Seraphina's POV
I slammed my fists against the window, screaming.
The cloaked man's head snapped up toward my room. For one heartbeat, I saw his face in the moonlight—sharp features, cold eyes that glowed silver like an animal's.
Then he vanished.
Just... disappeared into the shadows like smoke.
The little girl kept crying, unaware of how close danger had been. A moment later, an older woman rushed out and scooped the child up, hurrying her inside.
I pressed my forehead against the cold glass, my heart hammering. What was that? Who was that?
A key turned in my lock.
I spun around as my stepmother swept into the room, two guards behind her. She wrinkled her nose like my small space smelled bad.
"Did you see something in the garden?" Her voice was sharp with suspicion.
"I—there was a man—"
"You're imagining things. Hysteria from tonight's... revelation." She smiled, thin and cruel. "Though I suppose finding out you've been played for a fool would break anyone's mind."
The guards moved past her, heading straight for the small shelf where I kept my mother's wooden jewelry box.
"No!" I threw myself forward, but one guard caught me easily, holding me back. "You already took them at the ball! You let Celestine wear—"
"That was just one necklace, dear." My stepmother opened the box with greedy fingers. Inside lay my mother's other treasures—a silver bracelet, small pearl earrings, a ring with a blue stone. Simple pieces, but priceless to me. "Celestine will need a full collection for her wedding. These will do nicely."
"Please." I hated how my voice broke. "Just one thing. Anything. I need something to remember her by."
My stepmother held up the ring, examining it in the candlelight. "Your mother was a servant who got pregnant by my husband. She died in shame, leaving behind a bastard child who's been nothing but trouble." She pocketed the ring. "You don't deserve to remember her."
The guard released me as they left with the box. I collapsed on my bed, too empty to even cry anymore.
Everything was gone. Marcus had been a lie. My jewelry was stolen. And in three days, I'd be shipped off to die at the hands of a cursed emperor.
Maybe I should just give up.
The thought whispered through my mind like poison. It would be so easy to end things now, on my own terms, instead of waiting for whatever horrible death awaited me in the Obsidian Palace.
I looked at the window. It was a long drop to the garden below.
A knock on my door made me jump.
"Miss Seraphina?" A servant's voice, young and nervous. "The Duke requests your presence in his study. Immediately."
Midnight had come.
I dragged myself up and followed the servant through the silent manor. Every step felt like walking to my execution. The study doors loomed ahead, heavy oak carved with the Ashford family crest—a crest I'd never been allowed to wear.
My father sat behind his massive desk, a glass of wine in his hand. He didn't look up when I entered.
"Sit."
I remained standing. "If you're going to send me to my death, I'll face it on my feet."
That made him look up. For a moment, something flickered in his eyes—surprise? Respect? Then it vanished, replaced by cold calculation.
"Brave words from a girl who cried over a bought-and-paid-for boyfriend." He took a sip of wine. "But perhaps there's more spine in you than I thought. You'll need it."
"Why?" The word came out bitter. "Why send me to the Tyrant Emperor? You could have just disowned me. Cast me out. Why this?"
"Because the Emperor requested a bride from a noble house, and I need this alliance." He stood, walking to the window. "The southern provinces are restless. War is coming. By sending you, I secure peace with the Empire."
"And when I die like all his other brides?"
"When you die," he corrected, turning to face me with a smile that made my blood run cold, "the Emperor will have broken our alliance by killing a Duke's daughter. I'll have every legal right to rally the southern provinces against him. Your death will give me the justification I need for rebellion."
The room tilted. "You're... you're using my death to start a war?"
"I'm using your death to win a war." He said it so casually, like he was discussing the weather. "You've been useless your entire life, Seraphina. At least in death, you'll finally serve a purpose."
I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. My own father had planned this—not just my marriage, but my murder. I was a sacrifice. A pawn. A convenient corpse-to-be.
"Three days," he continued. "You'll be escorted to the Obsidian Palace with full ceremony. Try to act like a proper lady. And do try to last at least two weeks before dying. Any shorter would seem suspicious."
"And if I refuse?" My voice shook. "What if I run away?"
"Then I'll hunt you down and deliver you in chains." He sat back down, already losing interest in me. "You have no money, no allies, and no skills. Where would you go? No, you'll do as you're told, like you always have."
He was right. I had nothing and no one.
"Dismissed."
I walked out in a daze. The hallways blurred around me. I barely noticed where I was going until I found myself back in my room.
A envelope lay on my pillow.
My heart stopped. I hadn't heard anyone come in. The door had been locked behind me.
With shaking hands, I picked it up. Heavy paper, expensive. No name, no seal.
Inside was a single card with words written in elegant script:
*"You are not what they say you are. You are not weak. You are not worthless. And you will not die in the Obsidian Palace. When the carriage comes in three days, do not fight. Go willingly. Trust nothing you see. Trust no one you meet. Except the one with silver eyes—he is the key to everything you've lost and everything you'll become.
P.S. - I saved the child in the garden. You have a good heart. Don't let them take that too."*
My hands trembled so badly I almost dropped the card.
Silver eyes. Like the cloaked man in the garden.
Someone had been watching me. Someone knew about the Emperor. Someone knew I was supposed to die.
And they'd been in my locked room.
I spun around, searching the shadows, but I was alone. The window was still closed. The door was still locked from the outside.
I looked at the card again, and my blood turned to ice.
At the bottom, in smaller letters, was one final line I'd missed:
"The Emperor is not what kills his brides. But the truth is so much worse."