Seraphina's POV - Wedding Day, Present
You planned it? My voice barely works. You killed my family?
Cordelia's smile is poison. Oh, don't look so shocked, darling. Someone had to do it.
Kael shifts in front of me, blocking her shot. Cordelia, this is madness. Put down the crossbow.
Move aside, Kael. Her finger caresses the trigger. This doesn't have to involve you. Just step away from the girl, and you can live.
Not happening.
Then you'll die with her. She shrugs. Pity. I did try to save you.
My mind races. We need time. Information. Anything to survive this.
Why? I ask, stepping slightly to the side so I can see her around Kael. What did my family ever do to you?
Do to me? Cordelia laughs. Nothing. That's the point. Your father was a good man. Too good. Too popular. Too much of a threat.
A threat to who?
To people with ambition. Her eyes gleam. Your father opposed the Emperor's war expansion. He had enough support in the noble houses to actually stop it. Can't have that when there's so much profit in war.
The pieces click together in my mind. Lord Blackwell.
Very good! Cordelia claps her free hand. The weapons trade. The seized territories. All that lovely money flowing into the right pockets. Your father would have ended it all with his peace proposals.
So Blackwell paid you to frame him for treason, Kael says flatly.
Paid me? Please. Cordelia rolls her eyes. He promised me something much better. You.
Kael stiffens. What?
We had a deal, darling. I help him remove the Valence obstacle, and when you inevitably became a war hero from the siege, you'd come home and marry me. We'd be the perfect power couple. Her voice turns bitter. But then the emperor decided to marry you off to her instead. Ruined everything.
So you sent assassins to our wedding, I say.
Of course. If I can't have you, Kael, nobody can. She aims the crossbow more carefully. And if she's dead, the emperor will have to let you marry me. There's no other suitable noble woman of her rank.
You're insane, Kael breathes.
Cordelia's confession falls on me like hammer blows. Each word is a revelation, a piece of a puzzle I didn't know existed. My father wasn't killed for his politic she was killed because he was inconvenient. My family wasn't destroyed for treason they were destroyed for profit. It's so much worse than I imagined. At least a political execution has some twisted honor to it. But this? This is just greed. Just money. We died for someone else's fortune.
I'm practical. Cordelia's finger tightens on the trigger. Now, last chance. Move or die with her.
I'm not moving.
Your funeral.
Everything happens at once.
Cordelia fires.
Kael shoves me sideways.
The bolt whistles past, so close it tears my veil.
And I remember the broken chair leg is still in my hand.
I throw it.
My aim is terrible, but luck is on my side. The chair leg hits Cordelia's shoulder just as she's reaching for another bolt. She stumbles back, cursing.
Run! Kael grabs my hand, pulling me toward the door.
We burst into the corridor. Behind us, Cordelia screams: Guards! The bride is escaping! She tried to kill me!
She's calling for help? I gasp as we run.
She has guards loyal to her, Kael says grimly. Blackwell's men, probably. We can't trust anyone.
We race through twisting corridors. Left, right, down stairs, through rooms I don't recognize. My lungs burn. My dress is shredded. But I keep running.
Behind us, boots pound. Shouts echo. They're getting closer.
Here! Kael pulls me through a narrow doorway into what looks like a servant's passage. Dark. Cramped. He closes the door silently and presses his finger to his lips.
We wait, barely breathing.
The guards run past, their voices fading.
We're alone in the darkness.
I see the calculation in Cordelia's eyes as she explains. She doesn't feel guilt she feels pride. Pride in her cleverness, in her ability to manipulate events, in her power over life and death. She's more monster than Kael ever was. At least he has the decency to feel guilt.
We can't stay here, Kael whispers. They'll search everywhere.
Where can we go? She controls the guards. The Emperor won't believe us over her.
I know a place. He takes my hand again. But you have to trust me.
Trust you? I laugh bitterly. I don't even know you.
You saved my life in that chapel. His voice is soft. You threw yourself at me to push me out of the way. You didn't have to do that.
I didn't think. I just I stop. Why did I save him? I reacted.
You reacted by protecting me. He squeezes my hand. That means something.
Does it? I don't know anymore. Everything I thought I knew has been turned upside down.
The document you showed me, I say. That report about my father being innocent. Cordelia and Blackwell fabricated the evidence. You tried to stop the siege.
Yes.
But you still did it. You still gave the orders that killed them.
Silence. Then: Yes. I did. The Emperor threatened to have me executed and send someone else someone who would kill every man, woman, and child in Valeria. I thought... I thought if I led the siege, I could at least save the civilians. Evacuate them before the attack. His voice breaks. I was wrong. I waited too long. People died anyway. Your brother
Don't. I can't hear about Adrian right now. Can't process that grief on top of everything else.
I'm sorry. He means it. I can hear it in his voice. I'm so, so sorry.
We stand in the darkness, hands still linked.
If we survive this, I say finally, we're going to have a very long conversation about what happened that night.
If we survive this, I'll tell you everything. He pauses. And then you can decide if you still want to kill me.
I might.
I know. He tugs my hand gently. Come on. The safe room isn't far.
We move through the servant passages, staying quiet. Every shadow could be an enemy. Every sound could be death coming for us.
My chair leg throw is desperate, clumsy, the move of someone who's never really fought before. But luck is on my side for once. I hear Cordelia's grunt of pain, see her stumble, and I don't wait to see if she recovers. I run. Again. Always running. When will I be brave enough to stand and fight?
Finally, Kael stops at a blank wall. He presses something, and a section swings open.
Inside. Quickly.
I step through into a small room. No windows. One lamp. A table with maps. Weapons on the wall.
Kael closes the hidden door behind us. We're safe here. For now.
For now. I lean against the wall, trying to catch my breath. What happens when Cordelia tells everyone I attacked her? When she spins this whole thing to make me look guilty?
We prove she's lying. Kael moves to the table, pulling out papers. I've been gathering evidence against Blackwell for months. Financial records. Forged documents. Testimonies from soldiers who were ordered to plant false evidence in your father's house.
Hope flares in my chest. Enough to prove the truth?
Maybe. If we can get it to the right people before
A sound makes us both freeze.
Scratching. At the hidden door.
Someone knows we're here.
Kael grabs a sword from the wall, positioning himself between me and the entrance.
The door swings open.
A figure steps through.
Sister Margarethe.
Relief floods through me. Sister! Thank God, you're
Then I see the knife in her hand.
And the cold, empty look in her eyes.
I'm sorry, child, she says, her voice devoid of emotion. But Lord Blackwell sends his regards.