Rating: M | Tags: Seer!Stiles, Witch!Lydia, fantasy au, 74k
The wall behind the desk bore the Argent crest rather than the fangs Stiles was used to, and the rug was deep green instead of silver, starting at the back of the room instead of at the door.
“Danger, sire,” Stiles said in a voice deeper than his own. The vision swayed and then settled before him.
By the fireplace, a woman’s head turned. “Speak, Seer,” she instructed. Miss Blake’s voice was just as soft as it always was. She tilted her head, the fire gleaming strangely in her eyes. “Seer Andreas?” She didn’t move when he looked at her, but something in her face hardened.
He turned back to King Gerard. “I have foreseen your end, Your Majesty,” he said, his voice steady despite the fear pounding in his chest. “I See it in the trees, in the grass, in the flowers of spring.”
King Gerard stood so fast his chair skidded on the stone floor. “My death?” He asked it as if the idea that he could die had never occurred to him.
“You will be killed.” Andreas’s voice went smooth and dreamlike, the fear draining and replaced with comforting certainty in his own powers, a certainty that was foreign to Stiles. “You will be murdered on a clear night in deep winter, at half-moon and calm sea.” He took a measured breath. “You will be killed with your back turned. You will be-” His body jerked.
Pain ripped through them both like hot knives.
Miss Blake stumbled, knocking a medal to the ground as she caught the mantle.
Andreas gurgled as he tried to speak. Blood sprayed from his throat. “Betrayal,” he wheezed. More blood gushed from his chest and gut as he fell to his knees, clutching at his wounds.
King Gerard rounded the desk, leaning over to stare down at him as he bled out, face spattered with blood. His mouth twisted with rage. “What?” he demanded. “Betrayal from who? Who is it? Who kills me?”
The pain ebbed and flowed; Andreas no longer heard the king’s ranting. He pressed his bloody hand to the floor, just out of reach of the rug, mouth moving soundlessly.
Stiles tore his hands off the book, sobbing, gagging. He grabbed at his own throat and chest, but he was whole.