Chapter Seven: What Bianca Knew

We regrouped in Rhys's study. The fear in the room was so thick it made every breath feel loud. Mira spread brittle old texts across the desk, muttering about bloodline markers and scent signatures. Rhys paced, wearing a groove into the floor.

I sat frozen in the corner. Trying to process that a woman I'd met once wanted to use me as a weapon.

"How did she know?" I finally asked. "I only found out myself hours ago."

Silence. Heavier than any answer.

Kaelan's jaw tightened. "There's only one way she could know something that specific, that fast."

"Someone told her," Rhys said grimly.

I felt sick before I even let myself think the name. "Bianca."

"You don't know that," Kaelan said, though the doubt in his own voice betrayed him.

"Don't I?" My hands had curled into fists in my lap. "She's been furious since the ceremony. She's spent every day since telling anyone who'll listen how humiliated she was that you rejected me instead of picking her. If someone from the Draveth camp came sniffing around Hartwell asking questions about the Seer bloodline, offering status, offering the attention she's always wanted"

"She'd sell you out in a heartbeat," Kaelan finished quietly.

The words hurt more than I expected, considering how little love had existed between my sister and me even before the ceremony.

A knock interrupted the silence one of Rhys's warriors, holding a folded letter with familiar, looping handwriting I'd have recognized anywhere.

My stomach twisted.

"This arrived at the border an hour ago," the warrior said. "Addressed to you specifically."

I unfolded it with shaking hands.

Ivy,

I know you probably hate me right now, and honestly, I don't blame you. But I need you to know I didn't do this to hurt you. I did it because for once in my life, someone looked at me and saw something other than "Ivy's pretty sister." Lady Draveth offered me a title. A real one. My own pack someday, instead of just standing in your shadow now that you've somehow become important.

I told her what you are before I fully understood what that would mean. I'm sorry. I don't expect you to forgive me. I just needed you to hear it from me instead of finding out some other way.

Watch yourself. She's not going to stop.

B.

I read it three times. My mouth wouldn't work.

"She admits it," I said, voice flat with disbelief. "She just admits it. In writing."

Kaelan took the letter gently from my numb fingers, scanning it, his expression darkening with every line. "This isn't a confession. It's a warning wrapped around an excuse."

"She sold me out to the woman trying to steal your throne," I said. "And all she cares about is finally getting noticed."

Rhys crouched in front of me, gray eyes steady on my face in a way that anchored something loose and panicking in my chest. "You don't have to process her betrayal right now. What matters is what Serrin does next, and we need to be ready before she moves."

"Ready how?" My laugh was sharp and empty. "She has a whole royal house behind her. I have a gift I found out about six hours ago. And a sister who thinks selling me out is a fair trade for a title."

"You have something else," Mira said quietly from across the room, not looking up from the ancient text in front of her. "Something Serrin doesn't know you have yet."

We all turned to her.

"What?" Kaelan asked.

Mira finally looked up. Something in her eyes made the hair on my arms stand up.

"According to the old records," she said slowly, "an awakened Seer bloodline doesn't just detect lies. Once fully awakened, it can unmake them publicly and irreversibly, in front of witnesses. Which means, Ivy, if you're what I believe you are..."

She closed the book. The sound was final.

"...you're not just a threat to the throne's secrets. You're the one person alive who could force the truth about what happened sixty years ago into the open, whether the King wants it revealed or not."