••{RHIANNON'S POV}••
Seraphine sits with one leg crossed over the other with her gaze lowered to the map spread across Azræl's war table.
For a moment, the only sounds in the chamber are the low crackle of the fire from the hearth. Then Seraphine lifts her eyes and looks directly at me.
"Currently, there are sixteen noble houses in the Empire of Night," Seraphine begins, "and all of them are descended from thirteen fallen ængels. Æryth, Orion, Bælerys, Omnaræl, Solariel, Vælor, Myrrhiel, Zaræchiel, Dæryssa, Azrækiel, Rhæmara, Chyron, and Seraphix."
Her voice is calm and steady. But there is a weight to it that makes me sit a little straighter in my chair.
"But only nine houses hold true power in the empire," she adds. "They are the ruling houses of the nine kingdoms."
She pauses for a few heartbeats before she continues.
"The empire was not always ruled by vampires. It was not even an empire then. It was ten separate kingdoms, all populated and ruled by humans."
