Chapter 1 THE NIGHT MY MAGIC BETRAYED ME

The first thing I felt was heat. Sharp, alive and wrong. It surged under my skin like molten metal, rising too quickly for breath or thought. For twenty years I had buried the forbidden light inside me so deeply that I sometimes wondered if the old warnings were simply superstition. Yet tonight it clawed up my spine, curled between my ribs and burst behind my eyes like a rising sun I could not contain.

The world detonated.

A ring of searing brightness cracked open around me and spiraled outward in a thunderous sweep. The market erupted into chaos as stalls collapsed and baskets flew. Dust and dried leaves whipped into the air. People hurled themselves away from me as though I were a falling star about to split the earth.

“Witch!”

“Her eyes. Look at her eyes!”

“She is cursed!”

Their fear struck harder than the heat pouring through my bones. My vision flickered violently in gold, then white, then something darker, pulsing under the light like a second heartbeat that did not belong to me.

Not now. Not here. Not in front of everyone.

I staggered backward, clutching the torn basket of herbs that suddenly felt pitiful in my trembling grip. My heart hammered so fiercely I tasted iron on my tongue. I had lived my entire life afraid of this moment. Afraid that the forbidden light would awaken. Afraid that it would choose a day like this to betray me.

“Seren!” Alder’s voice cut through the screams. My guardian shoved through the crowd, his cloak whipping behind him. “Do not move!”

But my legs had already chosen betrayal to match my magic. I ran.

I tore through the square, past shattered tables and spilled grain. Faces I recognized twisted away in terror. A woman I helped all winter refused to even look at me. The world had turned strange and sharp, as if my awakening magic had peeled away a layer of safety I never truly had.

A shadow lunged toward me. Alder reached me first and gripped my shoulders. His hands were shaking.

“Look at me, child. Your magic is breaking loose.”

“I did not do anything” I choked out. “It is burning and I cannot stop it.”

“I know.” His voice trembled with quiet fear. “That is why you must run.”

“No. Alder, I cannot leave you.”

“Seren.” His grip tightened. “The Priests will come. You understand what that means.”

As if the world wished to confirm his warning, a piercing horn split the air.

Not a village horn.

A Luminous one.

My blood went cold. Armored riders thundered through the square with white cloaks snapping behind them like wings carved from judgment. Their golden runes glowed fiercely in the daylight. Runes of purity. Runes of law. Runes of death.

The Priests of Lumen.

Holy hunters who enforced the empire’s magic laws. Trained to kill anyone born with forbidden light. They were not protectors. They were executioners.

Alder shoved a leather satchel into my hands. “Take the west gate. Follow the river. Do not look back and do not let them see you—”

A flash of gold shot through him.

For a heartbeat my mind refused to understand. Alder’s words froze in the air. His eyes widened. Then a glowing spear tore through his chest and burst out his back in a spray of red that stained the ground.

I screamed.

Alder crumpled into my arms, heavy and fading already. His warm blood soaked my hands as I knelt beside him, shaking. “Alder, please. Please, stay with me. Alder, you cannot leave me. Do not leave me.”

But his breath was already slipping away.

The knight who struck him stepped forward and flicked the blood from his spear. “Target confirmed. Seize the girl.”

Something split inside me. Something hot and sharp and furious. The heat that had frightened me moments ago now roared through my veins with purpose.

The knights charged.

I ran.

I could barely feel my feet as I bolted between buildings. Golden blasts cracked the ground behind me, sending stone and earth flying. “Halt!” someone shouted. Another voice called, “By order of the High Luminary, surrender!” A third said, “Seize the girl born of prophecy.”

They did not call me Seren anymore. They called me something else. Something dangerous.

The girl born with forbidden light who would end the Shadow Prince’s reign.

A children’s tale. A warning whispered to keep little ones obedient. I used to laugh at it. Yet here I was, hunted because of it.

I burst through the west gate with lungs tearing and vision shaking. The forest loomed ahead, dark and dense. I heard the thunder of hooves behind me and pushed harder. A spear whistled past my cheek and sank into a tree. I flinched, stumbled and kept running.

Then everything changed.

The air shifted as if the world inhaled and forgot to breathe out. Trees darkened until their bark resembled smooth stone. Leaves shimmered like silver ash caught in moonlight. The ground hummed beneath my feet.

I had crossed into the Veil.

A place cursed by the ancient wars. A boundary between the living and the forgotten. No one entered willingly. Those who escaped came back fractured.

The forest fell silent. Even my breath sounded too loud.

I sensed him before I saw him.

A figure stepped from the shadows ahead in one slow, deliberate motion. Tall and impossibly composed. The kind of presence that made the air feel thinner. His eyes glowed faintly silver with a ring of deep violet, like starlight bruised by night.

My heart faltered.

“You should not have come here, little light.” His voice unfurled smoothly, deep and steady, with the unhurried confidence of someone who had never feared anything in the dark.

He stepped closer. Shadows clung to him like living threads. He was beautiful in a way that felt dangerous, as if sharp edges had been carved into elegance.

The Shadow Prince.

Kaelith.

The man I was prophesied to destroy.

Or be destroyed by.

My magic surged again, bright and frantic. The air cracked between us as if it recognized him.

Kaelith tilted his head, studying me with slow patience, the way a predator decides if something is prey or something else entirely. His gaze drifted over me and paused at the glow of my eyes. Something unreadable flickered across his face. Curiosity. Amusement. Hunger. I could not tell.

“So this is the prophecy’s spark” he murmured. “Arriving in flames and running from her own light.”

Heat shot through me. Not fear. Not exactly. Something more complicated. Something that made my pulse stumble.

I tried to step back, but the Veil itself seemed to hold me. The air thickened around my ankles, trapping me in place.

Kaelith walked closer with the grace of someone who knew I had nowhere left to run. His voice lowered until it brushed across my skin.

“Go on. Try to run if you want.”

His lips curved, slow and dark.

“It will make no difference.”

I did not know if he meant he would catch me or if fate already had.

Either way, this was only the beginning.