“You must be confused.”
“I want answers,” I said. “Why am I here?”
“You already know,” she replied, descending the stairs. “You felt it the moment you stepped into this realm.The way the miasma parted for you. The way your blood calmed in the presence of shadow. You belong here.”
“No,” I rasped, shaking my head. “I’m not— I don’t— I’m not a demon.”
The King only smiled, but the Queen’s expression softened.
“You’re not,” she said.
The words struck like a whip.
“What?”
“You are not a full demon,” she clarified. “You are more… complicated than that.”
My throat tightened. “Then what the hell am I?”
“You are my daughter,” she said — soft, firm, devastating. “I carried you beneath the mountains of flame. You were born of me… and of the light.”
She turned her eyes to the crimson sky.
“Your father was an archangel.”
The floor tilted beneath me.
“No,” I whispered.
“He loved me once,” she said, a flicker of pain cutting through her perfect calm. “But love between our kinds is forbidden. When I became pregnant, he fled. Orwas taken. I don’t know which. I gave you up to protect you. To keep you safe from both realms.”
The King stepped forward now, gaze heavy. “And yet the child of fire and heaven has returned… with shadow burning in her soul.”
I shook my head, backing away.
“No. This can’t be true.”
“You are not a child of the Guild,” the Queen said, voice trembling now. “They stole you. Lied to you. Trained you to hate half of yourself.”
I gritted my teeth.
“And what do you want from me now? To bow? To kneel? To become your heir?”
The King tilted his head.
“You are not of my blood. But I will accept you as mine. You are powerful, Seori. A union of divine fury and infernal flame. And you are bonded to my son.”
I stiffened.
“Rheon—”
“He is dying,” the Queen said, stepping closer. “And you may be the only one who can save him. Not justbecause you are his mate… but because you are the only being in existence who stands between two realms.”
My chest heaved.
“I am not yours,” I said. “I don’t belong to any of you.”
“But you do,” the King said. “You belong to both. And that is what makes you dangerous… and divine.”
