Seraphine had spent her life among liars. She knew how to spot a man playing a game—and Kaelith was playing one now.
As she sipped her wine, his words echoed in her mind. A name. Someone Veltros is searching for.
He was watching her. Testing her.
The question was—why now?
She had felt the shift in him since the war council, but something else had changed. His eyes had become sharper, his silence heavier. Had someone spoken to him? Had something been discovered?
Seraphine set down her goblet with practiced ease. "And who is this dangerous person?" she asked smoothly.
Kaelith did not blink. "That is what I intend to find out."
A move. A challenge.
Seraphine tilted her head, her lips curving into the smallest smile. "Then I wish you luck, my prince."
She rose gracefully, inclining her head to him before slipping from the grand hall.
She could feel his gaze on her back.
A Dangerous Secret
She did not return to her chambers. Not yet. Instead, she walked through the dim corridors of the keep, weaving through the familiar paths servants took to avoid notice.
At last, she reached a quiet passage near the old chapel. A shadow waited there, half-hidden against the stone.
"Tell me," she said softly, "what has changed?"
The hooded figure shifted. A man. One she had known long before her marriage.
"The prince is looking into you," he murmured. "More closely than before."
Seraphine exhaled slowly. So it had begun.
She glanced back toward the hall, where Kaelith remained. "Then we must be more careful."
But as she turned to leave, her contact spoke again. "There's something else. Veltros doesn't just want you found."
She froze.
The man hesitated. "They want you alive. But not unharmed."
A chill ran through her.
They didn't want to kill her. They wanted to break her.
For the first time in years, Seraphine felt something she had long buried—fear.
And yet, beneath it, something else stirred.
What would Kaelith do when he learned the truth?
Would he see her as an enemy? Or would he fight for her?
She did not yet know the answer.
But soon, she would.
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