Chapter 83

Chapter 83 Seraphina's POV Peace was never quiet. The morning after Cassian’s defeat, Blackthorne buzzed with a different kind of tension. The kind that came when people didn’t know what would happen next. There were no more blades drawn, no battle cries—just the restless hush of a kingdom trying to remember how to breathe. Cassian had been imprisoned beneath the High Keep—stripped of his titles, his sword, and the twisted legacy he tried to claim. The tribunal council had formally recognized our victory, but politics didn’t move with swords. It moved with whispers. And those whispers now reached every hall, every hearth, like smoke from a fire that hadn’t quite gone out. Kaelos and I spent the day meeting envoys, allies, and even former opponents. Everyone wanted reassurance. Stability. A promise that the war was truly over and wouldn’t rise again with the next full moon. I understood their fear. We had won—but peace was always the harder battle. Callista joined us in the war room by