CHAPTER 3

Birds sang outside the window, and the sun had properly sat in the sky, shining its rays on the crumbling lives of noble girls who didn't sleep well last night. 

Noble girls like Serena.

Completely blind to the beautiful atmosphere, Serena sat, two-thirds of her body submerged in the warm bathwater. She gazed blankly at her faint reflection like it was a stranger staring right back at her.

The door creaked open. "My Lady," came the gentle voice of Marian. "Lord Bastien has requested your company for breakfast."

She simply leaned back, resting her head at the rim of the bathtub, her long hair clinging to her skin. Serena had expected it, but not this soon. Especially considering the bad blood between the house of Bastien and her house.

Fifty years ago, the house of Bastien wasn't even part of Elyndor. They were a frontier people, occupying a borderland caught between Elyndor and a neighboring kingdom.

After a few clever treaties, Elyndor took the land and the house of Bastien with it. And just like that, they became nobles.But house Thalion never truly accepted that. Serena's father believed that collars didn't make wolves hound.

They wasted no time branding House Bastien as traitors, blaming them for every evil, of every betrayal against the crown. 

And so, House Thalion and House Bastien became enemies, like night and day, never to agree. This is why love between two young hearts, something that should have been sweet, became something unforgivable, something atrocious.

Marian's eyes wandered across her madam features, noticing Serena's paler skin. The black circle beneath her eyes, and the scratch marks lining her hands.Her voice ghosted out.

"My Lady, have your dreams returned?"

In silence, her gaze drifted to the window. "I need a seer."

Marian's breath hitched, and instinctively she glanced around, like even their shadows might be listening. "My Lady, the church…"

Serena snapped her gaze towards Marian. "I know." A grunt of a sound left her lips.

Daughters of the devils, the church called them. Women born with abilities of divination. People who could see the future, not those clowns who pretended to read palms, or whispered gibberish before a crystal. But people who could interpret dreams, who could see the threads of futures. People who made potions that could elevate themselves to the realm of the gods.While the church called them heretics, and people feared them, Serena saw them as gifted. 

But Serena's dreams had returned. 

They always came in symbols, never making sense at first, but they always came true.

Of course, she knew the risk. A noblewoman consorting with seers. She could be stripped of her title. Imprisoned. Exiled.

And now with her son trapped in Henry's cruel hand, and the current situation she had found herself in, she needed to understand the meaning of the dream.

Why did she dream of a bird losing all its feathers? 

She feared she already knew, but she needed to be sure.

"But most of them are gone, My Lady," Marian said, pulling Serena out of her reverie. "The church made sure of it."

Serena stepped out of the bathtub. "They couldn't all have left." She took the towel from Marian. "Not all of them could afford to. I just need one."

Back in her room, Marian helped Serena get dressed for breakfast. Her black dress featured a ruffled white collar that extended into a capelet. She also wore long black gloves that reached past her elbows.

When Marian began to fasten the corset at her waist, Serena said, "Tighter."

"My Lady, Lord Henry isn't here. You can breathe today."

"I'll breathe when I'm free. Tighter."

Marian flinched as she hated to see her madam suffer, but she obeyed. 

After leaving her room, she made way for the dining room. The breakfast was excessive. Pancakes stacked like it was an architectural wonder. Eggs, fruits, jam imported from the other side of the world.

And of course the tea. The annoying tea.

Lord Aaron Bastien sat at the head of the table dressed in a white collar shirt with a ruffled front. 

Serena took her seat, remembering the idiotic boast she made yesterday. Seduce him, she had said. If only she knew how.

Her house trained women on the art of seduction, but somehow all the lessons had flown over Serena's head. As she had felt there were more important things to learn, things like business. 

Sitting before Aaron who didn't look seduceable, Serena came to realize that no knowledge was a waste.

'I should compliment him,' Serena thought. 

She had watched Henry do it, and those women would respond positively with a very wide grin for a moment, she'd thought their lips would tear.

Serena took a deep breath, then leaned forward awkwardly, elbows on the table, chin in her hand. A wide grin on her lips. 

Serena actually thought this pose was seductive. If only she could see herself in the mirror. If only she knew she looked like a drunk man in a bar.

"I didn't notice this yesterday," she began her attempt to flirt with Aaron. "But your eyes are actually…" Serena remembered people flirted by batting their lashes, so she did. She batted her lashes. Very aggressive.

 "Did something enter your eyes?"

Serena froze mid-blink. With a nervous smile, she shifted back into her seat, smoothing her dress.

Determined, she continued. "Back to your eyes, they are actually quite beautiful."

Aaron blinked. So did the female maids that stood in the dining.

Her stomach twisted, but she pressed forward. Aaron wasn't going to seduce himself after all, she said to herself. If only she could see how horrible she was doing. 

"They look like the…" she stretched her words, searching for a compliment. "They look like green grass or something."

Silence.

A long awkward silence.

Aaron let out a laugh, one that cracked the steel expression on his face. One that made him human. That reminded her of her Leo. 

Serena's inside coiled with warmth, but she blamed the damn tea.

"Don't tell me you plan on seducing me with a grass compliment." He wiped his mouth with a napkin. "I thought your house taught women how to please men." 

Lightening fast, she narrowed her eyes. "It did," she said, "I never said I learnt it." She pouted.

"So, tell me how do you plan to earn my alliance when you can barely seduce a man?"

Serena gritted her teeth behind a grin, reminding herself this was bigger than her ego.

"Give it time you'll see I offer far more than that."

Aaron cocked his head. "You think so?"

"I know so." Her voice oozed with confidence.

fAaron stood, napkin falling to his plate. "We'll see."

Serena watched him leave the dining room. She had wanted to ask if she did well, or at least earned a point. But her tongue felt too heavy to ask.

**********

After her failed seductive attempt, and with Marian out of the house to search for the Ingredients for the poison, Serena decided to stroll through the large halls of the Bastien mansion. Anything to slow her restless mind. 

So she let her legs take her anywhere, and she found herself in the garden, the warm breeze whispering against her skin, exactly like it did seven years ago.

Serena's heart twisted as her thought flickered Leo: his laugh that was warm unlike his brother's that felt conniving—that reminded her of her Henry. She remembered his comforting presence, and how it drunken her. Their juvenile promises like running away to another country where they didn't have to bear the sin of their surnames.

But it was all cut short. Henry cut it all short. 

That aching pain clawed its way to the surface, a reminder that nothing can ever truly be buried. While drowning in nostalgia, she caught a glimpse of a silhouette. The figure moved with a familiarity she would recognize anywhere—anytime.

Serena's breath hitched, and without her command, her legs propelled forward. When her quickened pace didn't bring her close, she lifted her dress and began to run down the path of the garden. Serena's pulse skittered in her veins, and all she could hear was her heartbeat thumping behind her ears.

Different emotions flooded her blood streams. Fear. Nervousness. Shame. But none of it mattered as all she wanted was just to see his face.

She just had to see Leo.