Chapter Six: Final Line

No matter what you’re told, don’t trust Lucian Blackthorn.

Seraphina had read it four times on the ride home. She hadn’t returned the letter from her coat pocket. The coat had a strong cedar and wood smoke scent; it was Lucian’s.

The ride had been quiet and chilly. It had been a silent journey back. She’d said nothing about the letter whilst in the carriage. The king had told her not to mention it. Corvin had gone ahead with two palace guards to ensure that the vial was safely stored. Vivienne had talked nonstop for a mile. She had obviously noticed something. Lucian hadn’t said a word. He had sat across from her, staring out of the window, his hands loosely resting on his knees. Whilst he hadn’t mentioned anything about the letter given to her by the king, it still didn’t make her feel any better.

She kept thinking about how shaky the king’s hands had been and how he had told her he had never known what the final line meant. If the king didn’t understand what her mother meant then maybe no-one did. This meant that she was the only person alive who could discover what it meant. And the only person close enough to be harmed by the answer.

"All right. What did it say?" asked Vivienne as she slammed the door shut with her heel.

Seraphina handed over the piece of paper. Vivienne read it and whispered creative curses.

"He told us nothing about this."

"He doesn't know I have it."

"Worse!" Vivienne exclaimed as she flopped onto the bed. "Then tell me. All of it." He turns up at the one party where you finally stand up for yourself. He says yes to a stranger's proposal without blinking. He has a spare coat, a safe house and a very convenient elder, and he's rescued you twice in one day. Plus he saved you twice today!

"He protected you."

"He’ll protect things he intends to keep."

It hurt that he had said something she would have said about herself a week ago. She had believed that this man was kind because he hadn’t done anything cruel to her in three years.

"I'm not going to lie awake over it." I’m going to ask him.

"Now? It's the middle of the night."

"His study light has been on since we got in."

"Then I'm coming with you."

"No. If he's dangerous, I want you behind a locked door. If he isn't, I want to be able to say I never needed a bodyguard."

"That's a terrible plan."

"No. It's the first half of one."

Vivienne grabbed the letter opener from the nightstand and shoved it into Seraphina’s hand.

Seraphina nearly giggled. She slipped it into her sleeve.

She found him alone, sitting by a dying fire. He had a glass in front of him but hadn’t touched it. He looked up and didn’t seem surprised. He didn’t get up and that made her happy. He just waited. She noticed he had a picture in a frame on the mantelpiece behind him. The picture was facing the wall.

"You read something."

"You guessed."

"You've been holding your pocket since the carriage."

She shut the door. She placed the letter on the desk and turned it so the final line was facing him. She watched his face carefully, as she should have done with Damien three years ago. His grey eyes travelled down the page once and stopped. His face didn’t change. There was no reaction. No anger. No clever excuse. He carefully placed the paper down as if it was hot.

"Your mother was right."

She had been expecting him to lie. "Pardon?"

"Marguerite Vale was right not to trust me. She was a very clever woman. I'd have been suspicious of me too."

"That isn't an answer."

"It’s not. It’s half an answer." He rubbed his jaw. He looked older up close. He looked tired beyond the time of night. "Of course you will." This will be unpleasant, and I'd rather hope you were comfortable when you decide to hate me.

"I’ll stand."

"Of course."

Her heart was racing. Selene was very still inside her, listening. Like an animal would do. She could feel her presence pressing against her back.

"Why are you telling me?"

"Because Corvin would have told you by morning, and I would rather you heard it from the man who held the order than from the man who only watched."

"He defended me."

"I'm going to ask him." Not the elders you saw tonight in their nice robes. The part nobody mentions at banquets. They called us the Hounds. We were handed names, and we found the people who owned them, and what happened afterwards was no one's business.

"Who did you hunt?"

"Anyone the Council decided was a danger." He looked her straight in the eye. That was what hurt the most. "The silver line was a danger. They had decided that long before you were born. By the time Marguerite fell pregnant, only two of them were left alive."

Her mouth was dry. "And you were sent after her."

"I was sent after her child."

Seraphina let out a small giggle. "I was a baby."

"You were four days old when the order was sealed."

The fire crackled. Somewhere in the house the clock struck one.

"Just tell me." She absently reached for the letter opener in her sleeve. He noticed.

He pulled something from his jacket. For a crazy second she thought of Damien’s fingers around her wrist. She tensed. But instead he pulled out a small square of folded vellum. The creases were cracked and the wax seal was red. It had turned black with age. He placed it on top of her mother’s letter.

Everything seemed to narrow down to the small red seal. She had been expecting a monster. Instead she had gotten an exhausted man with steady hands. This scared her more.

"The order I was given had your name on it. Or the name of the silver child, anyway, since you didn't have a real one yet." My voice didn’t waver.

"Seraphina, the council ordered me to kill you.”