A hand closed around Alaric's collar and ripped him backward with enough force to send him crashing to the ground.
A body stepped between them, tall and broad-shouldered and visibly angry.
A voice she knew cut through the chaos.
"Stay down."
Not Caelan.
Crown Prince Thalion Dáranor stood with his back to her, blocking Alaric from getting close again. His shoulders were rigid and his hands had curled into fists at his sides. He looked like he wanted to do far more than pull Alaric away.
The moment Thalion had touched Alaric to rip him off her, the air shifted. Warmth spread through her without warning, sharp and disorienting. Her blood pulsed with recognition of a force she couldn't name, ancient and familiar and wrong in ways that made no sense.
Thalion went still. She saw his shoulders tense further, saw the way his head turned slightly as if he was trying to understand something that had just hit him without warning. His breathing changed, faster and uneven.
He felt it too.
Alaric scrambled to his feet, his face contorted with rage and humiliation. Blood trickled from where his lip had split against the stone pathway.
The witnesses who had stood frozen moments ago stirred to life. Murmurs rippled through the garden as people recognized him.
"Your Highness." He spat the title with venom. "This is a private matter between a husband and wife."
"She is not your wife." Thalion's voice was ice. "She filed for divorce under imperial protection. You were ordered to comply with the proceedings. Instead you cornered her alone and attempted to force yourself on her in front of witnesses."
He took a step toward Alaric and the crowd gathered on the garden paths pressed back instinctively.
"That is assault on a noblewoman under Crown protection. That is defiance of imperial directive. And based on what I heard as I approached, that may well be the least of your concerns."
Alaric's face drained of color. "I was trying to help her. Someone manipulated her mind and turned her against me. I was attempting to save my wife from whatever compulsion has been placed on her."
"There is no compulsion." Seraphina's voice came out steadier than she felt. "He searched my mind and found nothing because there was nothing to find. He couldn't accept that I simply stopped loving him."
Thalion glanced back at her and their eyes met. The connection between them sharpened, and she saw confusion flicker across his face along with an emotion she couldn't read, before he turned back to Alaric with his expression hardening.
"You heard her. No manipulation. No compulsion. Just a woman who finally saw you clearly."
Alaric laughed, harsh and broken. His eyes moved between Thalion and Seraphina, cataloguing the charged air between them, the way they stood too close, the tension that crackled between them.
"I see," he said. "I see it now. The way you're looking at her. The way she's looking at you. This isn't about the divorce at all, is it? This is about him."
He pointed at Thalion with a shaking hand.
"You've been waiting for this. Both of you. Waiting for the moment you could throw me aside and take what you wanted. Tell me, Your Highness, how long have you been fucking my wife?"
The witnesses scattered across the garden gasped. Several looked away. The court scribes were writing furiously.
Thalion didn't rise to the bait. His voice stayed cold and even.
"I have never touched your wife. Unlike you, I understand what consent means."
"Then why are you here? Why did you personally intervene? You're the Crown Prince. You have guards for this."
Thalion stepped closer to Alaric until they were nearly chest to chest. When he spoke, his voice dropped low enough that only Alaric and Seraphina could hear.
"Because I wanted to see your face when you realized it was over. When you understood that everything you built, every alliance you cultivated, every scheme you thought no one knew about, has turned to ash in your hands."
Alaric's jaw worked soundlessly.
"You had her." Thalion's voice dropped low. "You had a woman who loved you, who would have forgiven almost anything, who spent eighteen months trying to make your marriage work. And you threw her away for a manipulator who saw you as a stepping stone. You didn't cherish her. You didn't protect her. You didn't even see her."
He leaned closer.
"Now you'll watch someone else do what you never could. And you'll spend the rest of your life knowing you had everything and destroyed it yourself."
The last of Alaric's certainty crumbled. He had nothing left.
"Guards." Thalion stepped back and raised his voice. "Duke Vessant is to be escorted to the holding chambers. He is charged with assault on a protected noblewoman and defiance of imperial directive. He will await formal proceedings."
Four imperial guards moved through the crowd. They took Alaric by the arms, not gently, and began pulling him toward the palace.
"This isn't over," Alaric snarled. "Seraphina, you'll regret this. You'll see what they really are and you'll come back to me. You'll see."
"I already see." Her voice didn't waver. "I see a man who thought he could erase my choices by forcing a kiss on me. I see a man who blamed everyone else for his failures. I see a man who will die a footnote while I build something that lasts."
The guards dragged him away through the crowd and the onlookers parted to let them pass. Whispers erupted in their wake.
Then he was gone.
The witnesses lingered for a moment before a sharp look from Thalion sent them scattering back to their business. The garden emptied around them and suddenly the space near the fountain felt very small.
Seraphina became acutely aware that she was alone with the Crown Prince.
The strange awareness hadn't faded. If anything it had intensified now that the distraction of Alaric was gone. Her skin felt too tight and her pulse beat too fast. Something in her blood called out toward him in a way she couldn't explain and didn't want. She hated it.
"Are you hurt?"
His voice was closer than she expected. She turned and found him standing barely an arm's length away, his eyes scanning her face and throat and wrists for damage.
"I'm fine."
"He grabbed you hard enough to bruise." His hand lifted toward her jaw where Alaric had gripped her, hovering just shy of touching. "May I?"
She should say no. Every instinct screamed at her to step back, to put distance between them, to escape whatever was happening in the space between their bodies.
"Fine."
His fingers brushed her jaw, gentle, checking for injury. The contact sent a jolt through her that had nothing to do with pain. Warmth spread from his touch down her neck and across her collarbone. Her breath caught and his fingers stilled.
His throat worked as he swallowed. His pupils dilated. The same confusion and unwanted recognition she felt was written plainly on his face.
"What is this?" His voice came out rough.
"I don't know."
"You feel it too."
It wasn't a question. She answered anyway.
"Yes. And I don't want to."
His hand dropped. He stepped back sharply and his face went cold.
"Neither do I."
The words should have been a relief. Instead they made her angry.
"Good. Then we're in agreement." She straightened her spine and met his eyes with deliberate hostility. "Thank you for your intervention, Your Highness. I'm sure you have more important matters to attend to than babysitting your mother's charity case."
His jaw tightened. "You're not a charity case."
"No? Then what am I?" She stepped toward him, letting anger replace the unwanted pull. "I don't need rescuing. I don't need the Crown Prince playing hero. I was handling it."
"You're a woman who was being assaulted by her husband. I intervened because it was the right thing to do."
"How noble of you." She didn't hide her sarcasm. "The Crown Prince, defender of helpless women. I'm sure the court will be very impressed."
His jaw tightened. "You have no idea what you're talking about."
"Then enlighten me." She took another step closer. "Tell me why you really came running. Tell me why you're still here. Tell me why you're looking at me like that."
His hand shot out and gripped her arm, firm enough to stop her advance. The contact jolted through both of them and she saw him flinch at the same sensation.
"Stop."
"Make me."
They stood frozen, too close, breathing too hard, the air between them thick with something neither of them wanted. His eyes dropped to her mouth and she saw him catch himself, saw his expression twist with frustration.
His hand lifted toward her face again. His fingers hovered beside her cheek, trembling slightly, and she could feel the warmth of them without contact.
She should pull away. She didn't.
His fingertips brushed her cheekbone and her eyes closed before she could stop them. The touch was barely there but she felt it everywhere.
Then he yanked his hand back.
"This is wrong," he said roughly. "I don't know what this is but it's wrong and I won't pursue it."
Her eyes snapped open. The rejection stung more than it should have, which made her angrier.
"I never asked you to pursue anything." She stepped back, putting distance between them. "I don't even like you."
"The feeling is mutual."
"Then stop looking at me like that."
"Stop being so bloody impossible to ignore."
They glared at each other across the charged space. Hostility, confusion, and that unwanted feeling mixed together until she couldn't tell where one ended and another began.
Footsteps on the gravel path.
They both turned as Caelan strode into the garden.
He stopped three steps away. His eyes moved from Seraphina to Thalion, taking in their flushed faces and aggressive stances and the obvious tension between them. His face flickered with something she couldn't quite read.
"I heard what happened." His voice stayed calm even as his eyes sharpened. "The palace is already buzzing. Are you alright?"
He was looking at her. His question seemed directed at the scene itself, at what he'd walked into, at whatever he was reading in the air between them.
"I'm not hurt." She moved toward him, needing to escape Thalion's orbit, needing to ground herself in something that made sense. "Alaric cornered me. He claimed he could sense mental manipulation and tried to probe my mind for compulsion. When he found nothing, he tried to force a kiss. Thalion intervened."
"I see."
Caelan closed the distance between them and pulled her into his arms. The tension she'd been holding finally released. His familiar warmth surrounded her and her forehead pressed against his chest while her hands gripped the back of his coat. He smelled like leather and smoke and home.
His arms tightened around her, one hand cradling the back of her head. Possessive and protective and steady.
"I'm here," he said quietly. "I've got you."
She nodded against his chest, not trusting her voice.
Over her head, Caelan's eyes found Thalion's. Neither man spoke or looked away.
Seraphina felt the shift in Caelan's posture, the subtle squaring of his shoulders, the way his arms tightened around her just a fraction more. A claim and a warning wrapped in one gesture.
Thalion's face gave nothing away. Still, something passed between them. Acknowledgment and challenge, the opening moves of a battle that would be fought in glances and silences.
When Thalion finally spoke, his voice was cool and distant.
"Lady Seraphina should rest before the signing proceeds. The assault has been documented and Duke Vessant will face formal charges. I'll inform the Empress that there may be a delay."
"That won't be necessary." Seraphina lifted her head from Caelan's chest, though she didn't step out of his arms. "I want this done today. I'm not giving Alaric the satisfaction of disrupting the proceedings."
Thalion inclined his head. "As you wish."
He turned to leave, then paused on the garden path. When he looked back, his eyes moved over the picture they made together, Caelan's arms wrapped around her, her body pressed against his, the obvious intimacy of their embrace.
"The signing hasn't even happened yet and you're already staking your claim." His voice was cold. "Have some decency."
He turned and walked away without looking back.
Seraphina stared at the space where he'd stood. She didn't know if she was angry or confused. Maybe both.
"What the hell was that supposed to mean?"
Caelan's arms loosened without releasing her. His voice was quiet.
"It means he's not as indifferent as he pretends to be." He pulled back enough to look at her face, his thumb brushing across her cheekbone in the same spot Thalion had touched. "What happened between you two before I arrived?"
She wanted to lie. To dismiss it as nothing. But this was Caelan and she'd promised him no more secrets.
"I don't know," she admitted. "When he touched Alaric to pull him off me, I felt a jolt. Like my blood recognized him somehow. And he felt it too. We both felt it and neither of us wanted to."
Caelan's expression didn't change. Something shifted behind his eyes anyway.
"Your bloodline," he said slowly. "The Celestine heritage. It's possible his bloodline is responding to yours in some way. The Dáranor line has its own ancient connections to the realm's magic."
"I don't care what's causing it. I don't want it." She gripped his coat tighter. "I want you. Whatever that was with Thalion, I'm not going to let it change anything."
He was quiet for a long moment. Then he leaned down and pressed his forehead to hers.
"I know," he said softly. "I trust you. But we should be careful. The Crown Prince isn't someone we want as an enemy, and whatever is happening between your bloodlines could complicate things significantly."
"He said he wouldn't pursue it."
"He was standing too close to you." Caelan kept his voice mild. His eyes told a different story. "I saw the way he was looking at you when I walked in. That's not a man who's decided to stay away."
She had no answer for that.
Beyond the garden walls, the palace hummed with whispers. Here by the fountain, Seraphina held onto the man she'd chosen and tried not to think about the awareness that still lingered.
The signing would proceed within the hour. Her divorce would be finalized within the week.
But something told her that today had set other things in motion. Things that wouldn't be resolved with signatures and seals.
She just didn't know it yet.