Chapter 340: The light awakens

Third-person POV

E let out a shaky sigh the moment her father pushed her into the room. She just couldn’t help the relief that she felt at the moment. Somehow, they had managed to sneak her into the hospital without anyone noticing. The emergency exit had been their only chance, and thankfully, no one had been paying enough attention to notice a half-dead phoenix being rolled through the back hallway.

True to his word, Prince Darius had cleared out the guards around Seraphina’s room, making it easier for Vale to bring her in. It felt strange to finally be here, so close to Seraphina after days of begging, arguing, and almost giving up.

The room was dim and cold, with the machines beeping softly in the background like they were only pretending to keep someone alive.

Seraphina lay in the bed, pale and unmoving. Her skin looked cold, her lips nearly colorless, and if not for the faint rise and fall of her chest, E might’ve thought she was already gone.

“Push me closer,” E said quietly. Her voice sounded weaker than she wanted it to.

Vale nodded and moved the wheelchair closer to the bedside. He didn’t speak, but she could feel his unease. He was worried, terrified even, but she didn’t have the energy to comfort him.

When they stopped, E reached for the bed rail, her fingers trembling. “Leave us,” she whispered.

Her father’s head snapped toward her. “What?”

“I need to be alone with her.”

“Electra, that’s not safe. You can barely—”

“Please,” she cut in. “I need to do this myself.”

He hesitated. The look in his eyes strangely made her chest tighten, and it was that same helpless look he always seemed to have when he didn’t know how to protect her, but finally, he sighed and nodded.

“I’ll be right outside the door,” he said softly.

When the door closed behind him, the silence settled in, and E stared at Seraphina, her throat tightening. She didn’t know where to start. Everything inside her hurt—her bones, her chest, and even her breath. She felt like she was falling apart, but she couldn’t stop now.

“Hey,” she whispered, her lips trembling. “You picked a really bad time to take a nap, you know that?”

Her voice cracked halfway through, but she swallowed and tried again. “You have to wake up, Sera. We can’t die yet.”

She lifted her hand toward Seraphina’s stomach, where she knew the stab wound was hidden under the bandage, and the effort alone made her dizzy. Her arm felt like lead, her vision blurred, and her fingers shook so badly she almost missed.

She hovered her palm above the wound, closing her eyes. ’Come on,’ she thought. ’Just a little light, and just a little warmth.’

For a few seconds, she felt something stir inside her, a faint spark, but it flickered out almost immediately.

Her hand dropped, and nothing happened.

“Why isn’t it working?” she whispered, frustration and fear slipping through her voice.

Her whole body was burning. The heat under her skin pulsed and throbbed like fire trying to escape. She tried again, forcing herself to breathe slowly, to focus, to remember how it should actually feel to heal someone, even though she had never done it before, but this time, she couldn’t even summon the spark.

Tears filled her eyes.

“You can’t die,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “You can’t die after everything.”

She dragged her hand from Seraphina’s stomach to her forehead. If she couldn’t heal her body, maybe she could find her somewhere deeper. Maybe she could reach whatever part of Seraphina’s soul was still holding on.

Her fingertips touched her skin, and instantly, something shifted. The air around her grew heavy, her heartbeat slowed, and the room completely disappeared.

It happened so fast she didn’t even have time to be nervous. One second she was in the hospital, and the next, everything went black.

When she opened her eyes again, she wasn’t in the room anymore.

Everything around her glowed faintly gold, and she found herself turning in slow circles, trying to understand what she was seeing, and it was only then that she finally saw her.

Seraphina stood a few feet away, barefoot on what looked like a shallow pool of water. Her hair floated gently around her shoulders, and she looked lost, her eyes distant and unfocused.

“Seraphina?” E called.

Her voice echoed across the space, but Seraphina didn’t move. E took a step forward, and even though the water rippled under her feet, it didn’t make a sound. “Seraphina, it’s me.”

That finally made her turn. Her eyes met E’s, faint recognition flickering behind them. “E…?”

Relief hit E so hard her knees almost gave out. “Yeah,” she said, forcing a smile. “It’s me.”

Seraphina’s brows furrowed faintly, confusion settling in her features as she looked at E from head to toe.

“What happened to you?” she asked softly. “Why do you look like that? And… where’s Electra?”

E gave a quiet, tired laugh, the kind that didn’t sound like laughter at all. “That’s a complicated question,” she said, stepping closer. “Right now, we’re both dying, you and me, and because of that, Electra’s too weak to come forward. So, I guess you’re stuck with me.”

Seraphina blinked, still confused. “Too weak? But then you’re…”

“Not supposed to be here,” E finished gently. “Well, think of me as… the part of her that’s trying to keep us both from disappearing.”

Seraphina frowned, glancing around the water surrounding them. The stillness of it all made her uneasy. “What do you mean ’disappearing’?”

E’s expression softened, but there was exhaustion behind her eyes. “This place, it’s your mind, your soul, maybe whatever’s left of you fighting to stay alive, and since we’re connected, I got pulled in too. If you die here, I die with you.”

Seraphina’s lips parted, her heart twisting painfully. “You… came here to save me?”

“I came here to save us,” E corrected quietly. “But to do that, I need to fix you first. Your body’s shutting down, and mine’s following. If I can find a way to heal you here, maybe it’ll fix everything on the outside too.”

For a long moment, Seraphina didn’t speak. Her gaze moved over E’s face and the faint tremor in her hands. She looked fragile but determined, like someone holding herself together through sheer stubbornness.

“E…” Seraphina started softly, her voice breaking, “you shouldn’t have come. You don’t look like you have much time left either.”

E chuckled weakly. “I didn’t exactly have a choice. You’re kind of hard to ignore when you’re dragging me down with you.”

That made Seraphina’s lips twitch in the faintest trace of a smile.

E took another step closer, her movements slow. “Look, I don’t have the strength to do this physically, I already tried, and it didn’t work, but maybe here, inside your mind, I can connect to you differently.”

Seraphina tilted her head slightly. “How?”

E extended her hand toward her, her fingers trembling slightly but her voice steady. “Take my hand. Just trust me on this.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know,” E admitted. “But if this works, maybe I can restore your energy from the inside. If not…” She trailed off, her tone fading. “Then at least I’ll know I tried.”

Something about the way she said it made Seraphina’s chest tighten. Without thinking further, she reached out and took E’s hand, and the instant their skin met, a pulse of light rippled through the water beneath them.

E gasped, her body jerking slightly from the sudden surge. It was like something deep inside her had been reignited, a spark that had been dying out suddenly roaring back to life.

Her cracked veins of light began to glow stronger, beating in rhythm with Seraphina’s faint heartbeat. The warmth spreading through her veins felt almost overwhelming, and for the first time in what felt like forever, she didn’t feel like she was slipping away.

“E…” Seraphina whispered, gripping her hand tighter. “What’s happening?”

E’s voice trembled, but she managed a breathless laugh. “It’s working,” she said, disbelief coloring her tone. “I can feel it. I can actually feel it.”

A sound filled the air, soft at first, then louder and deeper, as if the world around them was responding to their connection. The water under their feet rippled again, sending concentric circles of light across the expanse.

Seraphina’s body trembled as warmth spread through her arm, crawling slowly up her chest, filling her heart with a steady rhythm again. The dull ache that had weighed her down began to fade, replaced by something lighter and stronger.

E held on tighter, closing her eyes, focusing on the flow between them. Every heartbeat that echoed in her chest now mirrored Seraphina’s. They were connected, and the glow around them intensified, the light swelling until it was almost blinding.

E could barely breathe. She could feel her power surging, not draining, a strange, balanced exchange where both of them were giving and taking at once, but as the light grew, so did the strain, and the space around them began to tremble.

“E—” Seraphina started, her voice trembling, but E just shook her head.

“Don’t let go,” she said firmly.

“I’m not!” Seraphina shouted.

E’s body flickered like a flame, unstable but still burning bright. Her knees buckled, and for a split second, Seraphina thought she was going to collapse, but instead, E’s hand slipped from hers and reached upward, touching the center of her chest, right over her heart.

That single touch sent another burst of light through Seraphina’s body, brighter than the rest. The glow enveloped them both, wrapping them in golden flame; the sound of their heartbeats blended into one, and then, something inside Seraphina’s mind broke like a lock clicking open.

She stumbled forward, her instincts taking over as she grabbed E and pulled her close. The movement was pure reflex, an act of something far deeper than thought. She held her tightly, burying her face against E’s shoulder, as the light around them exploded outward in a final wave.

The world went completely white, then, suddenly, black.

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