POV: Ravenna
The evening before the hearing, I couldn't sleep.
I'd tried. Lain in bed for hours staring at the ceiling while my mind spun through every terrible possibility. What if the judges found against Theron? What if House Ashford's testimony swayed them? What if ancient law wasn't enough to save us?
Finally I gave up and got dressed. Wandered the palace corridors because staying still felt impossible.
The castle was quiet this late. Most people sleeping. Guards at their posts but not questioning where the princess went at midnight. Just nodding respectfully as I passed.
I didn't have a destination. Just needed to move. To burn off the anxious energy that had nowhere else to go.
I turned a corner into an empty corridor. Moonlight streaming through tall windows. Shadows everywhere.
And stopped dead.
Seraphine stood in the middle of the hallway. Like she'd been waiting. Like she'd known I would come this way.
Her face twisted when she saw me. Rage and grief and something like hatred all mixed together.
"Princess," she said. Her voice was cold. Controlled. Worse than screaming. "Out for a midnight stroll? Can't sleep before the big hearing?"
"Seraphine." I kept my voice calm. Gentle. "I didn't expect to see you here."
"I live here now. House Ashford keeps apartments in the palace." She stepped closer. Her hands were clenched into fists at her sides. "So I can attend the hearing tomorrow. So I can watch them judge whether my brother's murderer faces consequences."
"Theron isn't a murderer—"
"YES HE IS." The control shattered. Her voice echoed through the empty corridor. "He killed Lucien. Tore him apart like an animal. And you—YOU—you defend him. You love him. The man who murdered my brother."
"Lucien attacked Solace first—"
"I DON'T CARE." Tears were streaming down her face now. "Do you understand? I. Don't. CARE. About rules. About justifications. About your stupid dragon getting hurt. My brother is dead. He's dead and I'm alone and it's your fault."
"My fault?" The words hit like a physical blow.
"Yes." She moved closer until we were almost touching. I could see the grief carved into her face. The exhaustion. The absolute devastation. "If you hadn't held that stupid competition. If you hadn't bonded with that... that monster. If you'd just rejected him like you were supposed to. Lucien would still be alive."
"Lucien chose to cheat—"
"He was desperate!" Her voice broke. "He was losing and he panicked and he made a mistake. ONE mistake. And your bonded killed him for it. Killed him and kept killing him until there was nothing left but blood and bones and—"
She stopped. Put her hand over her mouth like she was going to be sick.
I wanted to comfort her. Wanted to tell her it would be okay. But nothing I could say would make this better. Nothing would bring Lucien back.
"I loved him," Seraphine whispered. Her voice was small now. Broken. "He was my only sibling. My best friend. We grew up together. Survived our parents' expectations together. He was all I had. And now he's gone and I'm so alone."
"I understand loss," I said quietly. "My mother died when I was born. I've lived my whole life with that absence—"
"It's not the same." She looked at me with red, swollen eyes. "You never knew your mother. I knew Lucien. I have twenty years of memories. Of conversations. Of inside jokes and shared history. And now all of that is just... gone. Ripped away in one brutal afternoon."
I didn't know what to say to that. She was right. It wasn't the same. I'd never known what I was missing with my mother. Seraphine knew exactly what she'd lost.
"I tried to hate you," she continued. Her voice was hollow. "I wanted to. Wanted to blame you for everything. But you're just... you're just a girl who fell in love. Who bonded with someone. It wasn't your choice any more than it was his."
"Then why—"
"But that doesn't mean I forgive you." The hatred was back in her eyes. "It doesn't mean I forgive HIM. Tomorrow at the hearing, I'm going to tell them exactly what he did. How brutal it was. How excessive. How he could have stopped and didn't. How he murdered my brother in front of thousands of witnesses."
"It was berserker rage—"
"And if they clear him anyway?" She stepped back. "If they say it was justified under ancient law? If he walks away without consequences?"
"Seraphine—"
"Then House Ashford will never forgive. Will never forget." Her voice was steel now. Cold and hard and absolute. "We will make sure everyone knows what he is. What you both are. We will make your lives miserable. We will be thorns in your side for as long as we live. Because that's all I have left now. Grief and rage and the need to make someone PAY for what was taken from me."
"Even if that someone didn't have a choice?" I asked quietly.
"There's always a choice." She echoed what she'd said in the throne room. "He chose to keep attacking. Chose to tear Lucien apart instead of just... just stopping. And now I'm choosing not to forgive. Not to move on. Not to let this go."
"You'll destroy yourself with that hatred."
"Maybe." She turned to leave. "But at least I'll destroy something. At least I won't just accept it and move on like nothing happened."
"Seraphine, wait—"
"No." She looked back at me one last time. "I have nothing else to say to you, Princess. We'll see each other tomorrow at the hearing. And then... then we'll see if justice means anything in this kingdom. Or if being bonded to royalty makes you immune to consequences."
She walked away. Her footsteps echoing in the empty corridor. Disappearing around a corner and leaving me alone with my guilt and fear.
I stood there for a long time. Thinking about grief. About loss. About how some wounds never heal no matter how much time passes.
Seraphine would never forgive us. Never accept that Lucien brought it on himself. Never see past her grief to the reality of what happened.
And maybe that was fair. Maybe when you lost someone you loved, fairness didn't matter anymore. Justice didn't matter. Only the absence mattered. Only the empty space where a person used to be.
I finally moved. Continued down the corridor. But I couldn't shake the image of Seraphine's face. The grief carved so deep it had become part of her identity.
That could have been me. If Theron had died in the arena. If Solace hadn't survived her injuries. If the berserker rage had consumed him completely.
I could have been the one left behind. Destroyed by loss. Drowning in grief with nowhere to put it except outward as rage.
When I finally returned to my chambers, I still couldn't sleep. Just lay in bed staring at shadows and thinking about tomorrow.
About the hearing that would determine everything. About testimony and evidence and three judges who would decide if love and biology and ancient law were enough to justify what Theron had done.
About Seraphine's face. Her grief. Her hatred. Her promise that House Ashford would never forgive.
About how sometimes surviving wasn't enough. Sometimes you had to live with the consequences. Live with the guilt. Live with the knowledge that you'd caused someone else's pain even if you'd had no choice.
Tomorrow would bring answers. Maybe. Or maybe just more questions. More complications. More ways for everything to fall apart.
But I'd meant what I told Theron in the garden. We'd face it together. Whatever came. Whatever the judges decided. Whatever House Ashford tried to do.
Together.
Even if that word was the only weapon we had left.
Even if it wasn't enough to save us from the storm that was coming.
At least we'd face it side by side.
And maybe that would have to be enough.