Chapter 85

Seris’s POV

“Apples!” Valeria’s voice cut through the gloom as she lurched away from me. Almost immediately I heard the heavy thud of boots. A young man appeared, carrying a wicker basket brimming with red apples. He handed one over to Valeria, who accepted it with a delighted laugh before he retreated up the narrow staircase that led to her lofty throne.

A sorrowful melody drifted from the pianist’s fingertips, each plaintive note echoing my despair. Through the iron bars of the cage where my daughter huddled, I caught her muffled sobs. She pressed her tear-streaked face to the cold steel, her small hands gripping the bars as though to squeeze them into dust. Her eyes—so like mine—gleamed with unshed tears and pleaded silently for rescue.

Valeria lifted the apple to her lips, her teeth crunching into its flesh with an almost cruel precision. The sound grated on my nerves. I ached to scream at her to discard it and speak at last, but she was far too enraptur