Seraphina's POV
"Traitor!"
The word sliced through the ballroom like a sword, freezing everyone mid-dance. I stood at the center of the room, champagne glass trembling in my hand, as every single person turned to stare at me.
This was supposed to be my birthday party. My twenty-third. The best day of my life.
Now it felt like a nightmare.
"Seraphina Ashford," Captain Marcus boomed, his armor clanking as he marched toward me with ten royal guards behind him. "You are under arrest for treason against the Kingdom of Aeloria."
My heart stopped. "What? No—there must be some mistake—"
"Seize her!"
Rough hands grabbed my arms. My champagne glass shattered on the marble floor. I tried to pull away, but the guards were too strong. They twisted my arms behind my back, and I cried out in pain.
"Father!" I screamed, searching the crowd for my father's face. "Father, help me!"
Duke Aldric Ashford stood near the throne, his military medals gleaming on his chest. He was the most powerful general in the kingdom. Everyone feared him. Everyone respected him.
He was my father. He would fix this.
But when our eyes met, his face was cold. Empty. Like he was looking at a stranger.
"Father, please!" I begged. "Tell them this is wrong! Tell them I didn't do anything!"
He turned away.
My chest felt like it was caving in. The room spun around me. Guests whispered and pointed. Some laughed. Others looked away like they couldn't stand to watch.
"Daemon!" I called out desperately to my fiancé. Prince Daemon stood near the refreshment table, his golden crown catching the light. We were supposed to get married next month. He loved me. He would save me.
But Daemon didn't move. He just stared at me with disgust, like I was something dirty on his shoe.
"Take her to the throne room," Captain Marcus ordered. "The king will hear her crimes now."
They dragged me forward. My feet barely touched the ground. My mother's silver necklace—the only thing I had left of her—bounced against my chest. I clutched it with my bound hands, praying for strength.
The throne room doors burst open. King Edward sat on his throne, old and tired. My father stood to his right. My stepmother, Duchess Ravenna, stood to his left, her red lips curved in a tiny smile.
That smile made my blood run cold.
"Bring forth the evidence," the king said.
A servant rushed forward with a wooden box. Captain Marcus opened it and pulled out letters. My letters. At least, they had my seal pressed into the wax.
"These were found in Lady Seraphina's private chambers," Marcus announced. "They contain military secrets sold to our enemy—King Cassian Blackwood of Valcrest. Details about our army positions, supply routes, and battle plans."
"No!" I shouted. "I never wrote those! I never—"
"There's more," Marcus interrupted. He pulled out a silk pouch. Gold coins spilled onto the floor, clinking loudly. "Payment from the Iron King himself. Thirty pieces of gold for her betrayal."
The room erupted in angry shouts.
"Traitor!"
"Shame on the Ashford family!"
"She sold us to the enemy!"
My legs gave out, but the guards held me up. This couldn't be happening. Those letters weren't mine. I'd never met anyone from Valcrest. I'd never betrayed my kingdom.
Someone had framed me.
But who?
"Seraphina Ashford," King Edward said heavily, "what say you to these charges?"
"I'm innocent!" My voice cracked. "Your Majesty, I swear on my mother's grave, I never wrote those letters. Someone is lying. Someone set me up!"
"Lying?" My stepmother Ravenna stepped forward, dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief like she was crying. "Oh, my poor husband. To think we raised this viper in our home. To think we loved her like family."
Loved me? She'd made my life miserable since the day she married my father.
"Father, please," I whispered, my throat tight. "You know me. You raised me. I would never betray our kingdom. I would never betray you."
For a moment—just one tiny moment—something flickered in my father's eyes. Regret? Sadness?
Then it was gone.
"I have no daughter," he said flatly. "Only a traitor who shares my name."
The words hit me harder than any slap. My own father. The man who taught me to ride horses, who told me bedtime stories, who promised to always protect me.
He just disowned me.
"The evidence is clear," Prince Daemon spoke up, his voice echoing through the chamber. Every head turned to him. My heart jumped with desperate hope.
He would defend me. He had to.
"I cannot marry a traitor," Daemon continued, pulling a ring from his pocket—my engagement ring. He dropped it on the floor like garbage. "Lady Seraphina Ashford is dead to me. Whatever punishment she receives, she deserves."
The hope in my chest died.
Everyone I loved had abandoned me.
King Edward sighed deeply. "The penalty for treason is death. However..." He paused, glancing at my father. "Duke Ashford, you have served this kingdom well for thirty years. I will show mercy to your... former daughter. Instead of execution, we will send her to King Cassian. Let him deal with the spy he paid for."
No. No, no, no.
King Cassian Blackwood—the Iron King. The monster who killed prisoners for fun. The enemy who wanted to destroy Aeloria.
They were sending me to my death anyway. Just a slower, more painful one.
"Please," I sobbed, falling to my knees. "Please, I'm innocent. Don't do this. Please!"
Nobody listened.
"Take her away," the king ordered. "Prepare her for transport to Valcrest at dawn."
Guards hauled me up. I thrashed and screamed, but it was useless. They dragged me toward the exit as the crowd parted, everyone staring with hatred and disgust.
At the doorway, I looked back one last time.
My father stood tall and unmoved.
My stepmother smiled wider.
Prince Daemon had already turned away.
And in the crowd, I saw my stepmother's daughter—my stepsister Lydia—holding up a piece of parchment. She waved it at me slightly, and my heart stopped.
It was blank parchment.
With my seal at the bottom.
She mouthed two words: "Thank you."
The truth crashed over me like ice water.
My stepmother and stepsister had framed me. They'd stolen my seal, forged the letters, planted the evidence. And my father...
Did he know? Was he part of this?
"Move!" A guard shoved me forward.
As they dragged me into the darkness of the hallway, one thought burned in my mind:
My own family had just sold me to the enemy king to die.
And tomorrow, I would meet the monster who would end my life.