Take Me Away, Dark Lord!

”Do not sneak into the kitchens.”

Seraphina looked away.

”Okay.”

”Do not climb the chandeliers.”

”...Okay.”

”Do not attempt to slide down the marble staircase.”

Seraphina gasped.

”I wasn’t going to!”

Kaelus stared at her.

She stared back.

A long silence followed.

”...I considered it,” she admitted.

Kaelus sighed.

”Of course you did.”

He gently brushed her hair away from her face.

”Do you understand?”

”Yes, Papa.”

Seraphina smiled.

”Mr. Sebastian is nice.”

She paused.

”And he has a cool scar.”

Kaelus nodded.

”He does.”

Before he could say anything else, a sweet voice floated through the open doorway.

”Oh, Your Grace!”

Seraphina’s smile disappeared.

A woman stepped into the room.

”Oh, is the little Lady awake?”

Seraphina’s six-year-old instincts immediately screamed.

No.

She didn’t know why.

She just knew.

Bad.

Very bad.

The woman was Lady Genevieve, the newly appointed Head Maid of the Capital Estate.

Except Genevieve was not really a servant.

She was the daughter of a Viscount, a minor noblewoman who had been graciously assigned to the Nacht household by the Empress herself.

Which was the political language for:

Congratulations. You have been assigned a spy!

The Empress wanted eyes inside Kaelus’s household.

She wanted to get information about the Archduke, too.

And, more importantly, she wanted information about the mysterious child he had suddenly adopted.

Genevieve was a beautiful woman, in a very artificial way, especially with her perfect blonde ringlets, bright blue eyes, and impeccable makeup, carefully tailored maid uniform, and enough lavender perfume to kill several bees.

Seraphina’s nose twitched.

Oh no.

Genevieve smiled at Kaelus.

It was a dazzling and devastating smile, her hips swaying slightly, aiming a flirtatious smile directly at Duke Kaelus.

A smile designed to make handsome noblemen forget their own names.

Kaelus looked at her.

He appeared to be considering whether throwing someone through a window would create unnecessary paperwork.

”Oh, Your Grace,” Genevieve cooed.

She fluttered her eyelashes.

”I came to see whether the little Lady required assistance dressing for the day.”

Kaelus’s expression remained blank.

Genevieve continued.

”You must be terribly exhausted, bearing the burden of the Empire upon those broad shoulders.”

Seraphina’s eyebrows knitted together.

Why is she talking about Papa’s shoulders?

Genevieve stepped closer.

”Please, allow me to ease your domestic troubles.”

She smiled sweetly.

”I am incredibly... attentive.”

Seraphina puffed out her cheeks.

No.

Absolutely not.

Her six-year-old brain didn’t understand imperial politics.

She didn’t understand espionage, or why a noblewoman would pretend to be a maid.

But she understood one very important thing.

This lady was fake.

Her smile was fake.

Her voice was fake.

Her eyelashes were doing too much.

And she kept looking at Papa like he was a particularly expensive dessert.

Seraphina didn’t like it.

She smells like fake flowers and lies.

She crossed her arms.

’I don’t like her. She gives me the bad vibes. Super bad vibes.’

Duke Kaelus von Nacht slowly stood up.

He didn’t look at Genevieve with charm.

He didn’t return her flirtatious smile.

The Archduke looked at the Head Maid with an expression of such disgust that the temperature in the room audibly cracked. He looked at her as if she were a cockroach that had just crawled out of the drain and demanded a waltz.

”The Lady Seraphina is perfectly capable of managing her own morning routine, Lady Genevieve,” Kaelus stated, his voice a flat, deadpan drone of pure ice. ”And I assure you, my shoulders are perfectly capable of bearing their burdens without your... attention.”

Genevieve’s smile faltered for a microsecond, a flash of irritation crossing her blue eyes, but she quickly recovered, forcing the sugary sweetness back onto her face.

”Of course, Your Grace!” Genevieve tittered, batting her eyelashes again.

She turned her attention to Seraphina, kneeling down.

Genevieve finally looked at her properly.

Her smile became even sweeter.

”Oh, aren’t you precious?”

She knelt.

”Look at those adorable little cheeks!”

Seraphina’s cheeks puffed even further.

”We’re going to have so much fun together, aren’t we, sweetie?”

Genevieve reached toward her.

Seraphina immediately stepped backward.

”No.”

Genevieve blinked.

”...No?”

”I don’t want to.”

Genevieve’s smile twitched.

”Oh, but we could play with dolls.”

”Dolls are boring.”

”We could have tea parties.”

”No.”

”We could talk.”

”No.”

Genevieve paused.

Then her eyes gleamed.

”You could tell me all about what you and the Archduke talk about when you’re alone.”

Silence.

Seraphina stared.

Even at six years old, she understood that this was a suspicious question.

Her brain produced the only logical conclusion available to a child.

She is trying to steal secrets.

Seraphina took another step backward.

Then she hid behind Kaelus’s cape.

Her tiny face peeked out from behind the dark mythril-threaded fabric.

”I don’t like you.”

Genevieve froze.

Kaelus’s eyebrow rose.

Seraphina continued.

”And your perfume makes my nose itchy.”

Genevieve’s mouth opened.

Nothing came out.

She was a noblewoman.

She had dealt with etiquette tutors, arrogant dukes, hostile ladies, vicious court gossip, and enough political manipulation to make an ordinary person develop a headache simply by standing near her.

But apparently she had never encountered a six-year-old who had decided she was annoying.

Kaelus’s lips twitched.

He looked suspiciously close to smiling.

He turned toward Genevieve.

”I’ll tell you this again, but... The Lady Seraphina is perfectly capable of managing her own morning routine.”

His voice was colder than the North.

”And I assure you, my shoulders are perfectly capable of bearing their burdens without your... attention.”

Genevieve’s smile faltered.

Only for a fraction of a second.

Then it returned.

”Of course, Your Grace!”

She gave another tiny laugh.

She turned toward Seraphina.

”Oh, don’t be shy, little darling.”

Seraphina narrowed her eyes.

”I am not shy.”

”Of course not.”

”You are just annoying.”

Another silence.

Kaelus looked away.

His shoulders moved once.

Seraphina stared at him.

Was Papa laughing?

No.

Impossible.

Papa did not laugh.

Papa was a terrifying Northern warlord.

Papa merely had a suspicious cough.

Genevieve’s face had become noticeably pale.

Kaelus finally looked back at her.