CHAPTER TWO
The Scent of Treason
LUCIAN
Fate had a cruel sense of humor.
I had known that for years, but the woman standing in my map room with murder in her eyes proved it beyond argument.
Seraphine Vale.
I knew her name before Darius found the false invitation hidden in her glove. I had known her face the instant the nightshade masking her scent failed.
The girl in the snow.
Only she was not a girl anymore.
She was twenty-seven, armed like a battlefield, and looking at me as if being my mate were the worst crime I had committed.
Given my history, that was almost impressive.
“Clear the room,” I ordered.
Malrec’s expression went rigid. “Your Majesty—”
“Now.”
The guards hesitated only long enough to risk my temper, then withdrew. Darius remained because Darius had never understood the difference between loyalty and irritating persistence.
Malrec remained because he understood power too well.
“The law does not allow discretion,” the High Seer said.
Seraphine laughed once, sharp and bitter. “I’m beginning to like him. He’s very efficient about murder.”
I ignored that.
“Moonmarked blood is forbidden from the royal line,” Malrec said. “If the bond has formed, it must be severed before the next full moon.”
I glanced at the silver crescent still visible above the torn neckline of Seraphine’s dress.
The mark had faded from bright moonlight to a dull shimmer.
Mine answered beneath my shirt.
I had never possessed such a mark before tonight.
“The Edict provides for trial,” I said.
Malrec’s eyes narrowed.
Darius shifted beside the door.
Seraphine’s attention moved between us. She was cataloguing exits. Angles. Weapons. I knew the habit because I did the same thing everywhere I went.
“The trial clause applies to disputed lineage,” Malrec said.
“I dispute everything.”
“You cannot dispute what she is.”
“No,” I said. “But I can dispute what the law claims she means.”
Silence tightened across the room.
Malrec stepped closer. “Your father upheld the Edict without hesitation.”
“My father enjoyed hesitation even less than mercy.”
That landed where I intended.
Darius coughed into his fist to hide something that might have been a laugh.
Malrec did not blink.
“Thirty days,” I said. “The trial begins now. Until it ends, Seraphine Vale is under royal protection.”
“Protection?” she snapped. “Is that what you call chains?”
I looked at the knife still in her hand.
“You broke into my palace to kill me.”
“I’m feeling less enthusiastic about the attempt than I was ten minutes ago.”
“Because of the bond?”
“Because now killing you might give me a headache.”
Darius definitely laughed that time.
I almost did too, which was unacceptable.
Malrec’s mouth became a thin line. “If the moon confirms the bond, the law requires a final severance.”
“I know what it requires.”
Execution of the Moonmarked mate.
Abdication or death for the royal who refused.
The Edict had been written two hundred years ago after the Red Moon Rebellion. Every royal child memorized it before learning court history.
The union of the crowned wolf and the moon-marked blood shall call ruin upon the throne.
I had believed those words once.
Tonight, I smelled fear beneath Malrec’s incense.
Not concern.
Fear.
And Malrec Ardyn was not a man who frightened easily.
That made the old law suddenly interesting.
“You have made your position clear,” Malrec said. “I will convene the moon tribunal at dawn.”
“Do that.”
He bowed and left.
Darius closed the door behind him.
Seraphine waited three heartbeats before lunging for the window.
I caught her around the waist.
She slammed an elbow into my ribs.
I tightened my hold.
“Do you ever stop attacking people?”
“Do you ever stop deserving it?”
She twisted with enough force to make my wolf surge under my skin. The bond burned hot between us.
Her breath caught.
So did mine.
I released her instantly.
She stumbled back, furious now for a different reason.
“Don’t touch me.”
“Agreed.”
Darius raised a brow.
“Not a word,” I told him.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Your face did.”
Seraphine looked toward the door. “If I’m under royal protection, I’m free to leave.”
“No.”
“Then I’m a prisoner.”
“You attempted regicide.”
“And failed. Surely your ego can survive.”
I walked to the map table and picked up the paper she had knocked to the floor during our fight.
It showed the southern border.
Three villages were circled in red.
Blackwater. Dunmar. Hollow Fen.
All attacked within the last six weeks.
Each attack had been blamed on soldiers bearing my crest.
Each order carried my seal.
None had come from me.
I pushed the map toward her.
Her expression changed when she recognized the places.
“What is this?”
“The reason I haven’t had you thrown into a cell.”
“I assumed that was the mate bond.”
“The bond is a complication. Treason is a problem.”
Her eyes lifted to mine.
I placed one forged order beside the map.
“The seal is perfect,” she said after reading it.
“Exactly.”
Darius leaned against the wall. “Someone inside the palace has access to the royal press or a mold good enough to fool our own commanders.”
Seraphine’s fingers tightened on the parchment.
“People died at Blackwater.”
“I know.”
“My people.”
“My subjects.”
Her gaze flashed. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Pretend you care about Ashen Vale.”
I saw fire in snow again.
Her father collapsing.
A silver crescent under torn cloth.
I had spent twelve years making certain no royal patrol entered Ashen Vale without written authority. Six weeks ago, someone had found a way around that protection.
And she had come to kill me for it.
“I don’t need you to believe I care,” I said. “I need you to help me prove who gave those orders.”
She stared at me.
“Why me?”
“Because whoever is doing this wanted Ashen Vale to blame the crown. It worked.”
“You think I’ll spy on my own people.”
“I think you’ll hunt the person who killed them.”
That struck.
She looked down at the map again.
“What do I get?”
I had expected that.
“Every Ashen prisoner currently held for border rebellion released pending individual review. Food stores sent to the three burned villages. Royal troops withdrawn from the Vale while we investigate.”
Darius straightened. He had not known I meant to offer all three.
Seraphine noticed.
“You planned that quickly.”
“I have been trying to stop a war.”
“You could start by not being king.”
“Tempting. Unfortunately, my cousins are worse.”
Her mouth twitched.
It vanished so quickly I might have imagined it.
“Thirty days,” I said. “Help me find the traitor. I honor my terms whether or not the bond survives the trial.”
Her gaze sharpened at that last part.
“Whether it survives?”
I held her stare.
Neither of us said execution.
Darius broke the silence. “This is the worst courtship I’ve ever witnessed.”
Seraphine threw a knife at him.
He caught it by the handle.
I decided I was going to need stronger wine.