Chapter 1

For a thousand days, I bled myself from the heart to grow a Soulbloom, a herb with the power to cheat death.

When I finally offered it to him, I whispered, "This herb is special. It only works for the one its owner truly loves."

He smiled, took it, and immediately gave it to the frail woman he adored.

Three days later, she was dead, blood streaming from her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, yet a smile lingered on her lips.

He stormed into Willowbrook Sanctuary like a madman, gripping my shoulders and screaming, "What did you do?"

I brushed away the shards of the bowl he had shattered and slowly lifted my head.

"The Soulbloom chooses its owner," I said. "It drank my blood for three years. Now, it only works for the one I love."

*****

Lily Summers was gone.

When word of her death reached Willowbrook Sanctuary, I was simmering the last Heartdew. The porcelain bowl slipped from my fingertips and crashed to the floor, the brown potion spilling across the tiles, looking like dried blood.

I didn't feel surprised. I simply wiped my hands clean.

Some things were inevitable.

"Claire, where are you?" Evan Sterling's voice rang out from the entrance, hoarse and broken, laced with a panic I'd never heard from him before.

I pushed open the cabin door and saw him staggering toward me, his white shirt dusty and his hair a mess. Evan, who was always so calm and composed, now had bloodshot eyes, looking like a ghost clawing its way out of hell.

"What happened?" He grabbed my shoulders, his fingers almost digging into my bones. "Lily took the Soulbloom. How could she..."

I looked up at him, so calm it even surprised me. "She's dead?"

He shuddered.

"What the hell happened?!" he roared, his voice echoing through the valley.

As I looked into his bloodshot eyes, I suddenly remembered that evening three years ago. He was sitting in a wheelchair, his face pale as paper, yet he still smiled at me. "Claire, don't trouble yourself over me. There's no cure for this illness."

Back then, he'd just fallen from the esteemed heir of the Silverblade Order to a broken man. He had suffered from a stubborn illness, and no healer could do a thing for him.

Only I knew that the legendary Soulbloom hidden in the Forbidden Realm of Willowbrook Sanctuary could cure him.

But no one knew that for it to mature, it needed the owner's heart's blood for a thousand days.

"The Soulbloom chooses its owner," I heard myself say, my voice barely more than a whisper, soft as the morning mist drifting through the valley.

Evan froze. "What?"

"It drank my heart's blood for a thousand days," I said slowly, each word stabbing at my heart, and at his, too. "So it only works for someone I love."

His eyes widened suddenly.

His handsome face lost all color, his hands slipping from my shoulders and dropping limply to his sides. He couldn't meet my eyes, staring off into the distance as he swallowed hard.

"Then... what happens if someone else eats it?" Evan's voice was barely more than a whisper.

I let out a laugh.

Funny how, when the pain cut deepest, one really could laugh.

"Who knows?" I said, a bitter smile tugging at my lips. "Maybe it'll kill them."

The air felt frozen.

Evan took a step back, as if he'd never met me before.

Of course. How could he ever know the real Claire Hart?

In his eyes, I was always the considerate, quiet girl who never needed any care. Not like Lily, so delicate she'd fall with a breeze or get sick with a drop of rain, always needing him to cradle her in his hands.

"You..." His lips trembled. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

Classic Evan. He always blamed everyone else, always wondering why no one warned him and why things turned out the way they did.

"I told you before," I said quietly.

Three years ago, when I finally handed him the Soulbloom that had at last matured, my hands trembled. Not just from exhaustion, but from everything I felt inside.

I said, "Evan, this plant is unique. You need to brew it yourself and drink it. Never pass it on to someone else."

He took the box, his fingertips grazing my palm, and the warmth of that touch made my heart skip a beat.

"Got it. Thank you," Evan said, smiling so gently it felt like a dull knife, slicing me open bit by bit.

Without another word, he turned and left, carrying the Soulbloom straight to Lily. She was far away, suffering from nothing more than a lingering cough from a simple cold.

I stood at the entrance of Willowbrook Sanctuary until darkness swallowed the sky, the ache in my chest quietly burning. That day marked the thousandth time I'd bled myself for him.