Chapter 8 #2
When had her relationship with her mother changed? When had the attention she so craved as a child led to dismissal? Sera didn’t remember exactly, but nighttime tales as she was tucked into bed had turned into slammed doors and a dark room. Since then, she’d been chasing her mother’s approval.
All Nora had to do was breathe, and she was blanketed with praise—the best of everything.
The newest dresses, the prettier dolls; meanwhile, Sera got what she got.
She’d been agreeable, even grateful, but that had turned to resentment as she grew older.
And now that little voice in her head screamed and raged for the witchling she had been.
As they rounded the corner, the barracks came into view.
Half the massive building held the living quarters for the soldiers stationed in the Citadel.
The other half was littered with training grounds and offices.
Travertine pillars supported the domed roof, and one set of marble stairs ran the length of the building.
She’d never been inside. And although she had always been curious to see the layout and the training grounds, Sera wished that she were witnessing it under different circumstances.
“All right,” Sera said.
Dominick exhaled like he’d been holding his breath for days.
“You’re very dramatic, you know that, right?”
“So you tell me all the time. Spill it.”
“Just my mother. Nothing out of the ordinary.” Lavinia hadn’t even offered her a hug. It stung. Her mother knew she’d be leaving the Citadel walls. Still, she’d denied Sera affection. Or deemed her unworthy of it, and Sera wasn’t sure which was worse.
“You need to stand up to her,” Dominick said sharply.
“Why? So she can tell the Council I’m an abomination? No, I’d rather take her verbal lashings and get on with my life. Maybe one day, I won’t need her in it.” Sera cleared her throat and stopped before the steps leading to the barracks. “Plus, she gave me this necklace.”
He winced. “It’s… nice?”
“Apparently my father wanted me to have it. Honestly, I think it was too ugly for Nora to wear.” Sera said this but thought of her mother’s outstretched, trembling hand, the way she’d stepped back quickly as if the pendant would harm her.
“If anyone else told me their mother treated them this way, I’d never believe them.” He reached out and lifted the raven tied around her neck. “Interesting…”
“What?”
“I don’t know,” he said, rubbing the pendant between his thumb and forefinger. “There are strings—threads like I see in the pools. I can’t manipulate them, but they connect the bird with your heart.”
“Maybe it’s enchanted?”
“Speaking of enchanted.” He grinned and pulled something out of his robe.
“I got you something. Well, I got us something.” Dominick handed her a leather-bound journal.
“I had them enchanted, so when I write something in mine, it will show up in yours, and vice versa. That way, I can always be in contact with you.”
Sera flipped through the blank pages, then cradled the notebook to her chest. “Thank you.” The corners of her eyes stung, and she knuckled away her tears.
Dominick hugged her close and kissed her cheek.
She was going to miss him. Writing wouldn’t be enough; she needed him.
Dom was her home, and for the first time in sixteen years, they’d be apart.
“I can’t wait to tell you how hard I railed Sam tomorrow,” he whispered in her ear before letting her go.
Sera laughed, wiped her nose, and tapped him with the journal before placing it in her bag. Moons, he was impossible.
“I need you to do something for me.”
Dom stood there rocking on his heels, his hands deep in his robes, waiting for her request.
“Under my mattress is some money. I need you to get it to Ithar. Tell him it’s from me, and he’ll know what to do with it.”
“Give it to him when you come back.”
“Dom…”
“Fine! I’ll keep your little crusade of feeding the poor going while you’re gone, but I’m not doing anything past that.”
She couldn’t help but smile at him. “Thank you.”
“Shh, shh, here he comes,” Dominick said with a smirk.
She quickly smoothed out her frizz before turning toward the captain. She had grown. They were no longer children. She could be mature about this.
“My, my, he does look delicious in that uniform.”
Sera sighed, mostly because Dom was impossible, but also because he was right.
“I would climb him like a tree and ask him to carry me home after. Seraphina, you, my friend, are in deep trouble.” Dom straightened his robes. She couldn’t help but roll her eyes at him. “Alistair! Wonderful to see you. I thought you would still be in placement with Colton?”
“Dom, been a while.” Alistair pulled Dominick in with a big slap on the back that left Dom coughing, then stepped back and pointed his chin toward Sera.
“You were due at the barracks thirty minutes ago, and now we’re behind schedule.
” Alistair crossed his arms, his body rigid, displaying his heavily muscled biceps.
Some sort of intimidation tactic, or did he want her to notice them?
Sera’s cheeks heated. Long gone was the scrawny, lanky warlock of their youth.
“Oh, come now, Al. We’re all old friends here,” Dominick said.
“I’m just saying my goodbyes. Mind giving me a little bit of privacy?” Sera had laced her question with more venom than she intended. Al shook his head before taking a few steps back.
Dominick gave her a wily grin.
“Don’t say it.”
Dominick tilted his head. “Don’t say what, Seraphina Wildrick?”
She ran a hand through her hair again. “This is going to be a nightmare.”
“Listen to me,” Dominick said, hugging her again.
“I love you. You will do this stupid quest, and then we will get Nora back. I’ll even petition to go with you next time.
” It was easy for him to say: Dominick had access to a deep well of power.
She had a little barrier magic and an abomination that needed to be suppressed.
“I will write to you every day. I promise to pass along anything I find that may be helpful. Just do me a favor?”
“What?” she asked.
“Try not to catch feelings when he fucks you into oblivion.”
By the time the words registered, Dominick was running toward Citadel proper, and she prayed to whatever deity might be listening that Alistair hadn’t heard him.
She turned slowly to meet Alistair’s gaze, and the smirk he had plastered on his face told her he absolutely had.