If I could end my life right at this instant, I would. There are no weapons I haven’t tried, no poisons I have yet to consume. Without fail my body mends itself. This curse refuses to let me leave its clutches—there is no escape, not for me, and not for my people.Despair seeps deep into my soul as I approach the tall mirror hidden in the depths of the east wing, icy winds whipping across my skin as my footsteps echo ominously in my moonlit palace. Dark magic clutches at the tarnished silver mirror, wispy tendrils of black smoke swirling around the edges, threatening to knock off the icicles that have formed around the delicate golden floral ornaments that disguise what lives within.When I look into the mirror, it isn’t my reflection I see. Bitterness claws at me as I stare into the milky-white eyes of the seer that inhabits it. “Show me the girl.”Pythia smiles, her expression eerie and foreboding as she slowly fades from view, her image replaced by that of a young woman sitting in the corner of a dark room, a book in her hands, something akin to wistfulness written all over her face. Long dark hair falls to her waist, and even in the dim lighting, her light-brown eyes shimmer with hope. Every time I’ve seen her, her eyes have held that same expression. Hope. It’s something that’s rarely seen in Eldiria.The girl smiles to herself as she flips the page, and my heart squeezes tightly. She is unaware that none of her dreams will come to pass. Arabella of Althea has yet to realize that sorrow beyond anything she’s ever known is to befall her. After all, her fate is entwined with mine.“You’re certain it’s her?”The image blurs until once more, Pythia stands before me, her unseeing eyes keeping me pinned in place. “Only she is capable of breaking the curse,” the seer confirms. “Arabella of Althea is destined to become your empress.”My gaze roams over her pale face, doubt taking root deep inside my chest. Seers are known to be deceptive, but I’ve come to believe that Pythia is different. The decades in torment have worn her down as much as they have me. She’s as tied to this curse as I am. Until it’s broken, she’s trapped in the mirror dimension—in this very mirror.noveldrama“She’s so young,” I murmur, my mind drifting back to Arabella. “She looks weak.”The edges of Pythia’s dark-red lips turn up into a semblance of a smile. “She’s twenty-three, Your Excellency. Hardly a child.”I fail to understand how Arabella of Althea could possibly set us free, but if there’s even the slightest chance, I owe it to my people to try. Perhaps I should rethink the plans that have been in the making from the moment I learned of her, three months ago. I could have her captured and brought to me before dawn. Had she been anyone else, that’s exactly what I would’ve done.“She must come of her own free will,” Pythia reminds me, her tone sharp. I raise a brow in surprise, instantly wondering whether it’s my expression she read, or my thoughts. Fates, it wouldn’t surprise me if it was the latter.I nod in acquiescence and take a step back, resisting the urge to question the seer further. This is the first time she’s given me any hope that this curse could be broken. It’s unfortunate that it’ll be at the cost of Arabella’s future.Arabella of Althea.My future wife.She’s a glimmer of hope in an otherwise dark and bleak world. She’ll save us all, and it’ll cost her everything.My heart feels heavy as I walk toward the palace’s atrium, the walls filled with blood-red roses—my mother’s favorite flower. The mere sight of them nearly brings me to my knees, shame and regret coursing through my dark veins. I can’t help but wonder if my mother’s spirit is looking down on me today. If so, she’s no doubt enjoying my misery. Her curse played out exactly as she wanted it to.“So you’ll go through with it, then?”I look up to find Elaine standing to my side, her fingers gently caressing the frozen petals of a rose, her gaze filled with longing. “I have no choice.”She averts her face, but for a moment, I’m certain I saw a hint of anguish in her expression. “There is always a choice,” she says, her voice soft yet firm. “You will not endear yourself to her if you see this through. Love cannot bloom under threat of force.”“Love,” I scoff. It’s a common myth among those that heard Pythia’s prophecy—they believe true love will break the curse.A true union between the emperor and the woman fated to wield from within shall set you free.Elaine is certain that true union must mean true love, but she should be more concerned about the wield from within part. Neither she nor I have been able to decipher those words, and time is running out. Everyone knows that magic can only be drawn and controlled from the ether, and never from within, so it isn’t a sorceress we’re looking for, nor an alchemist. If Arabella of Althea truly is the prophesied one, what does she wield? I’ve watched her for months, and I have yet to see anyone weaker than she is.“Yes. Love,” Elaine repeats, her tone firm, unyielding.I sigh as I raise my face to look into her eyes. I never understood how Elaine holds on to hope despite everything this curse has taken from her, from us. Why does she still believe in love so fiercely? There is nothing I won’t try, but love is not the answer to the curse that plagues us.I force a smile for her and cup her cheek, my touch gentle. Elaine is the only one who doesn’t shirk away from the vileness that I’ve become, the only one that looks at me and sees more than just a monster. My black, vile, poisonous veins don’t faze her. She should hate me for all I’ve taken from her, but she’s never once blamed me for the effects of the curse. She’s never given up hope.“If only that were true. If I had a choice, I’d have taken my life and freed those that were cursed alongside me.” I wouldn’t be getting married.I was too young to comprehend my mother’s words, but I’ve heard them repeated back to me all my life. She cursed me to live in the shadows the way she always did, bathed in inescapable darkness that would encompass our entire kingdom. I was to bear witness to her destruction helplessly, and to live with the misery that lies in knowing I would never experience true love. She cursed me to live the life she did.I didn’t know what that meant until the rolling green hills I’d known in my teenage years withered away, right along with my father. By the time I was fifteen, his body had become riddled with poisonous black veins, an unknown illness making him rot away and beg my mother for mercy each day, until he became bedridden and so delirious, the only thing he could utter was her name. Not long after, the sun set and never rose again. By the time he passed away, days short of my twentieth birthday, the entire empire had become covered in treacherous ice, making growing crops impossible. The forest had begun to close us in as though it wished to trap us, making trade equally impossible, and our people were perishing at a rate higher than I ever could have imagined.If only that’d been the worst of it.Because of my mother, I’ll have to douse Arabella of Althea’s flame and pull her into the darkness with me. Another sacrifice in our endless battle against this curse.One more victim.I hope she’s the last one.