Seraphina POV:
Cammie's lips trembled for a long moment before a single, shattered sound escaped. "Your... Your Highness... the Prince Regent?"
"Prince Regent." Aldric's voice wasn't loud, but each word was a block of ice dropped on their hearts. He confirmed his identity.
Cammie's knees gave out. She crumpled to the ground with a soft thud, her body shaking like a leaf in a storm.
The nobles behind her scrambled to follow, falling over each other to press their foreheads to the frozen floor. No one dared to breathe.
The once-noisy cave was now filled only with the sound of terrified, suppressed gasps. This was the raw power of his station.
I watched the scene, my heart a steady, cold drum in my chest. This was the kind of power I needed to survive in this world.
Aldric didn't even look at the groveling crowd. His golden eyes were still locked on me, studying me like an unexpected complication, an object that had disrupted his plans.
Cammie, sobbing on the floor, began to babble. "Your Highness! I... I didn't know it was you! I thought... I thought my sister..."
A single, cold glance from Aldric cut her off.
"You thought?" He rose to his feet slowly. His tall frame cast a monstrous shadow in the torchlight, engulfing the kneeling figures. "You brought this crowd into my private place of meditation... based on something you thought?"
His words revealed a critical fact: this wasn't just any cave. This was the Prince Regent's sanctuary. Cammie hadn't just made a mistake. She had committed a grave transgression.
Her face turned the color of ash. She began to slam her forehead against the ice. "Forgive me, Your Highness! I deserve death! I truly did not know it was you!"
I watched her, a silent observer. Now was not my time to act. I would let Aldric's fury be my weapon.
His gaze swept past Cammie and landed on the figure who had been ignored until now—Rick Tucker, huddled in the shadows by the entrance.
The thug had been frozen in terror since the moment the nobles knelt.
"That man," Aldric said, his voice dangerously soft as he pointed. "Who is he?"
Every head turned. Cammie's heart sank into a frozen pit. The one piece of her plan she wanted hidden was now in the spotlight.
Two guards from the crowd immediately surged forward, grabbing Rick Tucker and dragging him like a sack of garbage before the Prince Regent.
"Your... Your Highness..." he stammered, pissing himself. "It wasn't me! I don't know anything!"
Aldric looked down at him, his golden eyes devoid of any warmth. "Speak. Who sent you?"
I chose my moment. My voice was not loud, but it cut through the tension. "Cammie, my dear cousin. Weren't you just accusing me of sleeping with a 'vagrant'? There he is. Why don't you identify him?"
My words were a scalpel, sliding precisely into Cammie's wound and reminding Aldric of the plot's origin.
Cammie flinched, staring at me in horror, as if seeing me for the first time. My sudden aggression had clearly caught her off guard.
Aldric's gaze flickered to my face, a spark of inquiry in their depths.
On an occasion like this, Rick Tucker's will shattered. He glanced from my face to Cammie's terrified one, and survival instinct made his choice.
"It... it was a maid! She found me—she paid me—" His voice cracked, and his eyes darted toward Cammie, a silent but unmistakable accusation.
Cammie's face twisted in panic. "Why are you staring at me? Don't you dare slander me!"
It was only a hint, but enough to make the nobles shift uneasily.
I stood up and walked toward Rick Tucker. All eyes followed me.
Then, in a move that stunned everyone, I lifted my foot and kicked him squarely in the jaw.
He cried out, falling backward as blood and teeth sprayed from his mouth.
