Page 60 of A Deception of Courts

I swallowed down my concerns, knowing Seraphine would sense even the smallest hint of trepidation. If I needed to convince her to extend her aid, I had to do so with confidence.

“Have your people retreated from Elmdew, or do you keep them there as a fail-safe as well?” I asked, smiling as the reaction that passed over her face confirmed what I needed to know.

“Aldrick brainwashed, used and ultimately caused the death of my sister,” Seraphine spat. “She does not have the luxury of retiring alongside me, to experience the life which we dreamed of as children. I’d be a fool to completely withdraw my players from this game, Robin. Of course, I have my people in Elmdew just as I have them in Oakstorm and Cedarfall. I may have hung my daggers away, but I am still cautious – I know that the fight is not over.”

“Then help us,” I pleaded. “If not by locating the person behind Gabrial and possibly Lucari’s death, but also by stopping Aldrick. Send a command to the Asps you have in the courts and ask them to guard the keys. Guardus, protect us. We started this together. Let us finish it as one.”

“It will take more than that to convince me.”

Duncan’s skin crackled with lightning. It hissed in the air around him as he spoke. “Not all of us have the indulgence of hiding behind stone walls.”

“Hiding?” Seraphine barked a laugh, twisting the skirts of her emerald silk dress as she turned back to the throne. For a moment, I wondered who that dress had belonged to before. Had Seraphine raided my mother’s belongings, or had they already been pillaged by thieves in the years the court was left unprotected? “We’re not hiding. We are enjoying the retirement your king offered us.”

“And you can still have it,” I snapped. “But what good is living a life of peace if the world beyond is in chaos.”

Seraphine sighed, flicking dark hair over her shoulder. “Has anyone ever taught you the importance of grovelling when asking for a favour? Insulting me will not provide you with the answer you have travelled all this way for.”

“Then what will?” Rafaela asked above the rustling of her feathers. “Name your price.”

“That is not something you can afford,” she replied. “Let alone Robin.”

“Name it, give me the chance, and I will find a way–”

“Robin, enough!” Duncan snapped, blue light flashing in lines across his skin. “You have sacrificed more than you have needed. I’ll not see you part with anything else to the likes of these scum.”

“Listen to your keeper, Robin.” Seraphine leered, now sitting back on the throne. My throne. The one my mother had sat upon when this castle was more than empty rooms and scars of destruction across every place I looked.

“Youarefrightened,” Rafaela said, her smile terrifying. “There is no shame in that. You should be.”

“Don’t speak on my behalf–”

A sudden flash of golden light glowed across Seraphine’s face. The hue smoothed out the snarl that had set across it, Seraphine’s eyes fixating on the cause of the light, which was held in Rafaela’s two firm hands, levelled between them.

The hammer. It was pointed toward the assassin, exuding a warm power that seemed to have some hold over Seraphine. The creases around the assassin’s eyes melted away, and the black of her pupils grew in size within her eyes.

“You fear for the chosen family that you have filled this empty castle with,” Rafaela said as she drew out Seraphine’s truth. “Already you know grief, as do I. And you, like the rest of us, will do anything to protect those around you. But I will show you what will become of this world if you do not help. All your wishes will mean nothing…”

I watched in awe as Seraphine’s disregard crumbled, and she wept. Her eyes filled with tears that fell freely down her face. Her lips were moving, repeating a word that I could not hear. The strange, enforced trance lasted only a moment. Rafaela retracted the hammer and slammed the head into the floor at her feet. The glow dissipated, returning the room back to its ominous hue.

Seraphine leaned forward, gaze fixed on the floor. Her chest rose and fell dramatically as though each breath was not enough to sustain her.

“What did you do?” I asked, looking sidelong at Rafaela, who seemed to wait for something further to happen. Seraphine was hunched, trying to catch her breath as wide eyes loosed tears in a never-ending stream down her paled face.

“I simply showed her what my hammer can. The truth. I gave Seraphine a glimpse into the future, one that her lack of help with ensure.”

“A vision?” Duncan asked.

“Yes.” Rafaela nodded. “One of destruction.”

Seraphine slowly lifted herself up, although the weight of what she’d witnessed still bore down on her. Her wide, unblinking eyes overflowed with horror as her tears continued to spill without sign of stopping. Yet, when she spoke, it was nothing but the voice of the assassin I’d come to know. “I’ll help you claim the answers you seek.”

My breath hitched in my throat, surprised at just how quickly these tides had changed.

“Thank you,” Rafaela replied, bowing her head, lowering her strange weapon back to her side.

I looked between them all. Duncan was stoic, clearly struggling with what he’d just witnessed.

Seraphine levelled her eyes with mine, locking me in place.

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