Chapter 179 Seraphine
The forest felt wrong before I even stepped into it.
Not quiet.
Not peaceful.
Just… wrong.
Dante’s hand stayed wrapped tightly around mine as he guided me forward, his other hand hovering at my back like I might fall apart at any second.
He wasn’t wrong.
“Easy,” he murmured.
“I’m fine,” I muttered. I wasn’t. Not even close.
My eyes stayed shut, lashes pressed tight because the second I opened them earlier, the world had nearly split my head open. So instead, I relied on everything else.
Big mistake. Because everything else was too much.
I could hear everything.
Leaves crunching beneath our feet.
Branches shifting high above us.
Water somewhere in the distance.
Lucian’s steady breathing behind us.
Amara adjusting her jacket.
Lukas moving like a ghost.
And more. Animals. Small ones. Watching. Moving. Their tiny heartbeats layered over each other until it became noise I couldn’t filter out.
“God… make it stop,” I hissed.
“What?” Dante asked immediately.
“It’s too loud,” I said, my voice strained. “Everything is too loud.”
“And the smell?” Amara added. “Because I’m not gonna lie, it smells like wet dirt and regret out here.”
“It smells like everything,” I snapped. “I can smell the trees, the water, the—” I gagged slightly, “—something dead… something rotting…”
“That’s comforting,” Lucian muttered.
“It’s not funny.”
“I didn’t say it was.”
My dragon growled low.
Too much. Too loud. Too many things.
“I know,” I whispered. “I hate it too.”
We kept walking.
Each step dragged.
Each second stretched.
Until finally... Dante slowed.
His grip tightened just slightly. “Okay,” he said quietly. “We’re close.”
My stomach twisted. “I don’t think I want to see this.”
“You need to,” he said.
Of course I did.
I swallowed hard.
Then slowly... I opened my eyes.
At first, everything blurred. Too bright. Too sharp. Then it snapped into place. And I saw it.
I screamed. The sound tore out of me, raw and instinctive as I stumbled back, ripping my hand from Dante’s grasp.
“No—no—no—”
“Seraphine!” Dante caught me before I hit the ground, his hands gripping me hard.
“What is it?!” Lucian demanded.
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. All I could do was stare.
Because standing on the ward... Like it was nothing... Was him.
“Describe it,” Lukas said sharply.
I shook my head violently, panic choking my words. “He’s—he’s—”
“Seraphine,” Dante said, firmer. “Talk.”
I forced myself to focus. Forced the words out. “He’s tall,” I said, my voice shaking. “Too tall… like he’s stretched wrong. His body—it’s not solid. It’s like… like shadows stitched together. Like something tried to make a person and got it wrong.”
No one spoke.
I swallowed hard, my eyes locked on it. “His skin, if that’s even what it is, it’s cracked,” I continued. “Like dried earth, but underneath there’s nothing. Just… black. Endless black.”
Lucian went quiet. Amara stopped moving entirely.
“And his face—” My voice broke. “There’s no life there. No expression. Just… hollow.” I sucked in a shaky breath. “His eyes—God—his eyes…”
Dante’s grip tightened on me. “What about them?”
“They’re empty,” I whispered. “Not dark—empty. Like holes. Like if you look too long, you’ll fall into them and never come back.”
A silence settled over all of us. Heavy. Wrong.
“And he’s smiling,” I added, my stomach twisting violently. “Not with lips—with… something else. Like he knows something we don’t. Like he’s already won.”
“Jesus,” Amara whispered.
“He’s standing on the ward,” I said quickly, my words tumbling over each other now. “Not outside it, not pushing against it, on it. Like he owns it!"
Lukas inhaled sharply. That was the first real reaction from him.
“He shouldn’t be able to do that,” he muttered.
“I know!” I snapped. “But he is!”
I couldn’t look away. Because he wasn’t just standing there. He was looking at me. Only me.
“He sees me,” I whispered.
Dante stepped closer, pulling me tighter against him. “You’re okay—”
“No,” I said, shaking my head, my body starting to tremble uncontrollably. “No, I’m not—he—he knows I can see him—”
The thing tilted its head. Slow. Deliberate. Like I was something interesting. Like prey.
My dragon roared inside me.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
“I can feel him,” I choked.
Dante stilled. “What do you mean?”
“He’s not just there,” I said, my voice breaking. “He’s—he’s inside the ward. Inside the threads. It’s like he’s part of it. Like he’s woven into it—”
Lukas had gone pale. Actually pale.
“Father?” Lucian said.
But Lukas wasn’t looking at him. He was staring straight ahead. At nothing.
“…that’s not possible,” he said quietly. But he didn’t sound like he believed it.
My chest tightened, panic clawing up my throat. “He’s connected to it,” I whispered. “To all of it. The rot—the decay—I think it’s him—I think he’s the one doing it—”
The thing shifted again. And this time, I felt it. A sharp, invasive pressure. Like something pressing against my mind. Testing. Tasting.
My breath hitched violently. “He’s—” I choked. “He’s trying to—”
Dante’s arms tightened around me instantly. “Seraphine—”
“He wants to kill me,” I whispered.
Silence. Dead silence.
“I can feel it,” I said, my voice trembling, my eyes still locked on that hollow, smiling thing. “I can feel his bloodlust—it’s not just me—he’ll kill all of us—everyone—he doesn’t care—”
The pressure slammed harder. My vision flickered. Something inside my head pushed back, instinct, fire, something new and star-bright, but it wasn’t enough to stop it. Not yet.
“Enough.” Lukas moved. Fast.
One second, he was a few steps away, the next, he was right in front of me. He didn’t hesitate. He didn’t ask.
He just grabbed me, lifting me clean off the ground like I weighed nothing, one arm locking around my back as the other snapped out, catching Amara by the wrist.
“Move,” he barked.
Dante didn’t argue. Neither did Lucian.
Because something in Lukas’s voice... Something sharp. Something urgent. Something wrong.
We ran. Branches snapped underfoot. Leaves tore beneath us.
Dante stayed at my side, one hand pressed firmly against me like he wasn’t about to let me out of his reach again.
“What the hell is that?!” Lucian demanded, his voice cutting through the chaos as he kept pace beside us.
Lukas didn’t slow. “Not here,” he snapped.
“Lukas—” Dante growled.
“It’s a death serpent.”
That made something in my chest drop.
Lucian swore. “You’re kidding.”
“I’m not,” Lukas said sharply. “And if you value your lives, you will keep moving.”
My head spun, my body still trembling as I clung weakly to Lukas’s shoulder, my eyes squeezed shut again because I could still feel it. Still feel him.
“He’s still there,” I whispered. “He’s still watching—”
“I know,” Lukas said.
Lucian’s voice came tighter now. “Define death serpent.”
Lukas exhaled sharply, his grip tightening just slightly around me as we pushed through the trees. “Like a serpent sage,” he said. “Ancient. Forbidden. Bound to knowledge and power.”
A pause.
“But its element—”
“—is death,” Dante finished, his voice low.
“Yes.”
“That’s why it’s aligned with Thane,” Lukas continued. “That’s why the corruption is spreading the way it is. Death doesn’t just destroy... it consumes, decays, repurposes. It feeds.”