Chapter 160: Provocation

It was a pathetic, heart-wrenching, incredibly hilarious display of fatherly submission.

And naturally, Archduke Leonidas Valen noticed it.

Leonidas, who possessed the emotional maturity of a vengeful frat boy, could not let this golden opportunity slip through his fingers.

’He is suffering,’ Leonidas thought, watching Kaelus hide behind a marble statue of a minotaur while Seraphina looked at a fountain. ’He is drowning in his own misery. This is the greatest day of my life!’

Leonidas aggressively inserted himself into the situation.

"LADY SERAPHINA!" Leonidas bellowed, bounding into the indoor garden, completely ignoring Kaelus’s murderous, desperate glare from behind the statue.

Leonidas swooped down, effortlessly lifting the tiny, white-clad girl onto his massive shoulders. "Why are you reading boring books and looking at stupid flowers? Let Uncle Leo show you how the South really plays!"

Seraphina, looking down from her towering perch, caught a glimpse of Kaelus’s horrified, betrayed face hiding in the shadows.

Her soul felt a sharp twinge of guilt, but she hardened her resolve. ’No. He needs to learn. I am going to weaponize this loud man against him.’

"Okay, Uncle Leo!" Seraphina cheered loudly, wrapping her arms around the Fire Archduke’s thick neck. "Show me the fun things! The North is so boring anyway!"

From behind the minotaur statue, a sharp sound of CRACK echoed as Kaelus accidentally crushed a piece of marble off the statue’s tail in his fist.

For the next four hours, Leonidas waged a campaign of psychological torture against his oldest rival.

Leonidas ran around the fortress with Seraphina on his shoulders, making airplane noises. He summoned harmless, colorful fire-dragons to fly around her head. He sneaked her into the kitchens and let her eat cookie dough directly from the mixing bowl.

And everywhere they went, Kaelus followed.

The Reaper of the North lurked in the doorways, his aura bleeding freezing frost onto the floorboards, his violet eyes burning with a mixture of blinding jealousy, heartbreak, and pathetic longing. He watched his bitter rival make his daughter laugh.

He watched Leonidas wipe cookie dough from her nose. He watched another man play the fun, heroic father figure, while he was relegated to the silent, invisible ghost in the corner.

It was death by a thousand cuts. Every single giggle Seraphina shared with Leonidas felt like a physical knife twisting in Kaelus’s ribs.

By the time the sun began to set, painting the volcanic sky in deep, bruised shades of purple and red, Kaelus looked physically ill.

The dark circles under his eyes had returned with a vengeance. His pristine posture had slumped. He looked like a man who had lost a war and was waiting for the executioner’s axe.

***

Night fell over the Obsidian Gate.

The massive braziers atop the walls roared to life, casting flickering, dramatic shadows through the long corridors of the guest wing.

Seraphina marched down the hall toward her suite. The white dress with golden suns was now slightly rumpled, stained with a tiny smudge of chocolate from Leonidas’s kitchen raid. The pink ember-puppy padded happily beside her.

Fifteen feet behind her, the silent, miserable shadow of Duke Kaelus von Nacht followed.

They reached the heavy oak doors of her room.

Bartholomew, the athletic ghost butler, materialized through the wood. He took one look at Seraphina’s fierce, determined expression, and then looked past her to the towering, utterly broken Archduke looming in the hall.

Bartholomew winced, feeling a wave of pity. ’Brace your soul, Your Grace,’ the ghost prayed silently. ’The Sovereign’s guillotine is sharpened.’

Bartholomew bowed deeply and vanished through the floorboards, wanting no part of the impending domestic explosion.

Seraphina pushed the heavy door open.

She walked into the dim, fire-lit room. She didn’t close the door behind her. She left it open, an unspoken, terrifying invitation.

Kaelus stopped at the threshold.

He hesitated. His heart hammered a frantic, terrified rhythm. If he walked in, she might scream. If he walked in, she might tell him to leave.

But the sheer, desperate need to hear her voice, even if it was laced with venom, compelled him forward.

Kaelus stepped into the room.

Click.

The heavy door sealed shut behind him, locking them in.

Seraphina did not take off her shoes.

She didn’t change into her nightgown.

She marched directly to the center of the room. She climbed up onto the massive, plush, four-poster bed, but didn’t sit down.

She stood up on the mattress, her small feet sinking into the silk duvet, utilizing the height of the bed to put herself at physical eye-level with the towering warlord.

She crossed her arms over her chest. Her dark eyes, devoid of all childish innocence, locked onto his violet ones.

"Sit," Seraphina commanded.

It was a single syllable. It wasn’t a request, but a non-negotiable order issued by a commander to a subordinate.

Kaelus von Nacht, the Archduke of the North, the man who answered only to the Emperor himself, did not hesitate for a second.

He didn’t look for a chair.

He didn’t kneel on one knee.

Kaelus dropped entirely to the floor, falling to both knees on the plush ash-bear rug directly in front of the bed. He lowered his head, his raven hair falling into his eyes, his shoulders slumped in total submission.

He looked like a repentant sinner kneeling before a merciless deity.

The silence stretched for a long minute. The only sound was the crackle of the fireplace and the soft yip of the pink puppy settling at the foot of the bed.

"You lied to me," Seraphina finally spoke. Her voice wasn’t loud. It wasn’t a tantrum.

It was quiet, cold, and laced with a disappointment that hurt Kaelus far more than any screaming ever could.

"I did," Kaelus whispered, his voice a rasp. He didn’t look up. He stared at the weave of the rug. "I administered a plan and I deceived you. I broke your trust."

"You promised me," Seraphina continued, her voice trembling slightly, fighting to maintain her adult composure over the surging tide of child-hormones.