Page 105 of A War of Crowns

“I will go visit him tomorrow,” Seraphina promised.

But no sooner had those words departed her lips than Olivia was stepping in close again, her jaw hard, her amber eyes cold. “And what about the Crow?”

The vision of the one-eyed crow returned to Seraphina’s mind in a flash. One moment, she was standing there, staring at Olivia.

And in the next, there was only the vision.

It came unbidden, as it always did. With no warning.

And no escape.

She shook her head, trying to free herself of the crow’s gruesome visage. But still it remained. Its one eye burned with the reflection of her, wreathed in golden fire. Its bloodied feathers gleamed in the low light. Heavy chains clanked about its ankles, digging into the flesh there.

Behind the chained crow yawned a star-filled sky. In the distance, she heard a roar. She smelled smoke on the air. She tasted blood on her tongue. And while she watched, the stars fell.

One by one, they blinked out of existence, just as they always did.

Seraphina knew what was to come next. Next, the earth would shatter. The ground would shake. Entire cities would be swallowed whole. And a great darkness would spread across all of Avirel.

Before those catastrophes could come to fruition within the theater of her mind, strong hands gripped her shoulders. “Sera,” whispered Olivia’s voice at her ear. “Sera, what’s wrong? What do you see?”

The vision slowly unraveled, leaving her standing there, wrapped up in Olivia’s embrace. Olivia, her oldest friend.

And the only sister she had ever known.

“I see the end of it all, Olivia,” Seraphina admitted with trembling lips. Tears pricked at her eyes as she tried to rid herself of what threads from the vision still lingered on.

She didn’t wish to cry, though. Crying wouldn’t solve her problem. And Olivia was right. She had a problem.

A problem prowling through the darkness just outside her window.

“Let me deal with this Crow,” her friend whispered while still holding her close. That sweet promise of easy relief plucked at Seraphina’s heart, tempting her with its siren’s song. “Don’t worry about it. Don’t even think about it. You have bigger things to concern yourself with. Just let me take care of our Crow infestation when the right time comes. Once we know Mysai is safe. Once we no longer need Drakmor’s aid.”

A bitterness coated Seraphina’s tongue. “If only it were that simple,” she breathed.

But it never was.

How could she possibly explain it all to Olivia in a way her friend would understand? How could she explain what part the Crowmight still have to play in the dark days to come when she herself didn’t even understand it?

“Itisthat simple, Sera—”

“No.” That single word fell from Seraphina’s lips with all the finality of an executioner’s blade. She pulled from Olivia’s embrace and insisted, “I will not let you darken your soul for me.”

Olivia made a face. “You know I don’t believe in that sort of thing.”

“It doesn’t matter if you believe it or not.” Seraphina’s hands rested on Olivia’s shoulders. “It is still true. We willnotbe killing the Crow. We will find another way.”

But Olivia was unmoved. “And what if there is no other way?” her friend countered, leaving Seraphina unsure of what to say next.

She didn’t have any answers. The Lord Himself might have gifted her with a glimmer of foresight, but it was a future shrouded in smoke and blood.

She could make no sense of it. She could not read the signs. Unlike Oracle Tsukiko, she was neither navigator nor compass.

She was the ship lost at sea.

Chapter thirty

Edith

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