Shattered Compass, Broken Empire

llroom dripped light onto the laughing,

for Seraphina,

I saw

asn't

ckwood, his hand possessively on h

eside me told me I wasn't

ack from Blac

eyes, only a c

me, Blackwood smi

earby clusters of people to hear. "Perfect timing.

a ripple spreading

kept my

t you, Ethan. A relic. Charming, perhaps, but this," she h

rne family heirloom, or so I'd let her believe, a piece tied to o

cking it with a fingernail. "It

t was tarnished, dull, its

, my voice quiet but carrying. "Especially when they

be subtle anymore, their whispers g

equences'!" a woman with

"Consequences for who, Thorne? For Sera, choos

, pulling her close. She leaned into him

ack at me with pitying contempt. "Ethan, you live in the past. Your family, your ways.

something," someone muttered,

voice echoed, follo

er chin held high. "You see, Ethan

n agreement, Seraphina. The Vance-Thorne Pr

Providence, the method my family had guarded for generat

d paper? My father indulged you, Ethan. I'm not bound by

chain holding the compass, a

ring with malice. "Take your trin

't hand

et it

a small, sad clink, skittering a few

ive act.

owed the fal

n't just a trinket, it was

e family's continued success, a success I had meticulously orchestrated from the shadows for the

t my reclusive New England family prosperous through wars, d

her family's recent boom was al

ad no

broken and discarded, I saw m

nce empire's foundation, a direct result o

didn't take kin

at, a simple statement of fact. "What you've discarded is more t

, Thorne? Are you going to sue her f

you're worried about, I'm sure Daddy can write you a check f

ld, deflecting any truth

t sentiment, or perhaps a

about common finance, it was about the currents of fate