Rydon had livedthirty years in this world. Because of his profession, much of that was violent, especially with the power shifts and greed of royals.
And he’d seen things he had thought lost to this world for a millennia.
But he had never seen anything like this.
“What the fuck just happened?” Lerek breathed.
“She’s becoming who she was always meant to be,” Cassandra said.
Lerek snorted. “A monster?”
Rydon opened his mouth to curse the fool but Cassandra spoke first.
“That’s what you see?”
Lerek looked at her in disgust. “Was this necessary?” He waved at Ren as she walked slowly toward them, her head bent so Rydon could not see her face. “The Terena I knew would never have done this!”
“The Terena you knew had to hide who she was in order to fit into your world,” Cassandra rebuked gently. “Your father’s done worse and yet you do not call him monster.”
“My father’s never?—”
“Your father locked her up in your dungeons. Your father wanted to kill her because of who she is.” Rydon snapped. “Do not compare her to your father ever again.”
Lerek glared, but did not reply. Rydon tensed when he felt Cassandra lean her head on his back. She squeezed her arms and he exhaled, closing his eyes.
Someone began clapping. Rydon opened his eyes to see Soros, a wide grin on his face, clapping as Terena drew close. It was picked up by a few others, and Terena smiled.
Mounting Nyx, she looked at Rydon and Cassandra, then Gabriol. She frowned uncertainly at Lerek’s expression.
“What?”
“Are you fucking kidding?” Gabriol said, spreading his arms.
“I told you I had a plan.”
“Aye!” Rydon snarked. “I thought maiming. Perhaps a few deaths. Maybe. A tiny bit of what we saw in Olympia before we left?” He shrugged. “I get it. You need the practice. But this?” Rydon ran both hands through his hair as he looked over Terena’s shoulder at the decimation she’d made of Ravos’s soldiers. “No, Ren. I did not thinkthiswas the plan.”
“And when the fuck did you learn to do that?Howdid you do that?” Gabriol asked.
“I didn’t know I could, honestly,” Terena said, and for the first time, Rydon glimpsed the woman he’d met on the day of her execution. Uncertain. Vulnerable. Scared. “My plan was to use the Twins like I did before we left Olympia.”
Terena turned Nyx and rode away from the city walls. After a long moment, Rydon and the others fell in beside her. CaptainSoros whistled, and soon his men were riding away, likely back to their camp.
“Did anything different happen that made you change your mind?” Rydon asked, mostly curious. He was also cataloging the changes to her abilities as she neared her nameday. Hermes had warned them unique powers would manifest the closer she came to her majority and powers all gods had would grow stronger and more consistent.
“There was no thought, Rydon,” Terena said, her voice almost sad, and he thanked Gaia for it. Lately, her demeanor was colder, her patience shorter. He feared what she was becoming and yet he knew her ascension was inevitable.
“It was… the same as walking. The same as breathing,” Ren said, lifting her face to his.
Rydon frowned as he watched her. Her expression was strange. She seemed troubled.
But excited, too.
A cold mask slipped over her face and she shrugged. “It was them or us.”
Chapter 32
RAVOS
