River didn't answer her question immediately and his expression made her feel that he was recalling something really painful. It only made her more curious to know what he was hesitating to tell her.
A few moments of silence passed between them before he inhaled deeply and finally answered, his eyes staring right into hers with such vulnerability that she felt her heart aching.
His voice was merely a whisper as he spoke the words, "Because only a dead could enter the cursed land of Shadow City."
Seraphina's eyes went wide with shock and she stared back at him in silence. Though it was always in plain sight, it never really got registered to her. All those candidates who came to the Shadow City before her were dead, and she too was dead.