The Peach Blossom Tattoo on Serin's body bloomed wildly, searing her veins with unimaginable pain.
Her body temperature spiked without warning, as though all the blood in her heart had turned into pure lava.
The petals of the mystical flower engraved across her chest spread rapidly, radiating a blazing red glow that pierced through her dress and crept madly up the hollow of her throat to her cheekbones.
Serin forcibly broke their lip lock. She fell backward across Kaelen's lap, clutching her own chest with rigid, tensed fingers.
“ Ngh... hah!”
Serin's breathing came hard and fast, like a dying animal. Every exhalation released hot vapor that scorched the cold air in the cramped room.
The pain was so horrifying that it was more than mere physical torture—it was a barrage of fiery needles ripping apart the core of her soul from within.
Above her, Kaelen slowly regained consciousness and his eyes flew wide. The ancient ice poison in Kaelen's throat had indeed been neutralized by the antidote magic Serin had given him, but the price was truly horrific.
A stirring of pure emotion—the forbidden stirring of love and concern—had just awakened the Peach Blossom curse's poison.
That ancient curse had not been designed to accept the warmth of emotion. It demanded eternal hatred instead.
“Serin!” Kaelen's hoarse voice split through the billowing smoke. His large hands gripped Serin's violently trembling shoulders. “Serin, look at me!”
Kaelen pressed his thumb against Serin's wrist, trying to channel his ice energy into suppressing the wave of heat consuming her body.
But their magic collided wildly, like two storms bent on destroying each other. The golden light from Serin's tattoo erupted instead, shattering the protective mesh around Kaelen's arm and scattering sparks of magic through the air.
The man grimaced as the skin on his palm blistered black from the curse's cross-reaction. Yet he refused to let go.
Kaelen channeled the last of his focus through his blurring vision, shielding Serin's soul by concentrating controlled cold directly around the woman's heart.
He was willing to sacrifice the magic pathways in his own hand to hold back the destruction of Serin's internal organs.
Behind the ice barricade separating them from their enemies, another blast of outside magic slammed into the protective wall.
The attackers' cold laughter mingled with the rumble of ice cracking and spreading farther.
“She won't last, Commander Vance!” a deep voice shouted from beyond the fog. “Peach Blossom blood is destined to burn itself away when it comes into contact with its killer!”
Kaelen paid no attention to the poison or the enemies outside. His gaze remained locked entirely on Serin's increasingly agonized face.
The air around them seemed to tremble violently as Kaelen forced the ice magic core in his chest to spin at its maximum limit.
Black ice stars burst from Kaelen's pores, forming a protective vortex that enveloped both their bodies against physical and spiritual assault.
Overwhelming guilt churned through his hazy memories, striking his mind like a blade. He remembered the flashes of fire from twenty years ago, and now the same woman was once again hovering on the brink of death in his lap—because of his very existence.
In utter desperation, Kaelen picked up his cracked magic dagger. He paid no attention to the pain from his own wounds.
Without the slightest hesitation, Kaelen sliced deeply into his own palm, letting his magic-contaminated gray blood pour freely.
He pressed the bleeding wound directly against the Peach Blossom Tattoo on Serin's chest.
“Use my magic! Take it all, Serin!” Kaelen roared, his voice breaking with frustration.
He tried to channel every last bit of the Ice Core within him to freeze the curse's molten heat gnawing through Serin's body from the inside. “Curse me, hate me, take my life if that'll keep you alive... but don't die here!”
The pure ice magic in Kaelen's blood collided directly with the fire of Serin's curse across her skin. Thick white steam exploded into the air, accompanied by the agonizing hiss of flesh burning.
The Peach Blossom curse roared wildly, greedily absorbing Kaelen's ice element and reversing its flow through every nerve in Serin's body.
Serin tried to say something, but all that came from her throat was a muffled groan. Her eyes rolled wildly, trapped within a crushing siege of pain.
Suddenly, her body convulsed violently with a scream.
Cough!
Serin suddenly coughed blood into Kaelen's arms. Thick red fluid charged with a golden glow burst out, soaking Kaelen's fingers and dripping onto the Commander's black tactical uniform.
“No, no, no...” Kaelen whispered, the wild panic that had never once shown on his cold face now breaking through completely.
Kaelen's heart pounded violently behind his ribs. The man who had never feared facing thousands of demon troops was now trembling uncontrollably.
He brushed his fingers across Serin's lips to wipe away the remaining blood, but the woman's skin suddenly changed texture.
The burning red glow of the Peach Blossom was abruptly and unnaturally sucked away, replaced by a pale gray color that rapidly spread from beneath Serin's chest.
Kaelen held his breath. He watched the skin around Serin's neck turn corpse-pale, covered by a thin layer of icy frost that drained every trace of life from the beautiful curator's face.
Serin's body temperature, which had just been blazing hot, suddenly plummeted past the freezing point. The woman's heartbeat beneath Kaelen's palm slowed... thump... thump... until it was almost impossible to feel.
“Serin! Open your eyes! What have I done?!”
Will Kaelen manage to save Serin before her heart stops completely? Don't forget to leave a trace in the comments and save this to your library!