The Duchess Wearing My Best Friend’s Face

The moment I pushed open the door, the baby was still crying.

But the woman on the chaise was already reaching for me, smiling.

"Sera, you're here! Look, isn't she just like me?"

I watched her fingers twirl a lock of hair. That was Elara's habit.

The same tone. The same smile.

But my heart sank. Deeper and deeper.

She saw the look on my face. Her smile froze. "What's wrong? Is it... a bad omen for the child?"

Dante rushed to my side, his voice trembling.

"Seraphina, what did you see? Just say it! The walls of the North can withstand any curse!"

Ten years ago, his stepmother plotted with a dark mage. A curse froze his heart solid.

I was the one who laid a star-circle. Sacrificed half my magic. Bled my own soul dry to pull him back from death's door.

Three years ago, his eldest son, Caelan, was taken hostage. Held in an abandoned alchemist's workshop.

I was the one who conjured a mist ward. Made the kidnappers turn on each other. They all died in a fire.

Two lives saved. Two debts owed. The entire ducal family of the North treats my word as gospel.

I didn't answer Dante. I just raised my hand. Pointed at the woman on the bed.

"That is not Elara."

Dante froze.

The woman stared for a second. Then she laughed. A forced, wounded sound.

"Seraphina, that's not a very funny joke. I just gave birth, and you're telling me I'm not myself?"

I didn't have time for her act.

"Where is Elara's soul? Tell me the truth. I might give you a quick death."

"What did you say?!"

A roar from the doorway. Isolde burst in with six knights. Their swords all pointed at me.

"Seraphina! How dare you curse my sister-in-law? You think because you saved my brother twice, you can do whatever you want in this house? She just risked her life in childbirth, and now you show up saying she's dead?"

I ignored Isolde. My eyes were fixed on the woman in the bed.

"Elara has a scar on her right shoulder blade. Coin-sized. From when she took a shadow wyvern's sting for Dante. Drop your robe. Prove it."

Isolde exploded.

"Are you insane?! Asking a Duchess who just gave birth to disrobe in front of the guards? Seraphina, what are you playing at?!"

But Dante spun around. His voice was as cold as a blade.

"Show her."

Isolde's eyes went wide. She started to argue, but Dante's glare silenced her.

The woman on the bed sighed. Her eyes grew red, like her heart was breaking.

"Dante... you don't believe me either?"

"Show her." He repeated the words. But this time, his voice held a hidden tremor.

The woman slowly untied the ribbon. The nightgown slipped from her shoulder.

Her right shoulder blade. A nasty, piercing burn scar. Clear as day in the light.

The position. The shape. The depth. It all matched.

My pupils contracted. It felt like a fist was squeezing my heart.

"See?" Isolde sneered. "Anything else to say?"

My Seer's blood has never been wrong. Not once since the day I was born.

Even with that perfect scar staring me in the face, I still didn't believe it.

I took out my three rune bones. The divining tools I'd carried for eighteen years.

"What are you doing?" The woman's voice was tight. The first time I'd heard it that way.

I didn't bother to answer.

"The bones do not lie."

I raised my hand. Threw the bones hard against the floor.

The sharp crack of the bones hitting the stone had a strange, trembling echo.

And then... all three bones shattered. At the exact same time.

A thick black mist seeped from the cracks. The stench of black magic. It hung in the air, refusing to fade.

I knew that smell. It was the omen of a soul already gone.

The temperature in the room plummeted.

The color drained from Dante's face.

Isolde's sword clattered to the floor.

The woman on the bed gripped the sheets. Her knuckles were white. For the first time, her expression cracked.

It wasn't sadness. It was pure, unfiltered panic.

The baby's cries grew more frantic. As if she could feel the chill from the underworld.

I stared her down.

"I can feel the traces of Elara's soul... She's dead! Who are you?!"