Silver Scars & Hollow Hearts

An Asset, Not a Prisoner

Seraphine brought the food.

Klaus had not expected that. He thought it would be a servant, one of the quiet vampires who moved through the lower levels doing their work without drawing attention. But instead, it was her.

She carried the tray easily and set it down on the small table. Then she stepped back, hands together, watching him the same way she had been watching him since the forest.

"Dorian sends food and you bring it yourself," Klaus said.

"Dorian sends food. I came on my own." She sat in the chair Dorian had used, much more casually. "I wanted to talk to you before the meeting later."

"About what he said."

"About what he left out." She nodded toward the tray. "Eat. I'll talk while you do. You will need your focus, and you cannot do that hungry."

Klaus started eating. The food was good, much better than what he had been living on. Real food, properly made. He kept watching her as he ate.

"The inner sanctum," she began, "is not for guests. It is not for refugees. It is for things that need close attention, in a controlled place, for reasons that are not always explained to them." She paused. "I suggested bringing you here."

"Why."

"Because this place is protected." She looked at him directly. "What happened in the forest was not hidden. The power you used could be felt by others. Here, that is harder. Not impossible, but much harder."

He stopped eating for a moment. "Someone else felt it."

"Yes."

"Who."

She took a second before answering.

"There is another faction," she said. "Another coven. They are not allied with Nocthaven. They have been watching the Silverstone borderlands for a long time, but when you crossed into vampire territory, they started paying more attention."

She looked down briefly, then back at him. "They felt what happened. And they are moving toward it."

Klaus took that in. "Dorian mentioned them."

"He mentioned them. He did not explain them."

"Explain."

She did.

She spoke clearly, laying everything out step by step. The rival faction, what they wanted, and how it connected to him and his bloodline. Their movement toward this territory.

Klaus listened.

When she finished, he said, "And Dorian."

"He believes he has the right to handle this because of his coven's history with your bloodline," she said. "Which means handling you. He is not wrong about the danger. But he is not doing this just to help you either."

"I know."

"I wanted you to know that I know that too," she said. "And that when I said you should be brought here, it was not because I think your goals and his are the same. They overlap. But they are not identical."

Klaus looked at her. "So whose side are you on."

The question stayed between them.

"Mine," she said. "And my reasons are not something I am explaining right now."

He nodded and went back to eating.

"What is the afternoon meeting about," he asked.

"Dorian will explain everything properly," she said. "The rules, the training, what you can and cannot do here. He will also introduce you to Corvus."

"Who is that."

"Our archivist. He knows more than anyone here about your bloodline." Her voice stayed even. "He also tends to treat what he studies like objects. Keep that in mind."

"So he will study me."

"Yes. And he will probably say what he is thinking out loud. Try to be patient."

Klaus almost reacted. He stopped himself.

She noticed.

"You were about to say something," she said.

"No."

"You were," she said calmly. "I can tell the difference."

He looked at her.

"Three years," he said.

She went still.

"You have been watching me for three years," he said. "That is what Dorian meant. You knew about me before any of this happened."

"Yes."

"Why."

She stood up, not stepping back, just standing more directly.

"Because three years ago I recognized the kind of power in your blood," she said. "I started tracking it. I needed to be there when it finally awakened."

"The conditions."

"Loss," she said simply. "Everything breaking at once. What your brother did was part of it. The betrayal, the exile. All of it."

Klaus was quiet.

He thought about it. About what had been done to him.

"And you knew something like that would happen," he said.

"I knew the situation made it possible," she said carefully. "I did not know exactly how or when. When it started, I was already close enough to respond. I did not cause it."

He watched her for a long moment.

She did not look away.

"I believe you," he said.

Something small changed in her expression.

"That is more than I expected," she said.

"I know," he said. He stood up too. "But you came to the border. You helped me. You are being honest with me now. That matters."

The room went quiet.

Then the door opened. A coven attendant stepped in and said Dorian was ready.

The moment ended.

Klaus and Seraphine walked out together, through the cold, blue-lit halls. There was still distance between them, but not as much as before.