CHAPTER 85: NICE TO MEET YOU AGAIN, LUCIAN

Lucian’s entire body went still as he stared at Seraphina’s closed eyes.

She wasn’t responding.

Her head rested limply against his arm, her hair brushing his wrist, her skin frighteningly pale. The faint warmth she always carried, the warmth he thought would never leave her, now completely gone.

He tightened his hold on her instinctively.

"Don’t joke with life," he whispered, the words trembling out of him.

His breath hitched and his lips trembled, "Seraphina, open your eyes."

Nothing. No flutter of lashes. No weak inhale.

Nothing.

"Seraphina," he tried again, louder this time, his voice cracking as panic shoved its way up his throat. He shook her gently, once and one more time, his hands trembling uncontrollably.

"Seraphina, look at me! Open your eyes!"

Her body shifted in his arms, but only because he moved her, not because she really did.

Lucian’s heart slammed painfully against his ribs. He pressed his forehead to hers, desperate to feel even a hint of heat, anything to prove she was still here.

But her skin felt cold.

Not icy... he knew... freaking knew about icy.

But this... this was lifeless.

"Wake up," he breathed, voice fraying at the edges. "Please. Don’t do this to me... not like this."

His grip on her tightened, pulling her closer to his chest as if he could warm her with his body. As if he could hold her soul in place.

Around him, the room responded to his fear.

Frost crawled up the walls. The air shivered. The faint remnants of the shattered ice coffin glistened under a new layer of freezing mist.

But Lucian didn’t notice any of it. All he saw was Seraphina.

"Seraphina..." His voice broke completely, the sound raw and small. "If you can hear me... even a little... come back. Please."

But the moment the words left him, something shifted.

His eyes widened.

"No—no!" He grabbed her hands, clutching them tightly as if he could stop what he saw happening right in front of him.

The ends of her fingers were turning grey.

Not cold.

Not frostbitten.

Ash.

A fine, soft dust flaked away from the tips of her fingers, drifting down in delicate pieces that landed on his gloves.

Lucian’s heart stopped.

"No... Seraphina—no, no, no—" His voice cracked violently as he brought her hands closer, desperately rubbing his thumb against her skin as if he could bring back the color. "Don’t you dare—don’t you dare disappear on me!"

More ash broke loose, trailing down her knuckles.

His breath shattered.

Phoenixes didn’t bleed out.

Phoenixes didn’t fade quietly.

Phoenixes turned to ash when their life force slipped away.

"Seraphina!" he shouted, voice cracking into a wounded roar. "Stay with me—do you hear me? Stay with me!"

He pulled her into his chest, holding her like he could shield her from death itself, his hands shaking violently as more flakes of ash drifted from her fingertips.

"No... no, please," he whispered, his voice trembling so hard he could barely form the words. "Not like this. Not you. Not you..."

He pressed his forehead against hers, desperate, broken, unable to breathe as her body grew lighter and lighter in his arms.

Then something changed.

A sudden jolt ran through Seraphina’s body. A sharp, startling jerk that made Lucian flinch and tighten his hold.

"Seraphina?" he gasped, pulling back slightly.

Her back arched for a split second, sharp and sudden, as if an invisible force slammed straight into her chest. Lucian’s breath stopped. His hands tightened around her arms, afraid she was breaking apart right in front of him.

Then everything went still.

Completely, terrifyingly still.

A few moments of silence followed, long enough for dread to crawl up Lucian’s spine and crush the air in his lungs.

He opened his mouth to call her name again but suddenly, Seraphina’s eyes widened.

He flinched, staring in disbelief, frozen until his mind finally caught up with what he was seeing.

"Oh God—thank you... Oh my!"

Relief slammed through him so hard he almost couldn’t breathe. He pulled her tightly into his chest, voice trembling.

"Thank you for coming back to me... thank you..."

But instead of the weak, grateful hug he expected, a sharp, annoyed click of the tongue sounded against his shoulder.

Lucian stiffened.

Before he could react, Seraphina shoved him away, hard and forcing him to lose his hold on her. He stared at her in shock, confusion twisting his face.

"Seraphina?" he whispered.

The eyes were Seraphina’s eyes, the same color, the same shape... but every trace of Seraphina’s warmth was gone.

Instead, they looked cold, detached and somehow older.

She lifted her hand and stared at her fingers, flexing them slowly as if checking whether they still worked. Then she shook them out with a faint scowl.

"Aish... I almost lost this damn body..." she muttered under her breath, irritation dripping from every word.

Lucian froze.

"What... what do you mean...?" he whispered.

He reached out instinctively, trying to take her hand but she pulled her arm away with a sharp, dismissive motion.

She pushed herself up from the floor, wobbling slightly at first but then steadying with a long inhale, tilting her head back as if she needed more air than the room could give her.

Her gaze drifted upward, toward the ceiling, not toward Lucian.

When she finally exhaled, the sound that left her lips was almost... relieved.

"Finally..." she murmured, closing her eyes as though savoring the moment. A slow smile touched her mouth, looking so wrong and unfamiliar. "I thought I was never going to breathe air again."

Lucian’s breath stalled in his chest.

The tone was wrong. The cadence was wrong. The way she held herself was wrong.

Everything... everything about her was wrong.

"Seraphina...?" he whispered, the name cracking in his throat.

She didn’t answer.

Instead, she rolled her shoulders back, testing the weight of the body she now wore, lifting her hands and flexing her fingers with an almost careless satisfaction.

"As suffocating as this place is," she muttered softly, "this vessel really does feel better than I expected."

Lucian’s heart dropped.

"What are you talking about?" he breathed, voice trembling. "Who—who are you?"

She tilted her head toward him, just a slight motion, calm and deliberate. Then she slowly turned her face, looking back at him over her shoulder, wearing a smile Seraphina never had.

"It’s been over a century, isn’t it?" she said lightly, as though greeting an old friend.

Her lips curled with amusement, her voice silk and poison at once.

"Nice to meet you again, Lucian."