“You stalked that boy like prey. You lied to him forseven years.”
Ravenwood Manor faded into a dark hallway at Hyton Palace. Derrick kneeled in front of a potted plant alone while the revelry of his twin’s ball ragedwithout him.
Cold tears stung his cheeks after his stomach purged his sickness into the dirt. His golden coronet was dull. His Hyton Blue cape fell over his shaking back as he sobbed. His hands were stained with soil. He did not know how he ended up on top of Brietta Elvar, but he refused to let Uncle Ragnar’s monster take his Serafina becauseof it.
“You used pure, young love as nothing more than a weapon to get whatyou wanted.”
I had to be Duchess. Everything I did, I didfor Ravenwood.
“LIAR!” the Man of the Mountain roared. “You are manipulative and an excellent liar, all right. You were even able to manipulate and lieto yourself.”
I had no answer for the ancient man. I let his magic sweep through my body and scrape out all the ugliness and dishonesty, but I had nothing left to give him.Nothing except…
“You never caredabout Ravenwood.”
Any air I had left in my lungs disappeared. I never had a plan to help the people of Ravenwood. I never thought about how I would feed them, nurture them, or make them whole. I just wanted to feast on their praise and adoration like I had in the Hytoncity square.
I wanted to eat their love because Iwas starving.
“Duchess, Governess, Baroness…the title never really mattered to you. You wanted the height of a crown and the weight of an iron fist. The world was made to step on you, so you cut the world off atthe ankles.”
I was small and weak. Born to be nobody but a bride and nothing but property. I wanted to stand taller, look men in the eye, and be myown mountain.
I did anything to feel stronger—forging a friendship with the wealthiest girl at Ashmore, fabricating a romance with the heir to the Dukedom, and soothing the Beast so he kept his armsaround me.
Yes, I had done monstrous things to those foolish enough to get close to me. All my love and safety disappeared the moment my brothers rode away from Ravenwood Manor, and I just wanted it back. Was that really so wrong? I just wanted to be morethan nothing.
“I exist beyond the mortal notions of right or wrong, Serafina. All I see isthe truth.”
Shades of red flashed in my eyes. The burgundy wine Riyan and I shared on our wedding night. His crimson cape swaddling me as I laid down in the Bloodstone carriage. A delicious red Bloodstone apple in his hand. A bead of sweet elskaberry jam on the tip of his thumb. Soft vermillion petals of lilies gently placed in my braid. Riyan and I’s blood like liquid rubies binding together under thecenturies-old enchantment.
Red. The most beautiful, passionate, and warm color ever mixed on a palette, grown on a vine, or streaked across the western sky. A flush of desire. A signal for the lost. A banner forthe broken.
Red.
“You fell for Riyan Bloodstone because you wanted his strength and his power. But when you realized you could notcontrol him…”
Red turned intocold bronze.
“…you tried to murder him inhis sleep.”
Moonlit steel slashed through the red. Hands broke apart. Wine spilled. Crimson wool shredded. Jam turned sour. Lily petals withered. Theapple rotted.
“You are his sun, the only light in his world,and yet…”
A raven-haired woman shrouded in a dark cloak stood over me. Her hazel eyes were sharp, but the dagger in her hand was even sharper. No trace of regret in her face. No mercy. She raised the dagger over my head as cold tears crawled down my cheeks likeicy mud.
The monster’s blade did not stop at my tears. The menacing steel thirsty for my blood plunged down and stopped just short of my neck. My eyelids would not close. I stared frozen and wide-eyed at the hardened face of the raven-haired monster as if I were sentenced to an eternity of staring into adark mirror.
“Even after all your treachery, he still begs foryour life.”
Darkness smothered me again and banished the monster. Distant echoes of water against smooth stone pinged in my ears. The sound turned warmer, lower, and I tasted the sorrow of the words sung in another world. Each deep note was a heartbeat, each vibration a lifeline, and each syllable a kiss thattranscended time.
“No, girl, can’t be undone,” Riyan sang, “I won’t stop ‘till your life is won. Don’t you sleep until we’ve run to the West of the Moon and East ofthe Sun.”
Even though his desperate plea cut like a knife, his song ignited the golden light around my unguarded and tender heart. The light warmed my throat and my lips until it freed me to speak. “Do not torture him—punish me for my lies and my wrath, not him. Let me go back to him. Please. Just let me be hissun again.”
I still could not see the Man of the Mountain, but I heard his smile in his voice. “Sometimes I use my gifts to grant wishes that come from the heart. I did not forget that you wished to staywith Riyan.”
