I found Seraphina in the Celestial Library at 9 PM.
She was in the same seat she'd occupied for our first library encounter — the northeast corner, back to the wall. The book in front of her was open but unread. Her golden eyes were aimed at the page, but her focus was somewhere else — somewhere internal, processing the letter from her mother and the rumor that had reached the Church and the implications that were cascading through the political infrastructure of House Seraphel like dominoes.
"The rumor," she said as I sat down. Not looking up.
"I know."
