Chapter 187 - 186: The Spy that had been Lurking in the Shadows

Eleanore shot him a look, her cheeks warming slightly, while Stella’s eyebrows shot up with immediate, delighted interest. "Oh? Something you two want to share as well?"

"Not yet," Eleanore said quickly, though she couldn’t quite keep the smile off her face. "But maybe. Eventually."

"Well, when you do," Stella said, reaching over to squeeze her hand, "our children can grow up as menaces together. It seems only fitting, given how our lives have gone so far."

"Menaces," Hael repeated, mock-solemn. "I’ll start preparing myself now."

"You’ll need the head start," Stella said sweetly, and the table dissolved into laughter again.

Dessert arrived alongside a fresh pot of tea, and the conversation drifted into gentler territory. Stella describing, with visible amusement, her physician’s increasingly specific instructions about diet and rest, half of which she had every intention of ignoring; Hael admitting, that he’d already begun quietly asking after cribs and nursery furnishings, though he’d sworn Stella to secrecy about it until he’d found exactly the right one.

"He’s hopeless," Stella said fondly. "I caught him sketching a nursery layout in his ledger last week. In the middle of a supply report."

"I multitask," Hael said, entirely unbothered.

The rest of the evening passed in warm, easy laughter, plans already forming for the months ahead, nursery colors debated, names half-jokingly proposed and immediately vetoed, Hael’s visible nervousness about fatherhood gently teased out of him by the rest of the table until even he was laughing along with it.

By the time Eleanore and Caelestis finally took their leave, the night had settled into something rare and precious, an evening entirely untouched by crisis, filled instead with nothing but genuine, uncomplicated joy. In the carriage home, Eleanore leaned into Caelestis’s side, watching the last of the city lights blur past.

"I like this version of us," she said quietly. "The one that gets to simply have dinner with family."

"So do I," he said, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "I intend to have a great many more of them."

Victor was on patrol when he sensed it. It was as if someone was following him around. He turned toward the carriage he’d arrived in, standing there, staring at it for a brief second before returning to business. The border was in chaos, tensions in Zhipher were rising, and Victor knew Seraphine was in trouble. It wouldn’t be long before the war started, and they’d have no choice but to join it.

"What about the food supplies?" he asked, calculating and gathering resources for the common people, when a blast threw him several feet through the air.

It took him a few hours before his thoughts settled enough for him to wake. There were bodies spread around him, and it was horrifying — he saw blood pooling near his feet. It took several long minutes before his mind cleared enough to make sense of anything.

Azriel rushed up to Victor. "You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, yeah." Victor pushed him away. "I’m fine." He pressed his palm against his forehead. "What happened?"

"Someone blasted the carriage." Azriel called Laurent over.

"One of the knights accompanying us is missing," Laurent said. "He was probably the spy we were looking for."

Victor scanned the area and caught sight of a shadow lurking in the woods. He took off after it without a second thought. Azriel and Laurent followed close behind.

"Where are you going?" Laurent asked, but Victor ignored him and pressed deeper into the trees.

The woods eventually opened onto something unremarkable at first glance — an old, abandoned watchtower half-swallowed by overgrowth, the kind of place easily overlooked by anyone not specifically searching for it. But the faint, telltale shimmer of dark magic residue lingering in the air told Victor immediately that he’d found the right place.

He signaled for Laurent and Azriel to hold back, moving carefully toward the tower’s entrance. And it was there, in the doorway, that he found him. Tall, pale — exactly as Eleanore had described him. The shady gardener, she’d once called him.

"It was you. Always you." Victor drew his blade slowly, keeping his voice level despite the cold unease creeping up his spine. "Poisoning the duchesses, all those treacherous things we could find no explanation for. It was you in the shadows this whole time, lurking within our own territory."

The man’s expression didn’t shift, didn’t so much as flicker with surprise at being found. "You found me faster than expected," he said, his voice low and oddly measured. "Impressive, for men without any real understanding of what they’re dealing with."

"Then enlighten me."

A thin, humorless smile crossed the man’s face. "I don’t answer to hired swords," he said, and before Victor could react, the air around him rippled the exact same way it had at the border — dark, formless, surging outward with sudden, violent speed.

Laurent and Azriel drew their swords, sensing the danger radiating from this strange man they’d never encountered before.

Victor barely managed to throw himself sideways as the substance lashed out, narrowly avoiding what would have been a devastating blow, Azriel and Laurent closing in from either side. The stranger moved through the chaos with eerie calm, unbothered by the swords aimed at him, that same shapeless darkness curling protectively around his form like a living shield.

"Tell your Duchess," the man said, retreating steadily backward even as Victor pressed forward, "that what she carries doesn’t belong to her. It never did. And I intend to take it back — one way or another."

Before Victor could demand clarification, the darkness surged upward one final time, swallowing the man whole. When it dissipated a heartbeat later, the floor of the watchtower held nothing but an unconscious man.

"Take him into custody," Victor said.

Azriel hoisted the man onto his shoulder, and they left the woods, doubling back toward where the explosion had happened.

"There are horses in the shade," Laurent reminded them.

They rushed back toward Lancaster mansion. Victor had to inform Caelestis about this, and he had to do it quickly. But he’d traveled too far along the Zhipher border for it to be a short ride. The horses tore across the countryside at a punishing speed toward the capital, barely stopping to rest.

Even so, it still took two full days to reach the capital. They left the horses at the entrance gate, Azriel carrying the man over his shoulder once more, as they raced through the corridor to the doors of Lancaster mansion. The door swung open, and Azriel dropped the man unceremoniously onto the floor.