Page 134 of A War of Crowns

“Seraphina…” Duchess Edith whispered. Tears slowly stained the elderly noblewoman’s cheeks to match those the Lord Chancellor had yet to stop shedding. “But…but how?” the queen’s godmother demanded of the room next. “Howdid a witchblade end up here in Elmoria?”

Olivia answered that question with a grim declaration of, “Arath.”

When all eyes turned her way, she revealed, “I have just had a report from lower Arlund, near the border of Eiral. Ships flyingthe red dragon of Arath landed on our shores just last night and are now raiding along the coast.”

Eyes widened into a look of horror, Duchess Edith finally stumbled back to her seat. Her protests at an end, she slumped bonelessly into that chair.

A tense quiet blanketed the room once more, leaving Olivia standing in a numb silence and watching the way the scene rippled and gleamed about the edges.

But not even the dream petal could find something amusing for her to giggle over in that moment.

Her heart should have been breaking. She should have been unraveling at the seams, knowing that perhaps she had already lost her best friend.

But in that moment, she suddenly felt nothing at all. Her heart encased itself in a layer of protective ice as she listened to the only sister she had ever known break that silence between them with a nearly inaudible, “Father Perero…please.”

Still, Olivia was too much of a coward to glance back that way.

Right until the moment Seraphina whispered, “You must Truth-Read me.”

Chapter thirty-seven

Seraphina

Awitchblade.

Had she truly been struck by a witchblade?

Seraphina’s stomach burned with the memory of the assassin’s knife ripping through her nightgown and slicing across her flesh. But she couldn’t remember if she had ever seen the blade the man wielded.

Everything had been a blur.

All she could remember was the sight of Aldric Hargrave standing there, covered in blood. All she could recall was the feel of his arms holding her up after she had fainted. The strength of his chest pillowing her head.

The thrumof his heartbeat.

Seraphina pressed her lips together to mask their trembling as she turned to look at her godmother.

Duchess Edith’s eyes swam with tears. Shaking her head, her godmother simply whispered, “No.”

Behind her stood her godfather, his hands gripping her shoulders with a strength she wouldn’t have thought he still possessed. She could not see his face. But she could hear him well enough.

The sound of his quiet sobs gutted her more thoroughly than the assassin’s blade ever had.

“My dear child,” Father Perero said when next she looked his way. The Shepherd’s wizened face was etched with worry. “I need you to understand the risks. A Truth-Reading can be fatal.”

“Only if I lie,” Seraphina whispered, blinking against the tears threatening her own vision. She glanced to Olivia next. Olivia, her best friend. Her sister.

The woman currently staring at her with a blankness shrouding her gaze.

Seraphina breathed in deep and sighed, “But we must know. I accept the risks.”

Olivia’s hands visibly trembled where they gripped her cane. Her friend stepped forward and breathed out a quiet, “I’m so sorry.”

But Seraphina shook her head. She wanted to offer some comfort. She wanted to reassure them all she was fine. That everything was going to be fine. But she had no comfort to give.

For all that the Lord, through Oracle Tsukiko, had cursed her with that strange vision of crows and stars, she still had no notion of what the future might truly bring. She still had no answers.

She didn’t even know if she was still fully herself.

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