It was the dead of night, and the sky hung heavy like black velvet draped over the world. Stars blinked high above, but their light felt distant. Like they, too, knew something was about to go wrong.
Sophie was by my side as usual, humming a tune I couldn't quite place as we made our way back to my chambers. The day was quieter than usual, the usual rustling of servants and hushed conversations stilled under a veil of tension. Even the air seemed thicker today, as if holding its breath, waiting for something.
After everything that had happened yesterday, the council, the confrontation, the hooded figure, I hadn't been able to stop thinking. Not just about what he said, or the way his voice curled around my thoughts like smoke, but the way he looked at me, like he knew me. Like he'd always known me.
When I stepped into the hallway, the hairs on the back of my neck stood at attention.
Something was wrong.
"Do you feel that?" I murmured to Sophie, my gaze narrowing as I scanned the passage ahead. The walls, the very stone of the estate, felt... heavy. Dangerous.
Sophie stiffened beside me, her usual calm replaced by a slight tension. "I do," she said quietly. "Stay close."
We moved quickly down the corridor, my heels clicking sharply against the stone floor, when the flicker of movement at the far end of the hall caught my attention. Before I could react, the shadows seemed to converge, and masked figures appeared out of nowhere, surrounding me like ghosts.
They emerged from the darkness, their movements coordinated, practiced. Their armor was dark leather, their faces obscured. One stepped forward.
Sophie's breath hitched beside me as I drew my dagger with a fluid motion, the cold metal cool against my palm. My body tensed, ready.
"You've made a mistake," I said, my voice icy. "I suggest you leave before this gets messy."
One of the masked men laughed, a low, mocking sound that reverberated in the cold stone corridor. "You've caused too many problems, Lady Katerina. Lord Meridan sends his regards."
Of course. That arrogant parasite. The same man I humiliated in front of the Committee when I exposed his embezzlement and abuse of power. Apparently, he wasn't the type to lose gracefully.
I straightened. "If he had a spine, he'd face me himself. But I suppose sending masked cowards to do his dirty work suits him better."
The man tilted his head. No reply. Just a signal, and they all moved in.
I didn't wait.
In one smooth motion, I spun, slashing at the nearest man's throat. He collapsed with a gurgling sound, his blood staining the floor. The others recoiled for a brief second, but then they closed in, weapons drawn.
I stepped forward and slammed the hilt of my blade into the nearest man's jaw. He staggered. Another lunged. I twisted, ducked, and slashed, clean, practiced, merciless. My body moved on instinct. A rhythm. A memory.
I wasn't just fighting to defend myself. I was fighting to remind them who they were dealing with.
Sophie held her own beside me, dancing through the chaos with precise strikes. But there were too many.
I took out two more. My blade was slick, my breaths sharp.
Then I felt it.
A chill.
Not from the wind. Not from fear. From him.
Before I could turn, I sensed the presence that I'd come to recognize in the silence of nights. The one who had saved me more than once, whose voice haunted my dreams. The hooded figure.
A flash of steel came toward me from behind, a blade aimed for my back. But it never made it.
I didn't see his face. Just a blur of movement, shadows wrapping around him like a cloak. His blade intercepted the strike effortlessly and In ruthless way. He moved like smoke, like vengeance incarnate. Defending me. Protecting me.
I didn't have time to thank him. Another attacker came at me. I moved to strike and something changed.
He was too slow. Or I was too fast.
My blade buried into his chest, deeper than I intended. And then...it happened.
The moment his body hit the ground, a jolt ran through me like lightning. The world shattered.
I heard different sounds, not outside. Inside. A roar of a thousand voices. Screaming, whispering, crying, begging. Echoes.
The torches along the hall flickered violently. The air grew cold. My vision blurred.
Then...darkness.
I dreamt of fire.
And a beautiful woman, tall, regal, bound in chains. Her eyes were like mine. She stood alone in a burning temple, bodies strewn around her, their eyes hollow and lifeless. And yet, they moved. They obeyed her.
She screamed, and spirits rose from the flames.
"They called me a monster," she said, staring into the blaze. "But it was fear, not evil, that built this curse. They feared what they could not control. So they burned me. Betrayed me. Buried me."
The vision twisted, blood, shadows, the cries of a thousand dead souls crying her name.
"Katerina," she whispered, reaching for me. "You are my blood. You carry the mark. And now... you are awakened, My child."
The vision shifted again, and I saw a man, dark haired and regal, sitting beside a bed, My father... holding the hand of a woman with a face I knew. Her face was pale, her body still, as though she had never moved. And yet, there was something in her eyes, even in death—a sadness, a weight. The man, my father, wept at her side.
"I couldn't protect you," he whispered, his voice breaking. "I couldn't save you. And now the same fate awaits our daughter."
Her hand, shivering and bloodied, held me, cradled me. That peaceful embrace, the familiar feeling I had sensed before. Her fingers trembled as she clutched me close. She had to protect me. To warn me. A final plea.
She whispered to me:
"I tried to seal it, my sweet Katerina. I tried to protect you. But they found out. They always do. And they will try to kill you too. Because they fear you. Just as they feared me and our ancestors. Be careful. And don't let anyone find out about the curse."
My throat tightened. She had known. She had tried to protect me. That's why she was executed. Not for treason. But for legacy.
The curse wasn't just some dark tale. It was real. It was mine.
And I had awakened it.
I woke with a jolt, shivering. My room came into focus, familiar yet foreign under the weight of what I'd seen.
Sophie was slumped asleep in a chair, pale and tense.
My body ached, but it wasn't the physical pain that struck me. It was the weight. Like something had been torn open inside me.
My journal lay open beside me.
Not where I had left it.
My eyes scanned the page, It was in language I barely recognized at first, but somehow understood.
"Blood of the First Emberheart. Power not born, but buried. Cursed not by choice, but by fear. The Gift of Dominion over the Restless, passed through blood, sealed in death."
The curse wasn't just some dark tale. It was real. It was mine.
And I had awakened it.
I looked up.
The hooded figure was draped over the chair across from me.
He had stayed. He had protected me.
He knew.
When I rose and turned toward him, my legs weak, my hands trembling, I wanted to see him. To know who he was. Why he had saved me. Why, in that moment of fear, he held me like I mattered.
I reached for his hood.
But before I could uncover him...
"You're awake!" Sophie cried, throwing her arms around me from behind.
He reacted instantly, too fast. Too aware. He saw how close I was. My fingers nearly on his hood. And in a blink...he vanished
Gone.
I wasn't sure if that made him my ally or something else entirely.
But I would find out.
Because Katerina Valenhart wasn't just some girl with a blade and a temper.
I was something much, much more.
And the empire had no idea what they'd just awakened.