26. Seraphina
26
SERAPHINA
T here’s no easy way to tell him.
Rylan stands across from me, the firelight carving shadows across his sharp, unreadable features. His emerald eyes glint, sharp as a blade, waiting. Always waiting.
I take a breath, slow and measured, and yet it does nothing to still the storm churning in my chest.
Lartina is gone. That should be the most important thing right now. She’s out there, planning something, moving against us in ways we can’t yet see.
But instead, this moment stretches between us, taut and brittle, because I am about to speak words that will change everything. The reason why I so desperately want him to take me in.
I exhale. This is it.
“The treasure is real.”
Rylan doesn’t move. Doesn’t blink.
Only his fingers twitch at his side, just slightly, just enough to show me that beneath all that careful calculation, something in him has snapped to attention.
He had doubts before. Now, he doesn’t.
“Say that again.” His voice is low, controlled, but there’s a current of something dark beneath it.
I swallow hard. “The treasure. It exists.”
A beat of silence.
He steps forward, slow and deliberate. His presence presses against me, suffocating, overwhelming.
“You’re sure?”
I force myself to meet his gaze. “Yes. You saw the parchment. It contained information.”
He exhales, tipping his head back slightly, as if the meaning of those words settles over him like a knife at his throat.
His gaze sharpens. Turns on me.
“How do you know?”
I am the key. My life is the price.
But I don’t say that. Not yet.
Instead, I tell him a fraction of the truth—just enough not to lie.
“There’s a vault,” I lie, voice steady. “Hidden, protected, meant to be sealed away forever unless the right conditions are met.”
Rylan watches me too closely. I feel him peeling me apart, layer by layer, searching for weakness.
I offer him none.
His lips curl. “And the catch?”
My stomach tightens. Here it is. The part that will change everything.
“There’s a cost to opening it,” I say. “A blood price.”
The room goes silent.
The meaning of those words settles between us, thick, suffocating.
His jaw clenches. “What kind of price?”
I hesitate a beat.
But he sees it.
He feels it.
Rylan steps closer, until the space between us is nearly nonexistent. The heat of him sears through the fabric of my tunic, an unspoken warning.
“You’re keeping something from me,” he murmurs.
I shake my head, forcing a scoff. “Of course I am. That’s what we do, isn’t it?”
He doesn’t smile. Instead, his fingers come up, tilting my chin up, forcing my eyes to stay on his.
And gods, I hate him for knowing me too well. For sinking into me like rot in the marrow of my bones.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
I swallow. I need to give him something.
“Whatever is hidden inside that vault,” I say, voice quieter now, “it’s bound by magic. Magic that requires something… in return.”
He exhales sharply, his grip tightening ever so slightly before releasing me. He paces for a moment, his mind moving, calculations shifting.
“How much blood?” he finally asks, turning back to me.
“Enough to matter,” I say.
His gaze darkens. “That’s not an answer.”
I cross my arms, feigning impatience. “Then ask the right question.”
A muscle in his jaw ticks.
“You already know where it is,” he accuses.
I nod. “I have a lead.”
A slow, dangerous smirk curves his lips. “Of course you do.”
He moves again, circling me like a wolf scenting blood. He’s still trying to decide whether to trust me. Still trying to determine whether I’m worth the gamble.
“I’ll find out the truth eventually, little thief,” he murmurs, pausing behind me. “You know that, don’t you?”
My breath hitches.
Because he’s right.
When we stand at the threshold of that vault, when the blood price is demanded, when the only life that can open it is mine… He will know. And his choice might not be something I’ll like.
I exhale, steady. “We’ll see.”
His breath ghosts against the back of my neck, and for a single, devastating moment, I feel him. All of him. The heat. The power. The pull.
Eventually, he steps away. But something in his eyes tells me he won’t stop. Not until he has every answer, until he owns every part of me. By then, it will be too late.
For him… and for me.