Chapter 180 Seraphine
The penthouse felt too quiet. Not peaceful. Not safe.
Just… wrong.
Dante hadn’t let go of me since we got back. Not once.
Even now, as I sat on the edge of the couch, his hand rested over mine like if he loosened his grip for even a second, I might disappear.
Honestly? He wasn’t wrong. My head still throbbed. My eyes burned.
Even with them half-lidded, the threads were still there, faint now, dulled at the edges, but I could still see them if I focused too long.
So I didn’t. I kept my gaze down. Kept my breathing steady. Tried not to think about what I had seen in the forest. About him. About the way he looked at me. About the way he felt.
Dante’s thumb brushed slowly across my knuckles. “Stay with me,” he murmured.
“I am,” I whispered.
Across the room, Lucian poured himself a drink like he needed it to function. Amara paced. Lukas stood near the window, staring out like he was trying to see something that wasn’t physically there.
No one spoke. Because we all knew. Things had just gotten worse.
The elevator chimed and all of us froze. Dante’s grip tightened instantly. Lucian set the glass down without drinking. Amara stopped pacing. Lukas turned.
The doors opened. Rhevik stumbled out. That alone was enough to make my stomach drop. Because Rhevik didn’t stumble. He looked pale. Shaken. Eyes wide in a way that didn’t belong on a king.
“Rhevik?” Dante said, already rising to his feet.
Rhevik didn’t respond right away.
He just stood there for half a second like he couldn’t figure out how to speak.
Then... “They’re dead.”
Silence slammed into the room.
Lukas moved first. “What?”
“Your men,” Rhevik said, his voice tight, strained like he was holding something back. “The guards you sent with me... the ones patrolling the west side—” His jaw clenched. “They’re all dead.”
That... That didn’t make sense.
Lukas’s expression didn’t change immediately. Which meant it hit.
“Show me,” he said.
Rhevik nodded once. “We need to go. Now.”
“No,” Dante said immediately.
Everyone looked at him. I felt his grip tighten around me again.
“She’s not going anywhere,” he added, his voice low and final.
Rhevik’s gaze flicked to me briefly. Something in his expression shifted. Fear.
“Then you won’t understand what I’m about to show you,” he said quietly.
My stomach twisted. I squeezed Dante’s hand. “I’m going,” I said.
“No—”
“I’m going,” I repeated, firmer this time.
He looked down at me. Really looked. Saw the exhaustion. The pain. The stubbornness. And the fear. Because I needed to see it.
If this was spreading... I needed to know how bad.
Dante exhaled sharply through his nose. “…fine,” he muttered. “But you don’t leave my side.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
Lucian grabbed his jacket. “Well, this is already a terrible idea.”
Amara rolled her shoulders. “Yeah, I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
“Join the club,” Lucian muttered.
Lukas didn’t say anything. But he moved. Fast.
The shift from penthouse to territory felt like stepping into something heavier. Colder. Wrong.
Even before we reached the site, I felt it. A pull. Subtle. But there.
“Do you feel that?” I whispered.
Dante’s hand tightened. “Yeah.”
Rhevik led us further in, his pace quick but controlled. “This way.”
We followed. And then... We stopped.
My breath caught.
Bodies. Spread across the ground like they had just… dropped. No struggle. No chaos.
Just... Stillness.
But something was wrong. Deeply wrong.
Lukas stepped forward. Lucian followed. Amara went quiet.
And me... I saw it.
I wish I hadn’t. Their bodies looked drained. Not just pale. Not just dead. Hollowed.
Like something had reached inside and taken everything that mattered and left the shell behind.
I took a step forward before Dante could stop me. “Seraphine—”
“I need to see,” I whispered.
I crouched slightly, my eyes locking onto one of the guards.
And then, my breath caught. “…no…”
“What?” Dante asked immediately.
I swallowed hard, my voice shaking. “It’s not just that they’re dead…” I lifted a trembling hand, pointing just above the body. “Look—no, you can’t—” I shook my head, frustrated. “I can see it. It’s coming off of them.”
“What is?” Lucian pressed.
“Threads,” I said quickly. “Or… what’s left of them.”
Because they weren’t whole anymore. They weren’t even connected. They were breaking apart. The threads that should have been glowing, should have been steady, alive, were black. Cracked. Rotting. And worse... They were peeling away from the bodies. Like something had eaten through them and what remained was falling apart.
Slow. Deliberate. Unraveling into nothing.
“It looks like mold,” I said, my voice tightening. “Or rot… like when something dies and it spreads. It’s not just on them... it’s in them. It ate through everything.”
Amara let out a quiet, “Oh my god…”
Lucian stepped closer, frowning. “You’re saying their magic just… dissolved?”
“No,” I whispered. My stomach twisted. “It didn’t dissolve.” I shook my head slowly. “It was taken.”
Lukas turned to me, "Tell me what you see. I want every detail."
I forced myself to keep looking. Even though it made me feel sick.
“The threads are breaking away from their bodies,” I said. “But they’re not just disappearing—they’re being pulled. Like something fed on them and what’s left is just… falling apart.”
I pointed again, my hand shaking slightly.
“It’s spreading outward from the center,” I added. “Like whatever touched them started here… and then consumed everything else.”
Dante’s grip tightened on my arm. “…like a disease,” he muttered.
“Yes,” I whispered. “Exactly like a disease.”
Lukas’s expression shifted. Sharp. Focused. Concerned.
“You’re saying the corruption and that entity at the ward are the same source,” he said.
“I think so,” I whispered. “Or at least connected. Really connected.”
Lucian dragged a hand down his face. “So the thing we saw at the ward—”
“That you didn’t see,” Amara corrected weakly.
“Right,” he muttered. “That thing… is doing this?”
I nodded slowly. “I don’t think it’s just killing them,” I said. “I think it’s feeding.”
Dante’s jaw clenched. “On what?”
I looked down at the bodies again. At the empty shells. At the broken, rotting threads peeling away into nothing.
"On magical life force," I whispered.