Chapter 2

I woke three days later in a room that smelled of dust.

For several seconds, I didn't know where I was.

Then pain tightened low in my abdomen, and I remembered the altar.

The chains. The blood. The tiny heartbeat going silent inside me.

My hand moved beneath the blanket. There was no curve yet, nothing anyone could have seen, but I had known my child was there.

Now there was only pain.

A maid sat asleep beside the cold fireplace. She startled when I pushed myself upright. "My lady, you mustn't move."

"Where am I?"

"The east guest wing."

Not my bedroom. Not even the healer's chambers. But a guest room at the far end of the estate.

"Why am I here?"

The maid lowered her eyes. "Lord Alaric ordered that you be placed somewhere quiet."

Somewhere my grief wouldn't disturb him.

I pulled back the blanket. My legs shook when my feet touched the floor.

"The priest said you lost too much blood." The maid wrung her hands in distress. "Your magic channels are damaged. If you force them—"

"Help me dress."

"My lady—"

"Now."

She found a plain gray gown in the wardrobe. It belonged to no one. The fabric hung from my thinner body, and every step sent a dull ache through my abdomen.

I walked anyway.

The corridors grew warmer as I approached the main wing. Fresh flowers filled silver vases. Servants carried boxes toward the rooms I had once shared with Alaric.

No one met my eyes.

The doors to the master bedroom stood open.

Elara was sitting before my mirror.

Three maids surrounded her, arranging her golden hair and fastening moonstone pins between the curls. Bottles from my dressing table had been pushed aside to make room for hers.

But I barely noticed any of that.

I was staring at the robe she wore.

Pale silver fabric draped over her shoulders, alive with threads of starlight. Constellations shimmered across the sleeves whenever she moved.

My robe. I had spent seven months weaving it.

Every strand had been spun from my own magic. I had embroidered protective runes along the collar because Alaric once promised to take me to the Winter Solstice Ball.

I never wore the robe, because he had forgotten the promise.

Elara saw me in the mirror and smiled. "Seraphina. You're awake."

"Take it off."

The maids went still.

Elara touched the glowing sleeve. "This?"

"You know what it is."

Her smile faded into practiced hurt. "Alaric gave it to me. My clothes no longer fit properly after the life transfer."

My fifty stolen years glowed against her skin.

"Take it off."

"You're upsetting her." Alaric's voice came from behind me.

I turned and saw him walk in carrying several velvet boxes. More gifts, no doubt.

His gaze moved over my gray face and trembling body, completely devoid of alarm. "You should be in bed."

"I woke up in a guest room."

"Elara needs constant supervision. The master suite is closer to my study."

"So you put her in our bedroom."

"It's temporary."

"And my robe?"

His expression tightened. "It was sitting unused in a wardrobe."

"I made it."

"You have dozens of robes."

"That one contains my magic."

"Elara's body needs help adjusting to the starlight. The robe stabilizes her."

Of course. My work. My room. My life. Everything I owned had become medicine for Elara.

I looked past him. Servants were carrying a white vanity table toward the room across the hall.

My breath stopped. "What are they doing?"

Alaric followed my gaze. "Preparing Elara's dressing room."

"That's the nursery."

The room I had spent months arranging in secret.

The room with silver stars painted across the ceiling. The room with a cradle carved from white ash and tiny protective charms hidden beneath the floorboards.

Alaric gave an impatient sigh. "It was an empty room, Seraphina."

"No." I walked past him.

He caught my arm. Pain shot through my damaged magic channels, but I tore free and entered the room.

The cradle was gone. So was the rocking chair I had restored by hand.

One wall had already been covered with shelves of perfumes and jewelry. A servant was rolling my painted star rug into a bundle.

In its place stood a vanity large enough to cover half the wall.

Elara appeared in the doorway, still wearing my robe.

"I told Alaric a storage room was enough." She smoothed a delicate hand over the shimmering silk. "But he insisted."

Storage room.

I stared at the faded square where the cradle had stood.

Alaric had killed our child. Then, while I lay unconscious and bleeding, he had erased the only room that proved our baby had ever been wanted.

"The physician's report." I kept my eyes fixed on the empty floor. "Did you find it?"

Alaric's silence answered me.

"You didn't look."

"There was no reason to indulge another lie."

Something inside me became very quiet.

No tears came. No scream rose in my throat.

I stepped into the adjoining storage alcove and saw a heavy iron demolition hammer leaning against the wall.

I wrapped both hands around its handle.

Alaric frowned. "What are you doing?"

I swung.

The hammer smashed through the vanity mirror. Glass exploded across the floor.

Elara shrieked.

The impact tore through my injured magic channels. Blood seeped through the bandages beneath my dress, warm against my thighs.

I lifted the hammer again.

"Seraphina, stop!"

The second blow split the vanity table in half.

The third shattered the perfume shelves.

Magic snapped through the room as my hidden protection charms broke one after another. Each broken rune struck back at its maker. White pain raked through my ribs.

I kept swinging.

I destroyed the wardrobe they had brought for Elara.

I crushed the jeweled lamps.

I ripped down the curtains I had chosen when I still believed a child would sleep beneath them.

Alaric seized the hammer's handle. "Have you lost your mind?"

I glanced down at his hand, and he was the first to pull away.

Behind him, Elara clutched my robe around herself and stared at me as if I were a monster.

I raised the hammer one final time and drove it into the painted wall.

The silver stars split down the middle. Dust rolled through the ruined room. Only then did I let the hammer fall.

Alaric stood amid the broken furniture, his face rigid with fury.

"This tantrum has gone far enough. You destroyed an entire room because Elara borrowed a robe."

I stepped over the shattered glass. My blood left a dark footprint behind me.

"Now it really is a storage room."

I looked at Elara in my stolen starlight, then back at the man who had given it to her.

"Take your thief and get out of my sight."