Page 38 of A War of Crowns

Please…please show me how to save my people…please…

She felt the world shift again. The darkness receded and the stars returned. One by one, they winked back to life, though now she saw delicate threads burning between them, linking them all together in an intricate web she had no hope ofcomprehending.

A great roar sounded from the depths of one star, so loud it nearly shattered her into a thousand pieces. Within yet another, a purple light thrummed with an inviting glow, like the beating of a heart. But it was toward the one black star shining within those new heavens she felt the strongest pull—an incessant desire to know what secrets it might hold.

When Seraphina reached for it, the star drew near. Faster and faster it approached until it was all she could see. At its heart stood a strange crow—a crow far larger than any bird should be.

Its ankles were shackled.

Its feathers shimmered with blood.

She flinched away, seeking to flee from the chained bird’s gruesome appearance. But it was too late.

It had seen her.

When its head turned to look at her, she saw it only had one eye. One eye intent on boring straight into her soul. And shining within the depths of the crow’s one-eyed gaze, she saw the image of a woman. A woman wreathed in golden flame.

It was her.

The woman wreathed in light washer.

Chapter ten

Seraphina

“Seraphina.”

That familiar voice floated toward her through the darkness, though she couldn’t see the speaker. But she didn’t need to see Olivia to recognize her.

She wondered where her friend had come from, though. Olivia never attended petitions.

“Seraphina,” she heard her godmother whisper next. “Wake up. Please…please wake up.”

She tried to tell them she alreadywasawake, but her lips wouldn’t obey. When she tried to open her eyes, her eyelids similarly ignored her.

She remained trapped within the dark hazeof her mind.

But at least the vision of the strange, bloodied crow had dissipated, taking the searing pain of the Oracle’s "gift" along with it. Some memory of that pain remained, though, low in her abdomen where it throbbed in time with her heartbeat.

Or perhaps that was simply her monthly coming early.

But now she was awake, it all came rushing back to her at once. Mysai, crowned by a black smog the usuri could not breach. Goldreach, ablaze. The stench of death. Bodies.

Bodies everywhere.

At last, Seraphina’s body moved, though of its own accord; it rolled to the side so she could retch all over the floor. The humiliation of knowing she had just vomited in front of all her court scorched her almost as hotly as the Oracle’s blessing.

But when she finally opened her eyes, she found herself not in the throne room, but in her bedchamber. Olivia's and Duchess Edith’s faces both swam into view first, with her personal physician, Eugene Bonage, not far behind. Alyx hovered in the air with a steady beating of her shimmering wings. Off in the corner, Duke Percival and Father Perero quietly conversed with the Oracle.

The prophetess’s Redguard stood nearby—silent and out of the way, but present.

The world outside her balcony doors was dark. Seraphina frowned, trying to make sense of it. It had just been early afternoon a few moments ago.

“What time is it?” she croaked while Alyx chirped and swooped in to claim her usual perch, tangled up around her shoulders.Giving her usuru an absentminded pat, she turned her attention to Duchess Edith and Olivia.

A lone tear streamed down her godmother’s cheek when their gazes met. “Percy! Percy, she’s awake.”

Olivia pressed a glass of water into her hand and breathlessly threatened, “Don’t scare me like that again.”

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