Blood Between the Vows

Chapter Four – Beneath the Glass Garden

To dig up truth, you must first bury your fear.

The Glass Garden had always been a place of beauty vines curled around arched beams, exotic orchids bloomed year-round, and the enchanted dome above filtered moonlight into shifting hues of silver and violet.

But tonight, it was no sanctuary.

Tonight, it was a battlefield.

Seraphina walked slowly between the marble planters, her cloak trailing behind her. Her footsteps echoed against the polished stone path, nearly lost beneath the chorus of chirping nightbirds and rustling petals. She moved with purpose, but not haste.

This was not a meeting she wanted others to see.

Nestled at the center of the garden was an old maintenance door, nearly hidden beneath an overgrowth of twilight lilies. Behind it was a forgotten servant tunnel that hadn’t been used in years except by those who preferred their conversations hidden from light.

Rian waited there, cloaked in gray.

“You’re late,” he whispered, stepping aside to let her through.

“I’m a future queen,” Seraphina replied. “I arrive when I mean to.”

Rian didn’t smile. He never did. That was why she trusted him.

They descended into the passage, the torch he held casting long shadows on the walls. The corridor twisted like a buried serpent, ending in a round room with old wine barrels stacked against the walls.

He handed her a sealed scroll the moment they stopped. “Found this in Lord Vessar’s courier batch. It was headed to the High Priest’s chambers.”

Seraphina broke the seal, her eyes scanning the fine script.

Her breath caught.

It was a royal decree forged, but brilliantly so. It bore the king’s crest, the same ink style, the phrasing of his hand.

By Order of the Crown: The Princess Consort, Seraphina Valen, is to be placed under quiet surveillance. All findings are to be reported directly to Lady Elira.

That name again.

“Lady Elira,” Seraphina murmured, “was meant to be Kael’s bride before I was chosen. She smiled through the announcement, but I always knew she hated me for it.”

“And now she wants the crown back,” Rian said simply.

“No,” Seraphina said, folding the scroll. “She wants to tear it from my corpse.”

Back in her chambers, Seraphina sat at her writing desk, the forged scroll laid bare before her, flanked by notes and names, arrows, crossed-out plans, and shadowy questions.

Everything pointed back to Elira and the High Priest.

But how to prove it before the wedding?

She stared at the flickering candle on her desk and thought of Kael.

He had not betrayed her yet. Not in this version of time. He was still pliable. Still open. And perhaps, just perhaps, still hers.

She would have to test his loyalty not with love, but with truth.

The next evening, during a private dinner in the palace rose room, she struck.

Kael entered, smiling tiredly. “They’ve made me sit through four hours of budget reviews. I nearly stabbed myself with a quill.”

She laughed. “Poor prince.”

They sat, and as the servants cleared out, Seraphina reached into her sleeve and slid the scroll across the table to him.

Kael blinked. “What’s this?”

“Something sent from Vessar to Mavros. It carries your father’s seal.”

Kael read it. His jaw clenched.

“This is… This can’t be…”

“You recognize the handwriting?” she asked calmly.

“It’s his but this isn’t something he ever discussed with me. Placing you under surveillance? That’s absurd.”

Her voice was soft, steady. “Are you sure it wasn’t discussed with someone else?”

His eyes narrowed. “What are you implying?”

“I’m implying that Lady Elira is playing a very long game. And she’s winning.”

He slammed the scroll on the table. “I’ll speak with my father.”

Seraphina leaned forward, catching his gaze. “No. Don’t confront him. Not yet. If they think we suspect, they’ll go deeper into the shadows. Let me handle this.”

Kael hesitated.

Then he said something she hadn’t expected: “You’ve changed.”

She tilted her head. “Have I?”

“You’re not just surviving court life you’re… controlling it.”

Seraphina smiled, cold and brief. “Maybe I’ve learned what it takes to survive in a kingdom that eats its queens.”

That night, as she bathed beneath rose-scented oils, she let herself remember the flames.

The screams. The smell of her own burning skin. The silence in Kael’s eyes.

But now, she was here.

And Kael was listening.

Her hand drifted to her chest to the place where the fire had once kissed her heart.

She would burn them all before she let it happen again.

The next morning, whispers filled the corridors.

The High Priest had delayed his morning audience. Lady Elira had left abruptly for her estate outside the city. Lord Vessar had fallen mysteriously ill.

Seraphina walked the halls like a queen already crowned.

As she passed the throne room, she caught a voice soft, but clear.

“She’s not the same girl we thought she was.”

It was the Queen Mother, speaking to a royal advisor.

“No,” the advisor replied. “She’s something else entirely.”

Seraphina smiled as she kept walking.

Damn right she was.