His mouth is contorted into something almost grotesque. As if he died screaming.
I nearly trip over the eighth body, hidden between the tree line as I creep closer. This one wears leather.
A Darkwielder shadowscout. Beckett’s partner. Her eyes are open, frozen, staring at nothing. The hole in her chest goes right through. Lowering, I brush my hand against her eyelids, nudging them down and wishing Beckett a painful death.
As I watch, one of the Lightbringers steps forward and grabs Darian’s chin, forcing his head up. Even from here, I can see the bruising along Darian’s jaw, the anger caged in his expression.
The Lightbringer speaks, but the words don’t carry to me. Another stands behind Darian, holding something small and dark between gloved fingers.
Quills.
They’ve dosed him. But not until after he killed seven of them in the fight. Pride surges in my chest. A third Lightbringer—female, lean, and horrifyingly familiar—paces near the edge of the circle with her blade drawn, her posture loose and predatory.
Iliria.
Even at this distance, my skin prickles. Her face is sharpened by the cold, eyes too bright, lips curved.
I remember her hissed words as she had driven the blade into my gut all too well. I remember lying in the snow, staked through the palms, unable to move and waiting for death to find me. The scar against my stomach burns as if it remembers too.
At the far side of the clearing, slightly apart from the others, stands the one person I would have preferred never to see again.
Cindral’s armor is brighter than theirs. Polished more carefully, his cloak perfectly clasped at the shoulder with the precision he learned from my father.
He rode away and left me here. He didn’t care if I lived or died, and all because I pricked at the pride he can’t fucking contain.
Because I saidno.
I inhale slowly, taking in the scene again. Four Lightbringers. Darian quilled and bound, possibly injured. Iliria, armed and eager. And Cindral.
Tilting my head, I do what my father taught me, before his lessons turned into cruelty. I look for the angles.
The two unfamiliar Lightbringers have backed away from Darian, directed by Iliria. They stand positioned slightly farther out. Sentries. Their attention is on the forest, scanning for reinforcements.
Sliding around the clearing’s perimeter, I keep to the shadows and use the trunks as my cover, reaching the first sentry from behind.
He’s tall. His shoulders are hunched against the chill, spear held casually in one hand. He’s speaking quietly to the other sentry, muttering something aboutCindral’s plans for Darian that make the other male snort in amusement before they separate again, each taking a different direction for patrol.
I am… not amused.
Lifting my hands, I call my luminth, relieved when I feel no strain from Sera’s healing. But not into a blade. Blades flash. Blades are obvious. Instead, I sculpt my light into a thin filament, almost invisible against the snow’s pale glow. A cord of light, as tight as wire and just as effective.
Stepping forward, I loop it around his throat andyank.
His body jerks. His hands fly up instinctively, fingers scrabbling at the cord that slices into his skin. He tries to gasp, letting out nothing but a wet, shocked wheeze. The cord slicescleanly enough. His body collapses into the snow with a muffled thud, armor clinking.
The second sentry turns at the sound, eyes widening. But I don’t give him time to shout. Flinging my palm out, a narrow spear erupts to life that streaks through the air and punches through the gap beneath his helmet.
There’s no hesitation in my movements. Not this time.
A choked sound escapes him. Then he falls, knees folding first as he crumples to the ground.
Two down.
My heart hammers. No one in the central circle has noticed the sentries’ absence yet. Cindral’s attention is still on Darian, and Iliria is still prowling, her focus on the two of them.
Good.
I crouch behind a fallen log, forcing my breathing to steady, and glance toward Darian. His head is lifted now, jaw clenched. His eyes flick briefly toward the tree line where I wait, scanning.
