Seraphina watched him go.
Her heart hammered in her chest, but her mind was functioning with the cold clarity of a survivor.
He was leaving.
They were not going to be eaten immediately.
They had time.
She looked down at the freezing iron floor of the cage, at the terrified, weeping children huddled in the corners. She looked out at the massive, cavernous hall filled with cursed treasures and screaming ghosts.
'He thinks we are just a flock of sheep he gathered for hunting,' Seraphina thought, her small hands clenching into tight, white-knuckled fists. 'He thinks he can just lock us in a cage and wait for us to marinate in despair.'
She lifted her head, her dark eyes entirely devoid of childish panic, replaced by a cold, calculating resolve.
She was Seraphina von Nacht.
She had been adopted by the Reaper, audited an industrialist, and crushed a priceless ruby without blinking. She was the Sovereign of the Vanguard.
