“This kingdom was starving when my husband died. Borders collapsed. Plague crossed the southern road. Rebellion grew in three provinces.”
Elara listened.
Seraphine continued.
“I found what our ancestors buried.”
“The storm crown,” Alaric said.
The Queen looked at him.
Elara frowned.
“What is that?”
Alaric looked at her.
“Not a crown.”
He glanced toward the windows.
“A pact.”
Thunder answered.
The Queen smiled faintly.
“At last.”
Elara’s skin prickled.
Seraphine descended one step.
“Long before this palace existed, the first rulers bound the western storms to the royal bloodline.”
Elara looked toward the rain.
“You control this?”
Seraphine laughed.
“No.”
Her eyes settled on Elara.
“You do.”
Elara stopped.
“What?”
The hall became silent again.
Seraphine looked almost pleased now.
“The Vayne women were never merely nobles.”
Elara’s stomach tightened.
“Your family were keepers.”
“Of what?”
“The second half of the pact.”
Alaric said, “Elara, don’t listen.”
The Queen ignored him.
“Royal blood commanded the crown.”
She pointed toward Elara.
“Your blood commanded the storm.”
Lightning exploded above the palace.
Elara flinched.
The windows shook.
Nobody spoke.
Seraphine smiled.
“You felt it coming, didn’t you?”
Elara thought of the three-day storm.
The wolves avoiding her.
The strange pull toward Blackthorn.
The creature following without attacking.
She looked at her hands.
“No.”
“You opened your mother’s letter.”
Elara looked up sharply.
“How do you know?”
“Because that letter contained the Vayne oath.”
Elara remembered strange writing at the bottom.
Words she had read aloud without understanding.
Not language.
Names.
Old names.
Her throat tightened.
“You knew she left it.”
“I hoped she had not.”
The Queen’s smile vanished.
“Your mother was annoyingly difficult to predict.”
Elara wanted to hit her.
Alaric moved closer.
“Elara.”
She looked at him.
“You are not what she says you are.”
The Queen laughed.
“That from a man wearing horns?”
Alaric’s growl returned.
Elara put one hand against his arm.
Instant calm.
The entire court saw.
Seraphine saw more.
Her expression sharpened.
“Interesting.”
Alaric moved in front of Elara.
“Don’t.”
“Do not what?”
“Look at her like that.”
Seraphine smiled.
“The curse responds to her.”
Elara looked up.
“What does that mean?”
Alaric’s face twisted.
“Nothing.”
The Queen laughed softly.
“Still protecting her.”
“What does it mean?”
Elara demanded.
Seraphine descended another step.
“The spell was unfinished.”
Alaric turned.
“No.”
“You never understood why.”
“Be silent.”
“Because Mara interrupted it.”
The Beast’s claws dug into the stone floor.
Seraphine looked at Elara.
“I meant to bind my son to the storm crown.”
Elara understood slowly.
“You turned him into this on purpose.”
“Not permanently.”
Alaric laughed.
The Queen ignored him.