SAFE HOUSE - EASTERN REPUBLIC - DAWN
"Thirteen seeds. There should only be TWELVE."
Ezra sat wrapped in blankets, still shaking from captivity. Bruised. EXHAUSTED. But their mind was RACING.
"The crown had twelve fragments. Sera scattered twelve seeds. TWELVE. Not thirteen." They pulled out a notebook—one they'd managed to hide from the Consortium during captivity. "But your father had FIVE seeds. We had THREE. The Grove has FIVE. That's THIRTEEN."
"Maybe someone miscounted," Kassandra suggested. She was cleaning blood from her blades. CASUAL. Like she hadn't just fought through two hundred soldiers.
"I don't MISCOUNT magical artifacts," Ezra snapped. "Each seed has a unique resonance signature. I've CATALOGUED them. And signature thirteen—" They flipped pages. "—doesn't match ANY of the original twelve fragments."
Silence.
"Then where did it come from?" Lily asked.
Ezra looked at me. DIRECTLY. With an expression that made my heart stop.
"From Sera."
The world went QUIET.
