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“Duncan?” I said, head tilting to the side. “Why has Gyah already left?”

“Because Althea is still alive, but we believe this will not be true for long. I could not expect Gyah to sit around and wait for us to be ready, when the next moves on this game board we find ourselves on are the most pivotal to our success.”

All it took were those words and my entire world shattered all over again.

I shook my head, as Erix voiced my inner thoughts. “What the fuck do you mean Althea’s not got long?”

The silence that followed was so tense, I could only hear my heart thundering in my ears.

“Cassial is goading the fey into starting a war, but there is resistance,” Duncan explained, his eyes almost distant as though pulling information from the deepest parts of his soul. “Cassial plans to use Althea as bait because it has not worked; he is growing desperate. And his desperation will result in Althea’s life being under threat.”

“How do you know?” I gasped.

Duncan tapped his head. “A gift, from the Creator. I can sense other Nephilim, like we are connected and–”

“He is going to kill Althea, to start a war?” I spat, not caring about magic gifts from gods.

“In a manner of speaking, yes.”

Suddenly I was glad Gyah had left already. If anything, I wanted to claw my way out of this room and follow her. But my body sagged forwards until the table crashed into my hips. I placed my hands across the wood, unable to stop the creeping freeze that erupted from beneath my fingers. It took seconds for the table to engulf in ice, before cracking down the centre.

“You knew?” I spat, catching Duncan’s warped reflection in the mirror that was my ice. “All this time, you knew?”

“No, darling. The information was only revealed to me after the Transfiguration. I gave Seraphine the information she required to make sure Gyah left Irobel quickly. All is well, you do not need to worry.”

“Fuck all of that,” I shouted. “We all should’ve been informed about this…”

Instead, I had given into my selfish desires and lain with Erix and Duncan, all whilst Gyah left Irobel to save the woman she loved.

I couldn’t wrap my head around what was happening. My eyes met Rafaela with force. “What about you. Did you know this was happening?”

I waited for her to tell me the answer, but I saw it in the gleam of her eyes. “No. I discovered the truth alongside Gyah.”

“Then who told her?” I shouted, the table shattering into pieces beneath my hands. “Duncan, you were with us the entire time, you didn’t get the chance to speak to Gyah…”

Rafaela took a deep breath in, clutching the hilt of a sword at her waist. “Seraphine informed us that Cassial has grand plans for Althea in a few days’ time–”

“As per my request,” Duncan reminded.

I gagged on the sudden rush of bile, clapping a hand over my mouth to stifle it. I was hit with both relief and anger – blinding fury that I’d been made to believe my closest friend was dead.

I expected Rafaela and the Nephilim to lie, but not Seraphine – never Seraphine. She would’ve told me, she would’ve kept me in the loop as she had from the beginning…

“What plans does Cassial have?” I dared to ask.

“To use Queen Cedarfall to start a war.”

I don’t know who said it, Duncan or Rafaela, but the truth sank in my chest like a stone of dread.

Hearing it aloud only further proved what my mind had already made up. “And how… how long has Seraphine known this?”

My knuckles whitened as they tightened at my sides, waiting for the answer.

“Long enough to get ahead,” Duncan said. “This panic you feel, this anger at being in the dark… you can place it upon my head. It was my doing.”

I winced, eyes closing so I could give into the calm darkness behind my eyelids.

Rafaela took a seat first, settling herself down as if the floor shook.