Chapter 3

They tortured me until I was forced back into my rabbit form. I was small and helpless in their hands.

I felt the cold steel of their blades reaching for my eyes. But I didn't care anymore. The physical pain was nothing compared to losing my son.

With my last bit of strength, I whispered into the void, "Caspian, I’m sorry. I couldn't protect him."

After they took my sight, Seraphina wasn't finished. She ordered them to pull every bone from my body.

"I’m going to make the 'Thirty-Three Bone Chalice' from the ancient texts," she declared. "It will be the talk of the banquet."

A Moon Rabbit has thirty-three bones. If you take them all and craft them into a set of cups, the person who drinks from them will gain massive power.

But the process is so cruel that the heavens had banned it for centuries. Now, Seraphina was bringing it back for me.

The soldiers cut me open, piece by piece. They pulled out my bones and tossed my empty skin into the dirt like a used rag.

Seraphina smiled. "At least your death serves a purpose. You’ll be the reason the King and I have a perfect wedding."

I was dead, but my soul refused to leave. I floated in the air, blind and broken, watching the horror below.

Even then, Seraphina wasn't done.

"If a Moon Rabbit dies with this much hate, her soul will haunt her killer," she muttered. "I won't give her the chance."

She used a soul-binding chain to trap my spirit and locked me away behind the execution platform.

"When the King returns, I’ll have him destroy your soul himself," she hissed.

I couldn't live, and I couldn't die. Every day, I suffered through a magical fire that burned my very essence.

"Caspian, where are you?" I cried.

My tears fell as glowing orbs. The guard watching me was confused. "A soul can cry?"

After ten days of burning in that fire, I finally heard the trumpets. The King had returned.

But I didn't want revenge anymore. I just wanted to vanish. I couldn't take the pain for another second.