her brow. She had felt them her whole life. She had never felt ashamed until her mother spoke that word. "Then let them call me one," Seraphina said. "I would rather be feared outside than loved by no one in here." She walked to the locked door. Her mother did not follow. Seraphina pressed her palm flat against the wood and let her magic rise. Darkness poured from her fingers. The lock cracked. The hinges split. The door swung open to cold night air for the first time in her life. Below her, a forest spread black and endless. Somewhere past it, a castle waited, lit for a ball. "If you leave," Morgana said behind her, "I cannot protect you anymore." "I know." Seraphina did not turn around. She stepped onto the stair, and her beast followed. The door she had broken could not close again.

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.