All Chapters of The Villain's Captive: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Seraphina's POVThe crown was too heavy.It always was.Sera sat perfectly still at the long dining table while servants moved around her like silent shadows. Candles burned in tall golden holders. The food smelled rich and warm. The wine in her glass caught the light and glowed deep red like blood, she always thought, though she never said it out loud.She had learned early that some thoughts were better kept inside."You look beautiful tonight, my dear."Her father's voice came from the head of the table. King Aldric Vayne. Tall, silver-haired, with a smile that could warm an entire room. Everyone loved that smile. Everyone trusted it.Sera smiled back. "Thank you, Father."It was the right answer. It was always the right answer.She was eighteen now, which meant the conversations had changed. They were no longer about her lessons or her progress in court etiquette. Now they were about marriages, alliances, and what her hand could secure for the kingdom of Aeloria.She was a princes

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Seraphina's POV She left her room before sunrise. Not because she had slept well. She hadn't. She had lain on the bed in her clothes staring at the stone ceiling while her mind turned over everything Kael had said, picking at it the way a tongue finds a sore tooth, unable to leave it alone even knowing it would hurt. This was not a surprise to everyone in that palace. She had given up on sleep somewhere around the third hour and simply waited for the dark outside her window to begin its slow grey shift toward morning.

Seraphina's POVShe read it twice.

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