Chapter 287: The sigil
Seraphina’s POV
The second time I opened my eyes, everything felt... still.
I blinked slowly, my brain trying to catch up. For a second, I didn’t know where I was, and my head felt foggy, like I’d just come out of the deepest sleep of my life, but then I remembered what Electra’s grandfather had said before I left.
He’d said that I could return now, that I was ready to return to the real world, and based on the feeling in my limbs—heavy, sore, and real—I knew he hadn’t lied.
I was back.
My body felt stiff, but it was very much still alive, and my chest rose and fell with steady breaths. I was here.
Alive.
In the real world.
But... where exactly was here?
I slowly turned my head and took in the room around me. It was kind of dim and unfamiliar at first glance, and the walls looked like they were black, the curtains thick and dark, and then... I noticed the chains.
Chains, whips, and leather straps, as well as cuffs that were hanging from the headboard.
I blinked again, slower this time, and then I let out a small, dry laugh.
"Oh my god," I muttered to myself, lips curling into a tired smile. "Of course she put me here."
This was Electra’s secret room. Her private dungeon tucked behind the mirror in her bedroom, and the very same place where she once brought me during one of our more... intense nights.
I shook my head, biting back another laugh. Of all the places to leave me while I recovered, did she really have to choose this one?
"You’re such a weirdo, Electra," I said out loud, mostly to myself.
Still smiling, I braced my hands on the mattress and pushed myself up into a sitting position and instantly regretted it.
"Shit—!"
A sharp pain exploded across my back, so intense that I nearly collapsed forward. My breath caught in my throat as I froze, too scared to move again. I clenched the sheets under my hands, biting down on my bottom lip to keep from yelling.
At first I thought maybe it was just stiffness. I had no idea how long I’d been unconscious—days, maybe even weeks—so it did make sense that my muscles would ache, but then it started burning.
Not just a dull ache, but burning like something was searing through my skin from the inside out. A slow, crawling fire moving down my spine.
"No, no, no," I whispered, panicking now.
I pushed the covers off and staggered to my feet, nearly tripping over the sheets in the process. My knees were shaking, and my legs felt like jelly, but I forced myself to move because I needed to see what was happening to me.
I stumbled toward the door, barely steady on my feet, and reached for the latch behind the wall panel. The mirror was the entrance to Electra’s room, and thank god, it opened up easily.
I stepped out into her bedroom and took a breath.
It was quiet and even empty. The bed was unmade, meaning that someone had definitely been in here, and the faint scent of her perfume was still in the air, but she wasn’t here, and I didn’t waste time searching.
I turned straight to the mirror above her dresser, tugging my shirt over my head and twisting around to get a better view of my back, and then I saw it.
Right between my shoulder blades, glowing faintly against my skin, was a mark.
A sigil.
The same one her grandfather had warned me about.
It was beautiful, very strange as I expected, but also very beautiful. Thin lines curled into the shape of a circle, with detailed feather-like designs on its edges.
I stared at it in silence.
It didn’t look like it had been burned onto my skin since it wasn’t raw or bloody, but the feather-like designs pulsed faintly, like they were alive, and even though they didn’t seem to be hurting me at this very second, I could still feel them under my skin, like heat inside me.
I placed my fingertips gently against the mirror for balance.
Electra’s grandfather had said this would happen.
He said the sigil would appear once I returned, that it marked the bond between Electra and me, that as long as she lived, it would keep the balance between her phoenix and human sides, but if she died?
If I died?
It would turn on the one who was left. I swallowed hard, suddenly feeling like the air in the room was too heavy for me.
I was back in my body, back in this asylum called elysium, and I was alive, but I wasn’t the same, not even close, and now, there was a mark on my back that bound me to her in a way that went beyond friendship or even love.
This was something deeper, a bond that lived inside me now.
I let out a long breath, my palm still pressed against the glass.
"I guess this is real, huh?" I whispered to my reflection.
I looked at my reflection for just a little while longer and then finally turned away. My head was starting to clear a bit more now, and one question kept circling in my mind.
Where was Electra?
Was she downstairs? Out somewhere? At dinner?
I looked toward the door, and part of me wanted to go find her, to make sure she was okay, and to ask her what day it was, how long I’d been gone, and, oh god, if I’d missed my first exam. That thought alone made my stomach twist, but before I took a step, I caught a whiff of something awful.
It was me.
I looked down at my clothes, still the same dirty outfit I wore into that damn bunker. I’d been lying in that outfit for... however long, and now I smelled like sweat and old dirt.
Absolutely not.
There was no way I was going out there like this.
I went straight into Electra’s bathroom, peeled the clothes off, and tossed them on the floor like they were contagious. Then I turned on the shower and stepped under the warm water, letting it run down my face and back, rinsing away days of grime and whatever magic residue still clung to me.
I stayed there longer than I probably needed to, letting myself relax for the first time in what felt like forever.
After drying off, I grabbed a fresh shirt and a pair of joggers from Electra’s drawer. They were loose, soft, and smelled like her, and I didn’t care if they were too big because they felt like home, and that was exactly what I needed right now.