Page 19 of Savage Crown

My jaw clenches.

"If that’s what you believe."

Without another word, she turns and glides toward the door, as if she’s already won.

She pauses before stepping out, her crimson gaze flicking over me once more.

"Be careful with your little human," she murmurs. "I’d hate to see her break."

She’s gone.

The air she leaves behind is heavy. Suffocating.

I rub my hair, exhaling slowly, staring at the door she disappeared through.

Because despite everything, despite all the years, despite all the betrayal.

She’s still under my skin.

9

SERAPHINA

Days seem to pass so slow since I arrived here in Midnight Den. Rylan hasn’t asked me to do anything.

And it only makes the tension heighten. He calls me into his office, letting me stand at the side.

I can’t help but watch him under my lashes, feigning nonchalance but my heart is racing. Suddenly, I hear a whistle of something unexpected.

The knife sings through the air before I even register the shadow moving behind Rylan.

Instinct kicks in.

I don’t think—I act.

My body collides with his, shoving him sideways just as the blade buries itself into the wood where his heart had been a heartbeat ago.

The room explodes into chaos.

Rylan recovers fast—too fast. He spins, drawing a dagger from his coat, his eyes flashing emerald fire as he searches for his attacker.

I don’t wait for him to make sense of what just happened. I already know.

My gaze snaps to the assassin—a lithe figure, dressed in dark silks, blending seamlessly with the shadows. A dark elf. Their face is masked, but I see the glint of silvered steel in their hands, the poised stance of someone ready to kill again.

They lunge.

I move first.

I snatch the blade from the wooden wall and turn it on them.

Steel collides with steel in a vicious clash, the impact vibrating up my arm. I grit my teeth, forcing my weight forward, but the assassin is faster. Stronger.

Their arm hooks around my throat, yanking me back against them.

"You should have stayed out of this, human," a voice hisses against my ear.

I snarl, twisting, breaking their grip, driving the dagger up?—

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