All Chapters of The curse between us: Chapter 1 - Chapter 5

Seraphine's POV"Hey! Come back here, you little cunt!"My boots hit the marble floor hard as I ran, my hair flying behind me, my heart pumping with the kind of joy that only came from doing something I wasn't supposed to do. The Vale Manor hallways were long and cold and lit by torches that threw orange shadows on the stone walls, but I knew every single turn in this place. I had memorized them years ago.There were four guards behind me. I could hear their boots, heavy and clumsy compared to mine. Guards. They were my father's guards. Big men in dark uniforms who thought that because they were large, they were fast.They were not fast.I turned a sharp corner, cut through the side passage, and came out near the east staircase. I was almost at the servant's door that led to the outer garden. Twenty more steps and I would be outside. My friends were waiting on the other side of the garden wall. Lena had promised wine and Dara had promised gossip and for one evening I just wanted my

Seraphine's POVThe car came to a stop and one of the Ashford guards pulled the door open, offering his hand to help me down.I took it carefully, making sure my glove didn't slip, and stepped out onto the stone path.The first thing I noticed was the air. It was different here. Warmer somehow, even though we were well into the cold season, like the ground itself was giving off a quiet heat. The second thing I noticed was the manor.I had grown up hearing my father describe the Ashford estate as a place built on stolen glory, grand because it was paid for with Vale blood and Vale land. I had pictured something cold and arrogant, a big ugly building.I had not pictured this.The manor was beautiful. Genuinely, almost painfully beautiful. Stone walls covered in dark climbing vines, tall windows that caught the afternoon light and threw it back in warm gold sheets, a set of wide front steps flanked by iron lanterns that were already lit even in the middle of the day. The gardens on eithe

Seraphine's POVThe room Caelum had given me was nothing like my room back at the Vale manor.My room at home was cold. Stone walls, a small window that let in more wind than light, a bed that had never quite felt like it belonged to me. I had spent years making it bearable rather than comfortable, filling the shelves with books and covering the floor with rugs I had bought myself because nobody else thought to.This room was warm.I stood in the middle of it for a moment after the maid closed the door behind her.Then I crossed to the window, sat down on the cushioned seat, and pulled off both my gloves.I did it slowly, the way I always did when I was alone and certain nobody was watching. I held both hands out in front of me, palms up, and let the cool air from the window gaps move across my bare skin.Outside, the Ashford gardens were quiet and dark, lit by a row of low iron lanterns along the stone path below.I breathed in.The air here was clean. Sharper than home, with a cool