CHAPTER 89: SEAL AND BOUND INSIDE

Darian emerged from the room twenty minutes later, his usually composed face pulled tight with concern. The warm flare of phoenix magic faded behind him as he closed the door gently.

Lucian straightened instantly, "Well?" he demanded, voice taut.

Darian hesitated before speaking.

"My lord... before anything else, you should know... my lady is pregnant."

Lucian went still. He didn’t flinch and gasp. He merely felt a cold, sinking confirmation settle into him like a weight in his gut.

Elyndra hadn’t lied.

"Did you know, my lord?" Darian asked.

"No." Lucian’s voice came out flat and hopeless. "I didn’t."

Darian nodded, as if that answered several questions at once.

"I sensed the second flame immediately. Small, but present. Phoenix pregnancies carry a distinct resonance."

"But there is something else," Darian continued, the worry returning to his voice. "Something far more troubling."

Lucian’s eyes narrowed. "Say it."

"When I examined my lady, I tried to locate her flame," Darian said slowly. "Her phoenix fire should be bright and unmistakable... especially after the magic she used earlier..."

He paused, throat working.

"My lord... may I ask something? My lady... is she truly from the rare-blood line? Did she use the healing flame to save Lady Arienne...?"

Lucian closed his eyes for a brief moment, trying to hold everything together, anger, grief, guilt, fear. All of it twisted inside him with no place to settle.

When he spoke, his voice was low. Controlled. Dangerous.

"First," he said, "no one here should mention anything about Lady Arienne. She is dead. Everyone should bear that in mind."

He opened his eyes and swept the hallway with a cold, sharp gaze.

Ena, the nurses, even the guards stiffened under the weight of it.

"From this moment," Lucian continued, "you will all speak as if she never left her state. Do you understand?"

"Yes, my lord," they answered in unison.

Lucian turned back to Darian. "Now continue."

He took a moment to steady himself.

"When I examined my lady," he said, "I reached for her flame. As a phoenix, I should feel it the way I feel my own heartbeat. Her flame should be strong... overwhelmingly strong, given her lineage."

Lucian listened without blinking.

"But when I tried to touch it..." Darian’s brows drew together. "I could only sense the faint outline of it. As if something was covering it. Hiding it."

Lucian’s chest tightened.

"It isn’t gone," Darian clarified quickly, raising a hand. "My lady’s flame is still inside her body. I can feel it clearly."

A beat.

"But it’s locked away. Like someone built a wall around it. I can feel the heat behind that wall... but I cannot reach through."

Lucian exhaled... slow, sharp and there was a slight of relief.

Darian continued softly, "It’s not that her soul has left her body. It’s here. But someone sealed it. Pushed it deep down. Bound it."

He looked up, eyes filled with quiet dread.

"My lord... My lady is alive. Her soul is alive. But she is trapped inside her own body." Darian’s voice dipped lower, "What is happening, my lord?"

Lucian didn’t answer at first.

The hallway was silent except for the faint crackle of frost spreading under his boots. His fingers flexed once, trying to steady the violent surge of cold magic hammering through his veins.

Ena watched him with wide, fearful eyes. The nurses didn’t dare breathe.

Finally, Lucian spoke, his voice low but threaded with fury he could barely contain, "She was possessed."

Darian stiffened.

"Possessed...? But phoenixes—"

"By a fairy," Lucian cut in, jaw tightening.

Darian’s face was drained of color. "A fairy? But that hasn’t been possible since—"

"She forced her way in when Seraphina weakened," Lucian said, each word clipped and bitter. "Her spirit was exhausted... nearly torn apart. I’m guessing that’s how the fairy took advantage of the opening."

Ena gasped softly, covering her mouth.

Darian stood frozen, stunned into silence as he processed the impossible.

"A fairy soul inside a phoenix body..." he murmured. "My lord, that should have torn the vessel apart. Phoenix bodies reject foreign spirits violently... this should not be survivable."

"I’m sure she didn’t get in normally," Lucian said. "This wasn’t natural. It wasn’t accidental... like she already planned this for so long..."

His voice lowered, dark and tight.

"I don’t know how she did it. That’s why I called you here."

He stepped closer, lowering his voice so only Darian would hear.

"I need answers, Darian. Every answer."

Darian lifted his gaze, meeting Lucian’s eyes with dawning seriousness.

Lucian continued, "The forbidden book... the one about rare-blood phoenixes... I managed to recover some fragments of it. If you can cross-check them with everything you know... everything about phoenix seals, soul-binding, rare-bloodline anomalies... maybe we can figure out how to pull Seraphina back."

Darian swallowed hard, "My lord... I will do everything I can. But rare-blood phoenix lore is ancient. Most of it was erased centuries ago to prevent abuse."

"Then dig deeper," Lucian demanded, voice shaking with the force of it. "I don’t care how long it takes. I don’t care how far you must go. Just... get her back."

Darian nodded firmly, resolve was settling in his eyes.

"I will start immediately. I know a few old scrolls that might still exist in the archives... and if the forbidden book fragments truly mention rare bloodlines, they may reference sealing rituals too."

Lucian nodded once, though the deep frown on his forehead only grew heavier.

"How about my mother?" he asked, voice low but steady.

Darian blinked, as if momentarily realizing he hadn’t reported that part yet.

"Oh—my lord. Miraculously... as expected from a true-blood flame, her core... which was almost unfixable... has begun returning to its original shape."

Lucian stiffened.

Darian continued, growing more certain with each word, "I have checked her condition thoroughly. The freeze damage that should have been permanent... is healing. Slowly, but clearly. My lady’s flame did something extraordinary to her."

Lucian swallowed, a conflicted breath slipping past his lips.

Darian lowered his voice.

"Your mother is alive, my lord. Truly alive. Her breath is steady. Her core is stabilizing. If her recovery continues at this rate, she may regain full consciousness within a day... perhaps less."

Lucian stared at him blankly.

He should have felt relief.

He should have felt joy, gratitude or something warm.

But instead, everything inside him twisted into one tangled knot.

Seraphina.

The baby.

The sealed soul.

His mother woke up... but Seraphina nearly died.

Conflicting emotions crashed inside him until he couldn’t separate one from another.

Still, after a long moment, he gave a slow, firm nod.

He turned to Ena, "Move my mother to the west wing," he said, voice controlled, though the strain underneath was unmistakable. "Monitor her carefully. No one enters without my permission."

"Yes, my lord," Ena replied, already signaling the maids and guards.

Then Lucian shifted his gaze to Thorne.

"Call Sebastian," he ordered. "Tell him to come immediately. I want him to seal the room... the kind of seal that prevents a fairy from slipping away."

Thorne bowed deeply. "At once, my lord."

Lucian’s fingers twitched at his side, a cold wave rippling outward from him.

"Wait—" he added sharply before Thorne could turn away. "After that, ask him to go to my study."