It didn’t matter.
Seraphina had said, over and over, that she would always choose him.
“You,” she said, turning her head toward the two soldiers. “Take us to Schloss Ewigheim.”
They stood up, leaning against each other. Their legs had fallen asleep from lack of movement and the cold. They looked at the muskets that lay discarded in the snow but made no attempt to reach for them. They wanted to – Seraphina could sense it – but as long as they were in the relic’s thrall, they could only do what they were commanded.
“We will pretend that we are your prisoners,” Seraphina said. “Are there soldiers at the schloss?”
“Yes, there’s a company,” Huber said.
“Then our plan will work.” She thought about the muskets and wondered if she should risk it. “You, pick them up.” She pointedat the weapons. “Check that they’re unloaded. You will walk behind us and keep them aimed at our backs.”
The soldiers didn’t hesitate to follow her orders. Soon enough, they were on their way to Schloss Ewigheim. Huber and his partner didn’t talk unless Seraphina asked them something. Rune didn’t speak either, lost in thought, and Seraphina gave him space to process. She needed the quiet too. She was hyper aware of everything that happened around them, every little sound and movement, and in her mind, she focused on keeping the two soldiers in her thrall. She wasn’t sure if that was how the relic worked, but she assumed the bone wouldn’t lead her astray now that it had found its new keeper.
She wondered about the woman who’d had it before her, the wife of baron Von Rothenfeld. How had she lost her head? The men who’d broken into their house and killed them all must’ve figured out that she was using a relic. One of the soldiers must’ve outsmarted her somehow, taken her by surprise, cut off her head before she could utter the word “you”. Most likely, it had been a strike from behind. That thought made Seraphina uncomfortable as she felt the barrel of the musket gently prod her lower back every time Huber slipped on a patch of ice.
They walked for an hour before Rune described to her the black towers of a castle rising in the distance. It was another hour before they reached the gates. The crunch of snow under their boots turned to sloshing as they stepped onto the main path. The air smelled acrid, like wet ash sitting there for months.
Seraphina could hear people around them, men who hooted, exclaimed in disbelief, or murmured amongst themselves.
“There are maybe fifty men,” Rune said. “They’ve pitched tents along the eastern wall. The schloss itself is a shell. Black holes instead of windows, and black stone all around.”
They walked through an archway, and Seraphina knew they were inside the structure, but the air was just as freezing as itwas outside. It smelled stronger here, like old smoke. The two soldiers let them up a winding staircase into the western tower. The climb was long, the stone steps slippery, and Seraphina used her walking stick to steady herself. It was narrow and hard to breathe, but then Rune’s arm brushed against hers, and she felt better. Comforted. They were here together, and whatever awaited at the top of the tower, they would face it and it wouldn’t change them. It wouldn’t change what they had.
They were pushed into a room, and Seraphina felt the space widen. There was a man sitting behind a massive table, she could see his dark shadow hunched over papers, and when he heard them enter, he looked up and pushed away from the table in shock, the legs of his chair scraping against the stone floor.
“What is this?” he asked.
The air rushed out of Seraphina’s lungs. It was as if she’d been punched in the stomach. She knew his voice.
The soldiers escorting them didn’t react. If Seraphina wasn’t the one to give them the order to speak, they weren’t going to open their mouths.
“Explain at once. Where did you find the revenant? The Lord Harvester will be pleased. But who is the woman?”
A small sound escaped Seraphina, something between a gasp and a scoff of disbelief.
“You don’t remember me?” she asked.
The man cocked his head, possibly studying her from head to toe. She couldn’t tell, because she couldn’t see the movement of his eyes.
She turned to the two soldiers.
“You, get out of here.”
They turned on their heels and rushed down the stairs, nearly tripping. She wondered how long it would take for the thrall to release them, if it was a matter of time or distance. She also wondered if they would feel confused or violated, or if theywould grasp at all that they’d been under someone else’s control and their actions in the past two hours hadn’t been of their own volition.
Rune hadn’t seemed to realize he’d been manipulated into kissing her.
“What–” the man started but was cut off by Seraphina’s commanding tone.
“You, what is your name?”
He snapped to attention, his back straight and his eyes fixed on her.
“Thomas Mayer,” he said. “Captain Mayer.”
“And you don’t remember me at all, Captain Mayer?”
