The Seventh Vow

Chapter 12: The man in the shadows

Damien didn’t move.

For the first time since Seraphina had met him, his carefully controlled expression completely failed him.

His eyes were fixed on the stranger.

Recognition.

Fear.

And something that looked dangerously close to anger.

The man smiled.

“Still carrying that same expression, Damien.”

Damien stepped slightly in front of Seraphina.

“You shouldn’t be here.”

The stranger chuckled.

“Neither should she.”

Seraphina’s pulse quickened.

She stared at the man.

He looked to be in his early fifties, with silver beginning to appear at his temples. His clothes were immaculate despite the abandoned house around him.

There was something familiar about his face.

Not his features.

His eyes.

She had seen those eyes somewhere before.

In a photograph.

A memory.

A nightmare.

“Who are you?” she demanded.

The man looked directly at her.

“You really don’t remember me?”

“No.”

His smile faded.

“Your father was very thorough.”

Damien’s voice hardened.

“Leave.”

The man ignored him.

Instead, he looked at Seraphina’s necklace.

Her hand instinctively moved to the small pendant hanging beneath her collar.

The stranger’s expression changed.

“So you still have it.”

Seraphina’s fingers tightened around the pendant.

“You know this?”

“I gave it to your mother.”

Her eyes widened.

“You knew my mother?”

“I knew Isabelle very well.”

“Where is she?”

The man’s gaze softened.

“That’s the question I’ve been waiting twenty years for you to ask.”

Damien stepped forward.

“Don’t play games.”

The stranger laughed quietly.

“You haven’t changed.”

“Neither have you.”

“Oh, I have.”

He touched the silver at his temple.

“Time has been kinder to me than it has to you.”

Damien’s eyes narrowed.

“You were supposed to be dead.”

“Apparently everyone in this story was supposed to be dead.”

Seraphina looked between them.

“What happened between you two?”

Neither answered.

She raised her voice.

“I asked a question.”

The stranger finally looked at her.

“My name is Victor Hale.”

The name meant nothing to her.

But Damien’s reaction did.

Seraphina turned toward him.

“Damien?”

He stared at Victor.

“Victor was one of the Covenant’s senior members.”

Seraphina’s stomach dropped.

“One of them?”

Victor smiled.

“Was?”

Damien’s jaw tightened.

“Don’t listen to him.”

Victor’s expression became almost amused.

“That’s the problem with Damien. He believes truth is something that can be controlled.”

He looked at Seraphina.

“Your father believed the same thing.”

Seraphina stepped forward.

“What happened the night my mother disappeared?”

Victor’s smile vanished.

“She discovered the Seventh Vow.”

Seraphina frowned.

“I thought Damien made the Seventh Vow.”

“He did.”

“Then what did my mother discover?”

Victor glanced toward the staircase.

“She discovered why he had to make it.”

A cold silence settled over the room.

Seraphina looked at Damien.

He wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

Damien finally spoke.

“The vow wasn’t created to protect you from the Covenant.”

He paused.

“It was created to protect the Covenant from you.”

Seraphina stared at him.

“What?”

Victor smiled.

“Now we’re getting somewhere.”

Damien turned sharply.

“Enough.”

“No.”

Seraphina stepped between them.

“You’ve both lied to me long enough.”

Her voice trembled, but she refused to back down.

“I want the truth.”

Victor studied her.

Then he slowly reached inside his coat.

Damien immediately raised his weapon.

“Don’t.”

Victor stopped.

“I’m not armed.”

He withdrew a photograph instead.

He held it toward Seraphina.

She hesitated before taking it.

The photograph showed her mother standing beside a younger Victor.

But that wasn’t what shocked her.

In Isabelle’s arms was a baby.

A baby wrapped in a white blanket.

On the back was a date.

The date was the same year Seraphina had been born.

Her breathing stopped.

“Who’s the baby?”

Victor looked at her.

“That’s what your father spent twenty-three years trying to make you forget.”

Seraphina looked at Damien.

His face had gone completely pale.

“Damien…”

He said nothing.

She looked back at Victor.

“Who is that child?”

Victor’s answer was barely above a whisper.

“Your mother didn’t disappear because the Covenant wanted her.”

He paused.

“She disappeared because she was protecting the child.”

Seraphina’s heart pounded.

“What child?”

Victor looked directly into her eyes.

“Your twin.”

The words seemed to echo through the abandoned house.

Seraphina stared at Victor.

Then at the photograph.

Then back at Victor.

“No.”

It came out as a whisper.

Victor didn’t move.

“You’re lying.”

“I wish I were.”

“No.”

She shook her head.

“My father would have told me.”

Victor’s expression softened.

“Your father spent twenty-three years making sure you never remembered.”

Damien stepped toward her.

“Seraphina, listen to me.”

She turned sharply.

“You knew?”

“I knew there was another child.”

Her face crumpled.

“You knew?”

“I didn’t know where they were.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

Damien lowered his eyes.

“Yes.”

The betrayal hurt more than she expected.

She looked at the photograph again.

A baby.

Her mother.

Victor.

The date.

Everything felt impossible.

“How?”

Victor answered.

“Your mother gave birth to twins.”

Seraphina’s fingers trembled.

“Where is the other one?”

Victor hesitated.

“That depends on which version of the story you believe.”

“What does that mean?”

“The Covenant believed the second child was dangerous.”

“Why?”

“Because of what your mother discovered before you were born.”

Seraphina looked at Damien.

“What did she discover?”

Damien remained silent.

Victor answered for him.

“The Seventh Vow wasn’t the first vow.”

He took another photograph from his coat.

This one showed seven people standing around a large wooden table.

Edward was among them.

So was Isabelle.

And Victor.

Seraphina recognized two others from the names in her father’s journal.

The remaining two faces had been deliberately scratched away.

At the center of the table was a document bearing the Covenant’s symbol.

Victor pointed to it.

“This was the original vow.”

“What did it say?”

“That seven families would protect a secret.”

“What secret?”

Victor looked at Damien.

“The existence of a child capable of exposing them all.”

Seraphina’s heartbeat accelerated.

“Me?”

Victor shook his head.

“No.”

He looked at the photograph of the twins.

“Your sister.”

Seraphina couldn’t breathe.

Her sister.

She had spent her entire life believing she was an only child.

And somewhere in the world…

there was another girl who shared her face, her blood, her memories that had been stolen.

Or perhaps…

Her memories had never belonged to Seraphina alone.

She looked at Damien.

“Where is she?”

“I don’t know.”

“You’ve said that too many times.”

“I swear to you, I don’t.”

Victor stepped closer.

“I know where she is.”

Seraphina turned.

“Then tell me.”

“Not here.”

“Why?”

“Because this house isn’t empty.”

Damien immediately looked around.

“What do you mean?”

Victor’s eyes moved toward the ceiling.

“Someone has been listening to us since you arrived.”

A faint click sounded upstairs.

Everyone froze.

Damien raised his weapon.

Victor stepped away from the center of the room.

“Too late.”

A light above them flickered on.

Then another.

One by one, the abandoned house illuminated itself.

Seraphina looked around.

The furniture.

The walls.

The old portraits.

Everything seemed suddenly clearer.

Then she noticed something.

The portraits weren’t portraits at all.

They were photographs.

Hundreds of them.

Pinned across the walls.

Children.

Families.

Meetings.

Funerals.

And among them…

Her.

Seraphina as a little girl.

At school.

In the garden.

Walking beside her father.

Sleeping in the back seat of a car.

Someone had been watching her entire life.

She stepped backward.

“Oh my God.”

Damien looked around.

His expression hardened.

“This was a surveillance house.”

Victor nodded.

“The Covenant used it to monitor the Vale family.”

Seraphina stared at the photographs.

Then she saw one that made her blood run cold.

It showed her standing beside a girl.

The girl looked exactly like her.

Same eyes.

Same dark hair.

Same small scar beneath the eyebrow.

But the photograph was dated only six years ago.

Seraphina’s hands began to shake.

“She was alive.”

Damien came closer.

“Where?”

She pointed.

The photograph had been taken outside a train station.

In the background was a sign.

ASHBOURNE CENTRAL.

Victor quietly said,

“She has been closer to you than you realize.”

Seraphina stared at him.

“How close?”

Victor didn’t answer.

Instead, his attention shifted toward the entrance.

Someone was approaching.

Slow footsteps echoed through the hallway.

Victor’s expression changed.

“She’s here.”

Seraphina’s heart slammed against her ribs.

“Who?”

The footsteps stopped.

A woman’s voice came from the doorway.

Soft.

Familiar.

Almost identical to Seraphina’s own.

“Hello, sister.”

Seraphina turned.

And for the first time in twenty-three years…

she came face-to-face with the person who shared her blood.

Her twin stood in the doorway.