In a divided kingdom where magic is feared and those who wield it are hunted, Ariana, the daughter of a powerful councilman, lives a life of privilege and duty. But her world unravels when she encounters Kiran, a fugitive with the power to command...
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I walked down the cold, stone corridors of the palace, the sharp sound of my boots echoing through the silence. I hadn’t been in this part of the palace before. The further I walked, the darker and more oppressive it became, the walls closing in around me. I felt the weight of the moment pressing on my shoulders—the uncertainty, the anger, the fear. It was all too much.
I was here to visit Kiran. The woman I had once trusted, the woman I had risked everything for. But now, she was a prisoner.
My heart tightened at the thought of it. Kiran had been captured after the council discovered her secret—her magic. She had tried to help, to heal, but instead, they saw her as a threat. My father had been the first to demand her imprisonment. It was his fear of magic that made him act so rashly. Fear of the unknown. Fear of losing control.
I was afraid too, in a way. But not of Kiran. I was afraid of what would happen if the truth about magic came out. If the world knew that magic could heal, could change things. If the Umbra saw that magic wasn’t a curse but a gift, could we ever go back? Could we ever undo what was already done?
I reached the door at the end of the hall, where two guards stood sentry, their eyes locked on me as I approached. They didn’t question me—my presence here was as much of an order as the chains that bound Kiran inside.
I pushed open the heavy door, and the flickering light from a single candle illuminated the small, stone-walled cell. Kiran sat slumped against the far wall, her face pale and her hands bound to the wall with thick iron chains. She looked smaller than I remembered, as though the weight of everything had finally broken her.
I swallowed hard and stepped inside.
“Ari?” Her voice was raspy, as though she hadn’t spoken in days.
I bit my lip, trying not to let my emotions overwhelm me. “I’m here, Kiran.”
Her eyes flickered toward me, searching, as if unsure whether I would still come, still care after everything that had happened. She had been quiet ever since her capture, her defiant spark dulled by the imprisonment. The Kiran I had known, the Kiran who had once healed my mother, was no longer there. In her place was a woman broken by the very thing she had tried to save us all with.
“I thought you might have forgotten about me,” Kiran muttered, her voice bitter. “Or worse, joined them.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said, shaking my head. I walked closer, trying to fight the lump in my throat. “I haven’t forgotten. I came because I need to talk to you.”
Kiran let out a soft laugh, but there was no humor in it, only sadness. “You came to see the prisoner, huh? To ask about the magic? About what happened? What more is there to say?”
“You didn’t deserve this,” I said, my voice trembling. “You didn’t deserve to be locked away like this. You were only trying to help.”
“I know.” She sighed, her head dropping as if the weight of the truth was too much to carry. “But you saw how they reacted. You saw how they treated me. How they see me as a weapon. A monster.”
“You’re not a monster,” I said firmly. “You’re just... different. And the world is scared of what it doesn’t understand.”
Kiran looked up at me then, her eyes meeting mine with a fire I hadn’t seen in days. “I’m not scared, Ari. I never was. But I wasn’t prepared for what this would do to all of us. I didn’t think it would come to this.”
I stepped closer to her, my heart aching with the sight of her chains. I could barely recognize the woman I had once admired, the one who had shown me compassion when I needed it most. Now she was trapped—physically and emotionally.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered. “I never wanted this for you. I thought we could change things. I thought we could make a difference.”
Kiran closed her eyes, the sound of her breathing heavy in the silence. “I believed that too. But the cost of magic is higher than I thought. I thought I could heal your mother and that everything would be different. But all I did was stir up more hatred, more fear. It was my mistake.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head, my voice rising. “It wasn’t your mistake. You healed my mother. You saved her. And they still hate you for it. I hate that they can’t see what you’ve done. What magic can do.”
She looked at me, her eyes filled with sorrow and something else—regret. “You don’t know what I’ve done, Ari. You don’t know what magic has cost me. I wasn’t prepared for the consequences. And now, here I am, locked away like a criminal.”
I sat down on the cold stone floor beside her, the chains rattling as Kiran shifted against the wall. I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to comfort her, to promise her everything would be okay. But I couldn’t lie to her, not after everything that had happened.
“I don’t want you to suffer like this,” I said softly. “I wish I could do something. I wish I could make it all go away.”
“You can,” Kiran replied, her voice barely a whisper. “You can stop the war. You can stop your father from going after the Umbra. But I know you won’t. You’ll never be able to choose magic over your own people, over your father.”
I flinched at the truth of her words. The sting of them was sharper than any blade. She was right. I couldn’t just walk away from everything I had known. I couldn’t just turn my back on Solan, even though every part of me wanted to. But the war was too far gone, and my father’s hatred for magic was too ingrained. There was no easy way out.
“I can’t just abandon my people,” I said, my voice shaky. “I can’t let them all fall to the Umbra. And I can’t be seen as someone who’s weak.”
“You don’t have to be weak to want peace, Ari,” Kiran said, her voice gentle. “But sometimes, peace comes at a price. And you have to be willing to pay it.”
“I know,” I whispered, my eyes lowering to the stone floor. “But I don’t know how to fix this. I don’t know how to make the world see magic differently. And I don’t know how to make them see you differently.”
Kiran’s expression softened, and for a moment, she looked like the person I had first met—strong, determined, and unyielding. “Ari, I never wanted anyone to see me as anything other than who I am. I never wanted the Umbra and Solan to see me as a weapon. But now, all I want is for you to understand the truth. Magic isn’t a curse. It’s a gift. And it’s up to you to decide what to do with it.”
I reached out, gently touching her hand. The chains rattled with her movement as she looked down at them, and then back at me, her gaze filled with something I couldn’t quite place.
“I don’t know if I can change everything,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “But I’m going to try. I won’t let them keep you here forever.”
Kiran smiled faintly, a weary expression on her face. “You don’t have to do it alone.”
For the first time in weeks, I felt the tiniest flicker of hope. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to make me believe that, somehow, we would get through this. Together.
