Page 137 of A War of Crowns

As a true father should.

“I love you,” Seraphina whispered to her godparents, earning for herself fresh squeezes from them both. Alyx, caught in the middle of it all, ruffled her feathers in protest but was ultimately ignored.

Instead, Seraphina’s gaze sought Olivia next through the fresh haze of tears misting her vision. But her friend didn’t rush to join in their shared embrace.

Still, she stood apart, head bowed, her hands tightly gripping her cane.

Seraphina lifted her head from Duchess Edith’s shoulder and frowned. “Olivia? Olivia, what’s wrong?”

When her best friend looked her way, Seraphina saw the other woman’s cheeks were streaked with tears. But the set of her jaw was hard. Her mouth was stern when she asked, “Sera, you said that you stabbed the prince, did you not?”

Seraphina’s fingers twitched at the memory of how easy it had been to stab her betrothed. She had never stabbed anyone before. She had always assumed it would be a difficult thing. That it would take a great deal of effort.

But it had taken very little effort at all.

“Yes,” she whispered in reply. “I did.”

The tight set of Olivia’s mouth remained when she tilted her head a little to the side and asked next, “And did the prince arrive in your bedchamber before the assassin? After the assassin? Or did they arrive in the same moment?”

Those three questions slammed home into Seraphina’s mind, jolting her out of the haze that had formed where Aldric Hargrave was concerned.

It hadn’t made sense, her fiancé being there when he had. On top of her. Pinning her down. Smothering her with the harsh press of his hand.

Seraphina’s lips thinned as she stroked a hand through Rogue’s silky fur. But even the familiar warmth of her godfather’s hound wasn’t enough to soothe that sudden bout of shame.

She might have laughed if her own foolish didn’t smart so badly.

She was a fool. To think he had been there to protect her. Toswooninto his arms and let him hold her. She had even thanked him.

Thankedhim.

But at least Olivia had seen it, where she had not. Blinded by the Crow’s sudden, strange heroism and the hope that she had solved the riddle of her vision at last.

“Father Perero?” Seraphina softly prompted. Her stomach churned with what she knew she must ask the Shepherd to do next. But there was no other way. “Forgive me, Father, but I must ask you to Truth-Read again.”

“What?” her godparents asked in unison, their shared confusion a palpable thing.

But Seraphina did not answer.

Her eyes were still for Olivia and Olivia alone when she firmed her jaw and swallowed against a sudden and all-consuming anger roaring to life deep within her.

There were far too many questions and not nearly enough answers.

Gaze locked on her best friend, Seraphina uttered four simple words from between clenched teeth: “Bring me the Crow.”

She would have her answers soon.

Chapter thirty-eight

Aldric

He should have left already.

He should have left the moment Kyn ensured his guts weren’t about to spill all over the floor. He should have left the moment Kyn stitched closed the hole hiskireihad left in his thigh.

And yet he hadn’t.

Because he knew he had nowhere left to go.

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