Chapter 4

Seraphina, clearly wanting the confrontation to end, gestured impatiently to a passing servant.

"Find out where that old staff of Mr. Silas's was stored. Bring it."

They waited in tense silence. Julian hummed softly, a smug air about him. Damien kicked at the gravel, bored.

After what felt like an age, the servant returned, carrying the Heartwood Staff.

Or what was left of it.

It was dull, lifeless. The wood was dry, cracked in places, the intricate carvings barely visible beneath a layer of grime and neglect. It looked like a forgotten piece of firewood.

Silas felt a sharp pain, a reflection of the staff's decay. He remembered carving it, long ago, pouring his essence into it, a symbol of his bond with the living world, and later, a symbol of his vow to Seraphina.

A vow she had clearly forgotten, or discarded, like the staff itself.

"There you are," Seraphina said, as if presenting a long-lost treasure, oblivious to its state. "Now, if that's all..."

Silas reached out and took the staff. It felt cold, alien in his hand. Dead.

Julian let out a low laugh. "Quite the relic, isn't it? Hardly fitting for the husband of the Head of The Sterling Order. But then, you were never a good fit, were you, Silas?"

Silas ignored him, focusing on the dead wood in his hands.

"You know," Julian continued, stepping closer, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper only Silas could hear, "that 'accident' I had planned for you and the girl back in your little town? The one you so cleverly avoided?"

Silas tensed.

"It was meant to be final," Julian hissed, his eyes glittering with malice. "To remove you both. Make things cleaner. Seraphina needs a strong partner, someone of her own world. Not a... a rustic memory."

His confession was blatant, chilling. He had orchestrated what would have been Willow' s death, Silas' s own.

"Seraphina will be mine, completely, once you're truly gone."

Before Silas could react, Julian grabbed the dead Heartwood Staff from Silas' s unresisting grip.

Then, with a sudden, sharp movement, Julian scraped the jagged edge of the decaying staff hard against his own forearm, drawing blood.

"Aaargh!" Julian screamed, stumbling back, clutching his arm. "He attacked me! Silas attacked me!"

Seraphina spun around, her eyes wide, just as Julian collapsed dramatically at her feet, blood welling from the gash on his arm.