Chapter 4: The Shadow in the Courtyard
The violet smoke swirled like a living thing, thick and suffocating. It tasted of copper and ash, a magical shroud designed to blind and disorient.
Inside the mist, Seraphina felt a hand grip her arm—tight, protective, and trembling. It was Eveline. The Saintess used her other hand to cast a small pulse of light, creating a tiny sanctuary of clarity amidst the gloom.
"Stay behind me, Sera!" Eveline hissed, her usual softness replaced by the steel of a woman who had once watched her best friend vanish into the earth.
Suddenly, the sound of clashing steel echoed through the fog. Alaric's voice rang out, authoritative and booming. "I have the Duke! Form a circle! No one gets past me!" Through the haze, Seraphina saw the golden glow of Alaric's mana, a beacon of light standing firm against the dark.
But it was Killian who moved like the storm itself.
He didn't need light. He followed the sound of the assassin's breathing. There was a sickening thud as Killian's armored shoulder slammed into the servant with the viper ring, pinning him brutally against the side of the Duke's carriage. The wood groaned under the pressure.
Killian's heavy blade was at the man's throat, the faded blue ribbon brushing against the assassin's collar.
"Who sent you?" Killian's voice was a low, terrifying growl. His crimson eyes glowed with a murderous light. "I will peel the skin from your bones before I let you touch her again."
The assassin didn't struggle. Even with a blade pressing into his windpipe, he let out a wet, rattling laugh. He looked past Killian, his eyes searching the smoke until they landed on the blurry silhouette of Seraphine.
"The girl... she remembers the dark, doesn't she?" the man wheezed, blood bubbling at the corner of his mouth. "But you're looking at the wrong shadow, Commander."
Killian narrowed his eyes, pressing the sword deeper. "Talk."
"You think the Order is outside the walls?" the assassin grinned, exposing teeth stained with a suicide pill he had just crushed. "Look at the Duke's personal guard. Look at the men who eat at his table. One of them... already has the ledger. One of them... is waiting for the carriage to reach the forest."
Killian's heart froze. He turned his head toward the Duke's guards, but the smoke was too thick to see faces.
"Killian!" Seraphine's voice screamed through the mist.
She wasn't looking at the assassin. She was looking at the Duke's lead carriage driver—a man who had served the family for ten years. He was reaching into his tunic, not for a weapon, but for a black book—the exact same ledger that had been used to condemn her in the last life.
"The ledger!" Seraphine pointed, her voice raw with trauma. "He has it! Stop him!"
The driver realized his cover was blown. He didn't wait for the forest. He whipped the horses into a frenzy, the carriage jerking forward violently while the Duke was still half-inside.
"Father!" Seraphina lunged forward, breaking away from Eveline.
In that moment, the three acted as one. Eveline threw a bolt of binding light at the horses' legs to slow them; Alaric leaped onto the moving steps of the carriage to pull the Duke to safety; and Killian, realizing the driver was about to throw the ledger into a nearby fire pit to destroy evidence and frame the family, threw his own sword to pin the book to the carriage wood before it could be lost.
The carriage skidded to a halt, the Duke falling into Alaric's arms. The courtyard went silent as the smoke began to dissipate.
Seraphina stood shaking, her eyes locked on the ledger pinned to the carriage by Killian's sword. The very object that had ended her life was now held fast by the token she had given her first love.