Page 26 of Sereis
Below me was nothing. Not darkness—nothing. An absence so complete my mind couldn't process it, kept trying to fill it with something, anything, rather than accept the void that existed beneath the gardens. This wasn't a crevasse. It was a wound in reality itself, the place where the wild magic had torn through dimensions in its birth.
Wind howled and ripped at me, pulling so hard that it tore at my clothes, leaving them in shreds around me. I felt so exposed, in so much danger, the my heart pounded with adrenaline.
My enhanced strength meant nothing here. I could pull myself up if I had something stable to pull against, but the ice edge was failing, chunks breaking away with sounds like glass tears. My other hand scrabbled for purchase and found only smooth surface, nothing to grip, nothing to save me.
"Help," I whispered, then louder, "Help!" But who would hear me? I'd broken through wards meant to keep me safe, descended to forbidden levels, walked into a trap any child would have seen. This was my fault, my arrogance, my—
"Mira."
Sereis stood at the edge of the false floor, looking down at me with an expression I'd never seen on his face before.
Terror.
Pure, absolute terror that made him look younger somehow, vulnerable in a way three thousand years of existence hadn't prepared him for. His eyes were wide, the silver-white irises reflecting the garden's wild light, and his hands trembled where they clenched at his sides.
For one heartbeat, we stared at each other—him frozen by the sight of me dangling over nothing, me shocked by the raw fear on his face.
Then the terror transformed into something far more frightening.
Fury.
Not the hot rage of fire dragons or the crackling anger of storm lords. This was the cold fury of absolute winter, the kind that froze blood in veins and turned breath to ice in lungs. The temperature in the gardens dropped twenty degrees instantly, and every ice tree chimed a warning as their inner light dimmed.
The garden's wild magic, which had been pressing against my mind moments before, retreated like tide before tsunami. Even the void beneath me seemed to recoil from the presence now radiating from Sereis.
He hadn't moved, hadn't reached for me, hadn't done anything but stand there as his fury transformed the very air into something that could kill with a breath. Frost spread from where he stood in fractals that moved like living things, reaching for me across the broken ice with intent that looked almost sentient.
"Don't," he said, and the word carried enough command to stop my heart for a beat. "Move."
I couldn't have moved if I wanted to. His fury had frozen me more effectively than any ice, locked every muscle in place with the absolute certainty that I had crossed a line there would be no coming back from. I'd seen him afraid. I'd seen him lose control. And now I would see what happened when a dragon's protective instincts collided with their rage at being disobeyed.
The ice beneath my fingers cracked further, and I couldn't even flinch.
Then, he closed his eyes and frost coalesced into an icy staircase under me. My heart pounded as I met his gaze. I tried to cover my near-nakedness, but felt like even if my clothes hadn’t been destroyed, I’d still be totally exposed.
“Come,” he said. “Climb the stair.”
I didn’t know what was more scary, the void beneath me, or the disappointment in Daddy’s eyes.
Chapter 6
Theicebeneathmypalms reformed with deliberate slowness, each crystalline step materializing just as my fingers found purchase, as if Sereis wanted me to feel every agonizing inch of my ascent from the abyss. My transformed body possessed strength I'd never imagined—muscles that didn't burn despite the vertical climb, lungs that processed the thin, magical air without strain—but none of that mattered when my spirit felt crushed beneath the weight of what I'd almost lost.
What I'd almost thrown away with my defiance.
Each handhold sent frost patterns spiraling up my arms, the silver lines beneath my skin flaring in response to the magic-saturated ice. My body should have been freezing, but the bond's protection kept me warm even as shame made me shiver. Below me, the wound in reality still gaped, a reminder of how close I'd come to obliteration. Above me, Sereis waited in silence that felt louder than any scream.
I pulled myself up another step, then another, my breasts brushing against the ice wall with each movement. The contact sent unwanted sparks through oversensitized nerves, my bodyinterpreting even this punishment as a form of twisted foreplay. The dress I'd been wearing was shredded, torn by the whipping wind of the abyss, leaving me to make this climb of shame almost completely exposed. My nipples hardened from more than cold, and wetness gathered between my thighs despite—or perhaps because of—the humiliation.
When my fingers finally found the edge of the platform, I hauled myself up with arms that trembled not from exertion but from the glacial fury radiating from the figure standing perfectly still at the garden's edge. Sereis hadn't moved since pulling me back from death. He stood with his back to me, every line of his body speaking of barely contained rage.
I stayed on my hands and knees for a moment, unable to stand, unable to meet his eyes even though he wasn't looking at me. The silence in the Deep Ice Gardens was absolute—even the reality tears that normally whispered their siren songs had gone quiet, as if the fundamental forces of this place recognized a predator more dangerous than any void.
"Stand."
The word hit through the bond with the force of a physical blow. My body obeyed before my mind could process the command, legs straightening despite their trembling, spine snapping upright as if pulled by invisible strings. The compulsion wasn't gentle—it was absolute, bypassing my will entirely.
Still, he didn't turn. Didn't need to. I felt his awareness of me like frost creeping across glass, beautiful and destructive in equal measure.
