Chapter 10 — No More Lives for You

Seraphina stared at the broken lion claw.

Lucien felt the change in her before the rest of us saw it.

"Do not listen to her," he said.

"Hollis made the seal." Her voice was barely audible. "Wren carried the order. Rosemere paid for both."

"They are Ashbourne puppets."

"You said my mother was useful."

Lucien’s dagger pressed deeper.

"And you were useful too. Do not spoil that distinction now."

Seraphina moved.

She bit the hand across her mouth until Lucien shouted. As he recoiled, she tore a long gold pin from her hair and drove it into the wounded side of his neck.

Lucien struck blindly.

The dagger left her throat. His fallen sword lay within reach of his good hand.

He snatched it from the floor and thrust.

The blade entered beneath Seraphina’s ribs.

For one suspended moment, they remained locked together.

Then Lucien pulled the sword free.

Seraphina collapsed.

Julian crossed the room before Lucien could lift the blade again. He struck Lucien’s injured wrist with the bow, drove him to his knees, and put a knife beneath his jaw.

"Do it," Lucien breathed. "Prove you are no better."

"Alive," I said.

Every part of me wanted the floor to drink Lucien’s blood. I remembered my father’s death, the ruined capital, and Adrian begging at Greykeep.

But dead tyrants became legends. Living defendants answered questions.

"He faces trial," I said. "In daylight. With every account read aloud."

Julian held Lucien’s gaze, then removed the knife.

The Blackthorn Guard chained him.

I knelt beside Seraphina.

Blood spread across her silver gown.

Her eyes moved toward Adrian. "The counteragent. Inside Lucien’s coat. Blue bottle."

A guard found it sewn behind the lining near Lucien’s heart.

Julian held it to the candle, checked the seal, and passed it to Dr. Fairfax.

"Can it save him?" Seraphina asked.

The physician did not lie. "It may stop tonight’s crisis. It cannot undo what has already been damaged."

She closed her eyes.

"I wanted him to suffer for my mother."

"You knew Evelyn was innocent," Adrian said from the bed.

Seraphina opened her eyes again.

"Yes."

The answer fell without excuse.

"I knew. I let her pay because hurting you mattered more to me than sparing her."

She looked at me.

"Do not forgive me. Just clear my mother’s name."

"The evidence will," I said. "Not your death."

Her gaze drifted to the copied seal still lying on the carpet.

"Celeste Voss," she whispered. "Put her whole name in the judgment. Do not call her the border woman."

"I will."

It was the only promise I ever made Seraphina.

Her breath left her before she could answer.

Dr. Fairfax administered the counteragent to Adrian. Within minutes, the violent tremor eased, but he remained weak and grey.

The rain stopped before dawn.

Lucien’s officers surrendered when they learned the King still lived and the Blackthorn Guard held the palace. The eastern and southern gates reopened. Chief Auditor Marlowe sealed the Exchequer, Rosemere, and every property named in the ledgers.

I thought the night was over.

Then Adrian called my name.

He had pushed away the physician and lowered himself from the bed. His legs failed beneath him.

He crawled the last few feet across the bloodstained carpet.

"Evelyn."

I did not move.

He looked younger on his knees and older in his eyes.

"I remember Greykeep," he said. "You carried the petition through Lucien’s guards. I remember asking you to save the kingdom."

His hand shook against the floor.

"I remember the postern gate. You stood between me and the arrow. I held you while you died."

Julian came to stand beside me.

Adrian’s voice broke.

"Then you saved me in the third life too. You removed Lucien before he could take the throne, and I punished you for it. I gave Seraphina your home, your name, your child—"

His breath caught.

"I locked you in that tower."

The memory of the child struck deeper than the others. In the third life, Adrian had taken our son from my household and ordered him to address Seraphina as mother. The boy had grown into a careful stranger who visited my tower once, stood outside the locked door, and obeyed Adrian when told to leave.

I had forgiven the child before his footsteps faded.

I had never forgiven the man who made him choose.

"Yes."

"I thought I remembered the truth."

"You remembered the part that made you innocent."

He reached for the hem of my coat.

I stepped back.

"Give me one chance," he whispered. "Not as Crown Prince. Not as anything. Let me begin again."

"We have begun again three times."

"Then one more. I will spend the rest of this life—"

"No."

He stopped.

For three lives, I had carried his unfinished duties, his blindness, and his regret. I had mistaken endurance for devotion and promises for chains.

I felt none of them now.

"I saved Valedoria," I said. "I did not save our love. That died long before either of us did."

"Evelyn, please."

"There will be no fifth life for you."

"Do you hate me?"

Once, I had imagined a hundred answers. I would tell him about winters without fires, birthdays marked by bells below the tower, letters returned as ash.

Now the truth was simpler.

"No," I said. "Hate would still make you the center of my life."

I placed my hand in Julian’s.

He closed his fingers around mine without pulling me anywhere.

We walked out together.

The emergency Privy Council met the following afternoon in the Hall of Founders.

King Rowan had recovered enough speech to preside from a wheeled chair. Adrian attended on a physician’s couch. Lucien stood in chains. Queen Eleanor sat beside the King with the counterseal around her neck.

Marlowe presented the seized accounts. My father presented the surrendered officers. Julian placed the emergency commission on the table and relinquished temporary command for formal review.

The Queen reported that Rowan’s physician expected his speech to recover, but not his former strength. Until then, the kingdom required an acting heir with authority to sign relief payments, command the gates, and preserve the trials.

Several councilors began naming Julian before the evidence review had even started.

He stopped them.

"If blood and one successful battle are enough, then Lucien’s argument survives him," Julian said. "Examine me. Examine every crown I own and every order I gave."

Adrian removed the Golden Lion Medallion from his neck.

He set it before his father.

"I am not fit to hold this while the inquiry continues."

The King looked across the table at me.

"Lady Evelyn, whose hand should receive the Crown Prince’s seal?"

Every eye turned toward Julian.

I picked up the medallion.

Then I placed it back in front of the King.

"Not the man I love," I said. "The man the evidence can defend."