The imperial palace gleamed under morning light as Seraphina walked through its corridors for what she hoped would be one of the last times. Today marked the first signature in the divorce proceedings, the formal beginning of a freedom she'd been fighting for since her return from the dead.
Caelan walked beside her with their shoulders nearly touching. Neither of them had slept much after last night, though neither complained. Her body still carried pleasant aches from hours spent tangled together, and every time their eyes met she saw the same satisfied warmth reflected back at her.
They'd left Flamekeep at dawn and the ride had been quiet and comfortable, filled with the easy silence of two people who no longer needed words to communicate. She'd dozed against his shoulder for part of the journey while his arm kept her steady. He'd pressed his lips to her hair when he thought she was asleep. She'd noticed and pretended otherwise just to feel him do it again.
Now the palace loomed around them with its polished marble and imperial banners, and anticipation sat heavy in her chest.
"You're ready," Caelan said.
"I've been ready for a long time." She adjusted the document case under her arm. "I just want it done."
A palace steward intercepted them near the east wing with an expression that meant he was delivering news someone wouldn't like.
"Duke Vorenthal, there's been an urgent message from the northern border. Demon incursion reported near Thornwall. Commander Gravenor requests your immediate consultation on tactical response."
Caelan's jaw tightened. "The signing isn't for another hour. I can review the reports and return before it starts."
Seraphina touched his arm. "Go. The palace is safe. Nothing will happen in an hour."
He hesitated with his hand finding hers and squeezing once. She could feel the reluctance in his grip and the way his fingers didn't want to let go.
"I'll be back before the signing begins. Don't start without me."
"I wouldn't dream of it."
He pressed a kiss to her forehead and followed the steward toward the military wing. She watched him go until he turned a corner and disappeared from view, then let out a slow breath as the corridor felt emptier without him.
The signing chamber wouldn't open for another hour. Rather than wait inside, she made her way to the palace gardens. The morning air was crisp, the hedges immaculately trimmed, and the stone pathways nearly empty at this hour. She found a bench near the fountain and settled with her documents, reviewing the paperwork of financial separations and property divisions one final time.
She'd survived two lifetimes of Alaric Vessant. She could survive one more week until the divorce finalized.
She didn't hear the footsteps on the gravel path.
"Seraphina."
Her stomach dropped at the sound of his voice.
Alaric stood on the garden path with rumpled clothes, disheveled hair, and dark circles under his eyes. He looked like he hadn't slept or eaten properly in days. His hands trembled at his sides and his eyes were red-rimmed, whether from crying or drinking she couldn't tell.
"How did you get in here?" She rose from the bench and her documents scattered across the stone. "You were detained."
"Released this morning." His voice cracked on the words. "Please. I just need to talk to you. Before everything becomes final."
"I'm not your wife anymore. Not in any way that matters."
"I know." He took a shaky step closer. "I know the papers aren't signed yet, and I know that doesn't mean anything to you anymore. I just need you to listen. Please, Seraphina. I'm begging you."
She held her ground even as her heart hammered against her ribs. "Begging doesn't erase what you did. You brought Evelyne into our bed."
"That was a mistake. The worst mistake of my life." His voice broke and he dropped to his knees on the gravel path. "I was stupid. I was so stupid. I took you for granted and I let Evelyne poison everything we had. Please come home. Please withdraw the petition. I'll do anything. I'll send Evelyne away forever. I'll sign over half of everything I own. Just give me another chance."
"Get up, Alaric."
"Not until you hear me." Tears spilled down his cheeks and he clasped his hands together in supplication. "I love you. I've always loved you. Please don't throw away our marriage over my mistakes."
"Your mistakes?" She laughed and the sound came out hollow. "You mean the D'Lorien assets you've been siphoning? The trade agreements you redirected? The alliances you sabotaged so I'd have nowhere to turn?"
His face crumpled. "I was trying to protect us. Protect our future."
"You were isolating me. Trapping me. Making me completely dependent on you so I could never leave." She stepped forward and looked down at him. "You hurt me every day for eighteen months. You hurt me when you looked through me like I wasn't there. You hurt me when you made me feel crazy for noticing what was right in front of my face. You hurt me when you came to my chambers smelling like her and expected me to pretend everything was fine."
"I'm sorry." He grabbed the hem of her dress, clutching the fabric with desperate fingers. "I'm so sorry. Please. I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you. Just don't leave me."
"Let go of my dress."
He released it immediately, still kneeling, still crying. "Tell me what to do. Tell me how to fix this. I'll do anything."
"There's nothing to fix. I want to be free of you."
Something shifted in his expression. The desperation was still there, but the tears had stopped. Something harder was taking shape behind his eyes.
"This isn't you," he said slowly. "The Seraphina I married would never speak to me like this. She was kind. Gentle. She believed in second chances."
"The Seraphina you married didn't know what you really were."
"No." He shook his head, still on his knees. "Someone's done something to you. Changed you. Before Vorenthal started following you around." His eyes widened with sudden conviction. "They've done something to your mind. Turned you against me."
"You sound insane."
"Listen to me." He reached for her hands and she stepped back. "I can help you. I can fix what they did. I have abilities I've never told anyone about."
"What are you talking about?"
"My bloodline gift. Not the Vessant sigil magic. Something I inherited from my mother's line." He staggered to his feet, certainty replacing the earlier desperation. "I can sense when someone's mind has been tampered with. I can feel the traces of compulsion. And I can burn it away."
He took a step closer and she backed toward the fountain.
"That's why Evelyne's tricks never worked on me. She thought she was so clever trying to nudge my thoughts, but I felt every attempt. She never controlled me. No one controls me. And I can save you, Seraphina. Let me save you."
Their voices had been rising. Palace servants paused on distant paths while a pair of nobles strolling nearby stopped to watch. Windows overlooking the garden now held curious faces pressed against the glass.
Good. Let them hear this.
"I spent eighteen months being your perfect wife." Her voice carried now, filling the garden and reaching every ear. "I ran your household. I charmed your allies. I looked the other way when you humiliated me. I made myself small so you could feel big."
More witnesses gathered as nobles lingered near the hedges and court officials paused on the colonnade. Servants stood frozen with their tasks abandoned, all of them watching the scene unfold.
"Your own household staff pitied me, Alaric. Everyone knew what you were doing except apparently me. You paraded Evelyne through our home. You let her redecorate rooms I'd designed. You gave her jewelry that was supposed to be mine."
"Please stop." His voice came out hoarse. "Not here. Not in front of everyone."
"Why? Because the truth embarrasses you?" She took a step closer and her voice dropped just enough to sound intimate while still carrying to every witness. "I know about the rest of it too. The money, Alaric. The D'Lorien accounts you've been draining for eighteen months."
His face went slack with shock.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"The trade contracts you redirected through shell companies. The mining rights you sold without my knowledge. The family heirlooms you liquidated and told me were 'in storage.'" She let him see her smile. "Did you really think I wouldn't notice? I spent eighteen months watching you hollow out my family's legacy piece by piece."
"Please lower your voice." His voice had gone raw, stripped of everything but desperation. "Please. I'm begging you."
"You didn't just take my dignity, Alaric. You took my inheritance. My father's life work. Everything my family built for generations." She gestured to the watching crowd. "And you gave it to her. Evelyne wears my mother's jewels. She redecorated my ancestral home with funds stolen from D'Lorien accounts. She's been playing lady of the manor with my money while I smiled and pretended not to notice."
His jaw worked soundlessly as he calculated how much she knew and how much damage this was doing.
"She was never your mistress, was she? I was the mistress. The placeholder you kept around for appearances while Evelyne ran our household, spent our fortune, and warmed your bed every night I was too 'tired' to notice."
His face twisted. "That's not true. I love you. I've always loved you."
"You loved what I represented. The D'Lorien name. The bloodline legitimacy. The social standing that made your family look respectable." She stepped closer. "I was never a wife to you. I was a signature on documents you needed access to."
She leaned closer so only he could hear her next words.
"The Empress knows everything now. Every redirected contract. Every forged signature. Every coin you stole." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "She's investigating things about your family that would make these financial crimes look like a child stealing sweets. And when she's finished, there won't be enough left of House Vessant to fill a footnote."
His face contorted with rage and humiliation.
She stepped back and raised her voice for the audience. "Look at them. They know what you did. They've always known. They just didn't say anything because you had power and I didn't."
He turned and finally registered the watching crowd. His face went from white to red as he catalogued every witness who would spread this story across the empire.
"Now sign the papers. Accept that this is over. And let me go."
For a moment she thought he would. His shoulders slumped and his head dropped. He stood perfectly still, processing the scale of his public destruction.
Then something in him snapped.
His head came up and his expression had changed. The broken man was gone. In his place stood someone with a manic certainty that made her step back.
"No. I won't accept it. This isn't real. This isn't you."
He moved faster than she expected. His hand shot out and grabbed her wrist hard enough to bruise, then yanked her closer with his other hand gripping her jaw.
"I can feel the wrongness in you. Someone's been manipulating you for months. Let me fix it. Let me save you. Please."
His palm pressed flat against her temple and heat flared against her skin as something pushed at the edges of her mind, probing for foreign influence.
He found nothing because there was nothing to find, and his expression crumpled with confusion. "I don't understand. There should be traces of compulsion. There's nothing."
"Because no one manipulated me. I just finally stopped lying to myself about who you really are."
"No." His fingers tightened on her jaw, desperation making him rough. "You belonged to me. You loved me once. I know you did. The only way you could have changed this much is if someone changed you."
"I changed myself."
"Then I'll remind you." His eyes dropped to her mouth. "One kiss and you'll remember everything. Your body always responded to me. Please let me try. Please."
She saw it coming in the way his head tilted and his grip shifted to pull her closer.
"Don't you dare."
"Let me prove it. You'll thank me afterward. You'll see."
She drove her knee up and he twisted to catch it on his thigh. The movement made him stumble and his grip loosened. She wrenched free and scrambled backward.
"Touch me again and I'll scream loud enough to bring every guard in this palace."
He laughed, a hollow sound without warmth. "You wouldn't. My Seraphina could never make a scene."
"Your Seraphina died a long time ago. This Seraphina will bring this entire court down on your head if you take one more step."
He lunged anyway. She tried to dodge but he was faster, catching her arm and spinning her around, pinning her back against his chest with his arm locked across her collarbone.
"I didn't want it to be like this." His voice was calm now, eerily steady against her ear. "But if force is what it takes to save you, then I have to try. You'll understand afterward. You'll forgive me."
His hand cupped her face and turned it toward his with his lips hovering inches from hers.
"Just let me show you. That's all I need. Please don't hate me."
She struggled but he was stronger and the arm across her throat made it hard to breathe.
She was thinking of burning him alive but that leaves her powers exposed. So she held it in.
The witnesses scattered across the garden stood frozen. Some looked horrified and some looked away, but none of them moved. He was Duke Vessant and she was still technically his wife. In this empire, men could do whatever they wanted to women who belonged to them.
His lips brushed hers and she tasted wine on his breath.
Then someone seized Alaric from behind and tore him away from her.