Chapter 7

When she woke, Seraphina was looking up at an unfamiliar ceiling. A blade of pain lived in her chest.

An unknown handmaiden knelt at her bedside. "You're awake, Your Highness. This is the priest's new estate — it was prepared for the ceremony, to receive you as his mate."

Seraphina didn't take any of that in. "Where is Ivy?"

The handmaiden went very still, kneeling, and began to tremble.

Seraphina understood then. She threw back the covers and lurched to her feet.

The wound stitched across her chest tore open. She felt nothing. She was already running, bare feet on cold stone, crashing through the door.

Outside, a heavy snowfall. And several servants moving slowly, carrying a coffin out toward the gates.

Seraphina stopped. Then she lunged forward, wild.

"Ivy! Ivy!!"

A pair of arms wrapped around her from behind and locked tight.

Caden's brow was drawn together, his voice sharp and urgent. "Stop — are you out of your mind? Your chest wound just closed!"

Seraphina wrenched free and turned. The way she looked at him made him go still.

"SMACK!" Her palm cracked across his face.

Every person in the courtyard froze. Every knee hit the ground.

Caden's head turned with the blow. A vivid handprint rose on his cheek.

"You—"

"I hate you." Seraphina's voice shook, but every word was carved sharp. "Caden Vale. I hate you. I will kill you. I will kill that girl too. They owe Ivy her life!"

The words landed in Caden's chest like a fist. He recovered, and his voice came out low and harder than he meant it to: "Enough. You have any idea what you're saying? You were the one who struck first — you poisoned the choker. Ivy's wounds were from the witches. What does any of that have to do with Roselyn?"

Seraphina laughed. A thin, broken sound.

"That brooch was taken from me by you. How was I supposed to poison it in advance? How could I have known you would give it away?"

Caden went rigid. He opened his mouth. No sound came.

He thought back. Roselyn had been coughing blood. The healer said the brooch was poisoned — that only the poisoner's own blood could serve as the antidote. He had panicked. He'd only wanted to save her.

But now...

What Seraphina was saying also made sense.

"It's all my fault — every bit of it!" A figure hurled itself out from inside.

Roselyn fell to her knees between them, tears streaming down her face. "Don't fight because of me! I will pay with my life!"

And before anyone could react, she snatched the dagger from Seraphina's belt and raised it toward her own throat.

"Roselyn!" Caden lunged and tore the blade from her hands, pulling her into his arms.

Seraphina's voice came out flat as stone. "You really should die."

She grabbed the dagger and drove it toward Roselyn—

"Enough!" Caden shoved Seraphina back.

She hit the snow. The wound tore fully open. Pain crumpled her where she lay.

"You try to stab her right in front of me? And you still want to deny the poisoning?" Caden stared down at her, and his eyes held something she hadn't seen before: not anger, but deep, quiet disappointment.

"Seraphina. You are petty, jealous, and consumed by obsession."

He looked at her once more. Then he turned away.

"Take the Princess to her room. Keep her there until she's recovered."

She was dragged inside regardless of how she cursed and screamed.

At midnight, the fight drained out of her completely. She slumped against the headboard.

And then she heard it. A faint rustling.

Her whole body locked.

Snakes.

Her most primal, bone-deep terror. She hadn't even screamed before one shot toward her from the dark — and sank its fangs into her flesh.

The only person who knew about her fear of snakes was Caden.

Three years ago, she had visited him at the mountain, and found a snake in the guest room. He had caught it and carried it out himself. That same night, he had given her the pouch — his voice cool but careful: "Princess, don't be afraid. This will keep snakes away."

And now he had sent snakes to punish her.

Darkness. More rustling. They came from everywhere at once — writhing over her legs, striking, striking again. She convulsed, seized on the floor, unable to crawl, her throat too injured to scream.

Footsteps outside the door. Then Caden's voice:

"Don't blame me for this."