e smiled at me like she h

carried the weight of shared secrets and shared grief. She knew things about my family that I did not know my

new about

ook away from Seraphine. She was a ghost made flesh, a memory I had never lived, and

er had go

and servants who had crowded in after the explosion now pressed against the walls, their faces pale, their whisper

each step deliberate, each movement precise. When she stopped a few feet from me, I could see the fine lines at the corner

see them burning in your eyes. But we d

stronger than I felt. "You speak of my mothe

th because you will need it. Your mother came to me twenty years ago, desperate and afr

d she di

lickered to Dorian, then back to me. "Every Star Blesse

. I staggered, and Dorian's arm wrapp

controlled, but I could feel the tension in his

"You know something of prices, don't you, Duke? You paid one yourself, fifteen year

went

fingers dug into my side. Whatever Seraphine was

king about," Dorian said, but h

at is a conversation for another night

e forces that grant the Star Blessed their power. She agreed to give her life in exchange for yours. S

t I was hearing. "She died of a fev

She tried to escape the payment. She tried to keep her

eling the glow of my veins beneath my palm. The power that

y price?"

almost like pity. "The same as hers. Your life, in exchange for the

ow

nt," Seraphine said. "The one who holds the

holds

leash. The same person who gave you that vial. Alaric Blackthorn's mother made

d turne

even born, pulling strings I could not see, weaving himself int

id. "He knows ab

u think he kept you alive for five years when he could have killed you a hundred times? He needed y

arrier between me and Seraphine. "Enough. Y

ould not even protect yourself from the bargain you made. How many years has it been? Fiftee

eated, and his voic

ore piece of truth. The moonpetal is not the only thing Alaric planted in her blood. There is something else. So

now swirled around her, and for a moment, she seemed to

ack. "That is when the second seed will bloom. Fi

hrough the window and

oom e

g, their voices overlapping in a cacophony of concern and fear. But I heard none

Mind

uld take

y waist, his voice cutting through the chaos with the aut

l of them fled before the cold fury in his voi

ince I had met him, I saw something beneath

n did you ma

ightened. He d

hat did yo

t, he did not speak. When he finally

ryth