“What’s got you out here alone?” She’s relentless, this one.
I shrug, trying for nonchalance. “Maybe I prefer the quiet.”
“That’s hard to believe.”
Two can play at this game. “At least I have people who want to be around me. The only time anyone approaches you is during training, and that’s because they have to.”
Something shifts in her gaze, the playful spark dimming. “Maybe I was wrong.”
“About what?” I prod.
She sets the jar down with a thud. “Thinking you’d be less insufferable tonight.”
She stands abruptly and walks away.
Silence settles around me, broken only by the occasional pop of the dying embers. I stare into the flames, watching them dance and flicker, until they’re nothing more than glowing coals.
I don’t move. I can’t. It’s as if I’m frozen in place, trapped in a world that exists only in my memories. A world where my father’s disappointment and disdain were as constant as the sun rising in the east.
His voice echoes in my mind, as clear as if he were standing right beside me.“You’re a fool. A spare who doesn’t matter. You’ll always be nothing.”
I still see his face, the way he looked at me that day when I was fourteen. The day he gave me the false gold, the day he shattered any illusions I had about his love for me. To him, I was nothing more than a pale imitation of my brother.
The summers have passed, but the sting of that moment has never faded. It’s driven me, pushed me to be better, to be more. To prove him wrong.
But now, sitting alone by the dying fire, I wonder if he was right all along. If I am nothing more than a fool, chasing after things I can never truly have.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Jasce
Behind me,Reeve shifts his weight, while Jude remains as still as stone. Their presence steadies me, grounds me. We’ve fought together, bled together, and survived impossible odds before, and we will get through this too.
Asha may have assembled a huge army, but each of my warriors is worth ten of Asha’s barbarians, and we have something they don’t: honor. We’re fighting for our homes, our families, our very way of life.
“There are four guards at the perimeter, Reeve,” I say as Jude and I crouch behind a boulder at the edges of Asha’s camp.
Reeve nods as tendrils of shadowfire curl from his fingertips. As it snakes through the night air, he melds into the shadows.
When I was younger, I envied his ability to turn invisible—to move soundlessly. Now, I appreciate having someone like him with me. Someone who cares about family more than ambition. Someone who would never betray me.
The first guard doesn’t even twitch as Reeve appears behind him and cuts his throat. The next three guards fall in the space between heartbeats, their bodies gently lowered to the ground by Reeve.
He materializes beside me, the last wisps of his magic dissipating from his skin. Not a hair is out of place, and not a drop of blood is on his clothes.
“Clear,” he says, though we hardly need the confirmation.
The moonless nightwraps around us as Reeve, Jude, and I weave through the camp, heading toward Aleksander’s tent, where two warriors stand guard on either side of the entrance.
I nod at Reeve, and without making a sound, he melts into the shadows. He reappears a moment later behind one of the guards. Before the man can react, Reeve presses a blade to his throat and silences him with a quick, lethal slash.
I dispatch the other guard just as efficiently, clamping my hand over his mouth to muffle any cries before my dagger finds its mark, cutting his life short.
The tent flap barely stirs as we slip inside. Aleksander lies sprawled across a bed, one arm lazily draped over his chest as he sleeps.
I glance at Jude, and he steps forward, raising his palms outward. The air between him and Aleksander shimmers like heat rising from sun-scorched stones. Jude unleashes a concentrated pulse of scorching air, rolling across the space in a shimmering wave.
Aleksander’s eyes snap open, but it’s too late. The super-heated blast slams into him, forcing his body rigid and arching him off the bed as his mouth opens in a silent gasp of shock.
