[Seraphine’s POV]
I stared at the folded letter in Aldric’s hand, unable to breathe.
“A private negotiation,” I said. “With the heirs of Blackthorn in the terms.”
“Our heirs,” he answered, jaw locked.
We stood alone now, the council dismissed, the hall echoing with the weight of that message. Aldric’s fingers tightened around the parchment as if he could crush the words out of existence.
“You must negotiate carefully,” I said. “If you go into this angry—”
“I am angry,” he snapped. “Blackharrow stole my blood.”
“He stole our children,” I corrected. “And if you let rage guide you, he will use them to break you.”
He turned sharply. “You think I don’t know that?”
“I think you’re too furious to see past revenge.”
“You expect me to go with courtesy?” he said. “Bow? Smile?”
“I expect you to protect them.”
That halted him. His shoulders stiffened, breath catching in his chest. “I am thinking clearly,” he said. “For the first time. I see exactly where my enemies stand—and where you stand.”
I swallowed. “Aldric, don’t—”
“You hid my children,” he said. “And now they’re in Blackharrow’s hands.”
“I hid them because I was terrified,” I fired back. “Terrified of you.”
The words struck him like a blow. He stared, jaw clenched, eyes burning. “You want me to negotiate?” he asked. “Tell me how.”
“Go as a father,” I said. “Not as a king ready to spill blood.”
He laughed bitterly. “You think I see them as pawns?”
“You didn’t give me reason to believe otherwise,” I said. “You took everything from me: my home, my family, my freedom. You think I would trust you with children?”
He looked wounded—he truly did—which unbalanced me more than his anger.
“If I had known,” he said quietly, “I would have done anything.”
“No,” I whispered. “You wouldn’t.”
His eyes snapped to mine. “You think I would have left you alone? Allowed you to suffer? Let our children be born in a stable? Seraphine, if I had known you carried my blood, I would have emptied the palace to keep you safe.”
I stared at him.
“I would have slept on your chamber floor,” he added, voice rough, “just to make sure you kept breathing.”
My chest tightened painfully. It was too much and not enough: a promise made too late.
“You never asked what it cost me to live here,” I said. “You only saw victory and obedience.”
“I am a king,” he said. “I don’t know how to be anything else.”
“Then learn,” I whispered. “Or you will lose them before you even see them.”
He looked away, pacing once and running a hand through his hair. “You honestly think I would let harm come to them.”
“I think you would burn Blackharrow to ash,” I said, “and forget the children were in the flames.”
He inhaled sharply. The truth struck him hard. At last, he looked down at the letter and turned it in his fingers. Then—without another word—he strode to the writing table, grabbed a quill, and started writing.
“What are you doing?”
“What you asked,” he said. “Negotiating carefully.”
He wrote fast, sealing the message with the Blackthorn crest. Called a guard:
“Take this to Blackharrow’s envoy,” he ordered. “Neutral ground. Limited escort.”
I exhaled. “You surprise me.”
“I surprise myself,” he muttered. Before either of us could say more, urgent footsteps echoed down the corridor.
Rowan appeared in the doorway, tense and breathless.
“Your Majesty. Seraphine.”
My heart lurched. “What happened?”
“I spoke with a patrol captain,” he said. “One of the scouts shadowing the cart Elowen took.”
Aldric’s expression sharpened. “Tell me.”
Rowan stepped in, voice grim. “The cart turned toward Blackharrow land. But it wasn’t alone.” Rowan’s gaze met mine. “Elowen wasn’t fleeing. She was traveling with Blackharrow’s agents. Men wearing his crest met her before she crossed the border.”
The floor seemed to move beneath me. “She planned it,” I whispered. “From the beginning.”
Rowan nodded. “She knew exactly who she was delivering them to.”
Pain shot through me like a blade. Elowen—who’d wiped my brow, held my hand through labor, and whispered my comfort—had planned my ruin.
Aldric’s face darkened, voice low. “She was already in their service.”
Rowan stepped closer. “She was passing information long before the birth. Maybe months. Maybe longer.”
I staggered, catching the edge of a chair. “She used me. Used my trust.”
“And used your children,” Rowan said quietly.
Aldric’s gaze flicked between us—rage tightening every line of his body, but something else under it. Something brittle.
“We know where she went now,” Rowan said. “And who she’s with.”
Aldric’s jaw flexed. “Then we follow.”
His voice had changed—no longer the cold fury that shattered walls, but something quieter. Deadlier. For the first time, he looked not like the man who conquered my world… but like the man who might tear his own apart to reclaim what he had lost.
“We will ride soon,” Aldric said. “Prepare yourselves.”
He didn’t specify who he meant, but I saw it: He didn’t specify who he meant, but I saw it: He was speaking Rowan, not me. I couldn't stay aside! I must save my babies.
The twins were no longer secrets hidden in the shadows. They were pieces in a war neither Aldric nor I could afford to lose.
And Elowen—my friend and my betrayer—was carrying them deeper into enemy hands.