‘Youtook my blood?’ Dawn screamed, surging forward, one hand raised as if she meant to slap sense directly into Alina’s skull.
‘We need every advantage we can get!’ Alina roared back, fury glinting in her eyes like shattered amber. ‘Don’t act as though you wouldn’t have done exactly the same!’
‘I would never—’ Dawn froze mid-protest, her face twisting as thought struck. ‘Actually… I would have. But that’s beside the point!’
‘We’re leaving.’ Kai’s voice came like iron. He seized Dawn’s hand and began pulling her back towards the city.
‘So that’s it?’ Alina’s voice cracked as she clutched the staff against her chest like a lifeline. ‘You’re going to abandon me because we took a single drop of her blood?’ Her voice climbed to a howl. ‘Do you know what your problem is, Kai?’
Kai halted so abruptly his boots ground against the sand. Slowly, deliberately, he turned on his heel and walked back towards the drakonian princess. Dawn’s breath caught as she watched him stop mere inches from Alina, leaning in with predatory calm.
‘No,’ he said softly, dangerously. ‘Please enlighten me, Alina.’
‘You never stayed to help me,’ she spat, hot tears brimming, her voice trembling like glass about to break. ‘You only stayed because you’re too afraid to return to your army. Because you think you failed Haven. Failed your men. Because when you close your eyes, the only voice you hear is one calling you a failure.’ Her cheeks flamed crimson with fury and grief alike. ‘You’re too scared to face them. So you hide here, telling yourself you’re doing your duty, pretending this will somehow save your people!’
Dawn’s heart splintered at the sight of Kai’s face as itcrumpled, the weight of every unspoken grief pressing down upon him. She stepped forward, instinctively reaching, aching to smooth away the torment etched into his dark eyes. But before her hand could bridge the space between them, he gave a single, broken nod, his attention returning to Alina.
‘You’re right,’ he whispered, his voice raw and hollow, his hands curling into fists as though clinging to the edges of his resolve. ‘I am afraid to return to my army. I am a failure. My sister is dead because of me. My kingdom lies broken, because of me. My army is trapped behind a wall, because of me.’ His head bowed, shoulders taut with shame, as though the words themselves were chains shackling him to the ground.
Alina faltered, her fury dimming for the briefest of moments. A tremor passed through her as she reached out, her hand hesitating in mid-air, regret flickering across her face like a candle guttering in the wind. She had not expected such naked sorrow, nor how deeply her words might cut.
‘Kai, I…’ she began softly.
‘But you,’ he said, his voice low, his pain tempered into steel, ‘you care only for revenge. You’ve blinded yourself to everything else. I told you your brother still lives, and you barely flinched. You haven’t asked after him not once. You don’t care, do you? All you crave is vengeance, and you’ll sacrifice anyone, hurt anyone, to get it.’
‘That’s not—’
‘Tell me I’m wrong.’
Alina’s brown eyes hardened, her face twisting with fury as raw as her grief. ‘You don’t know what it’s like!’ she snarled. ‘Hagan took everything from me! I will never breathe the same until his head rots on a spike.’ Her eyes blazed like molten amber as she spat the words. ‘So make your choice, Kai Blackburn. Help me kill him or get out of my way.’
Kai held her glare for a long, silent moment, something unreadable shining behind his eyes. Then, wordlessly, he turned and walked away, his back stiff with finality.
Dawn followed in silence, her chest aching as she resisted the urge to look back. For she knew, even without seeing it, that Alina’s face had broken, cracked by a sorrow she had not thought herself capable of feeling, as though she had never truly believed he would leave her behind.
Dawn’s hand shot out, fingers curling around Kai’s arm, halting his stride.
‘What?’ he barked, but the sharpness dulled the moment he realised it was her. His voice softened, almost apologetic. ‘Sorry.’
‘We can’t leave them.’
‘We are leaving. We’ll find another way.’
‘Kai…’ Her grip tightened, nails pressing through the fabric of his sleeve as if to anchor him. ‘We don’t have a choice. We need those dragons. And, if we’re honest… if Mareena can forge weapons infused with magic to counter Hagan’s bloodcraft…’
‘You can’t be serious.’
‘I think it’s the only choice we have left.’
‘Dawn.’ His hands rose to her face, cradling her cheeks with a tenderness that stilled her breath. Such intimacy, so unguarded, it almost hurt. ‘They’ll need more blood to make more weapons… Do you see any other witches here? They’ll take it from you.’
‘Then let them.’ Her dark fingers slid over his pale ones, holding them there. ‘If it means stopping Hagan, I’ll sacrifice myself.’
‘But I won’t.’
Her heart fractured, a quiet splintering deep in her chest. Because she knew, knew with a brutal certainty, that when Kaidiscovered her deceit, there would be no forgiveness. He would never look at her like this again, as though she were something fragile yet fierce, something he wanted to hold. And gods, how she longed for him to keep looking at her like this, again and again, until the end of her days.
But revenge had rooted itself deeper than longing, curling dark tendrils around her soul. She would see it through, no matter the cost.
