The older orc at the front of the line snarled softly, his gaze narrowing as Gideon approached.
“You,” he rumbled. “Shadow-walker.”
Gideon inclined his head slightly, a gesture that wasn’t respect but acknowledgment. “I’ve been called worse.”
Keegan shifted beside me, and his eyes never left Gideon.
“She uses moments,” Gideon continued, his voice carrying easily without magic. “Fragile ones. She waits until everyone is just beginning to listen—then she breaks something important and lets fear finish the job.”
Keegan’s gaze stayed on Gideon’s, and for the first time ever, it wasn’t filled with hatred, but with something more complicated, possibly reluctant admiration.
Gideon stopped several paces from the fallen orc leader, his gaze flicking briefly to the body on the ground before returning to the older orc.
“If you believe this witch did that,” he said, gesturing loosely in my direction, “then you don’t understand how the Priestess works.”
A murmur rippled through the orc ranks.
My throat tightened painfully.
Nova moved then, seizing the opening with the precision of someone who’d lived her entire life reading moments like these. She rushed forward, staff in hand, dropping to her knees beside the fallen orc leader without hesitation. Her hands glowed softly as she assessed him, her expression focused, urgent.
“He’s alive,” she called out. “Barely.”
That word—alive—sent a visible shock through the orc line.
I stumbled forward a step, my knees threatening to give out. Relief hit me so hard I nearly sobbed.
The older orc hesitated and nodded once, allowing Nova space.
“Help him,” he said gruffly.
Gideon watched her work, his jaw tightening.
“That blast wasn’t meant to kill,” he said quietly. “It was meant to provoke.”
Gideon’s gaze flicked toward me, and for the briefest moment, the cocky edge I’d come to expect wasn’t there. What I saw instead was something rawer.
Concern.
Regret.
Resolve.
The older orc took a heavy step forward, his gaze moving between Gideon, Nova, and me. “If this is her doing,” he said, “then why should we trust any of you?”
“Because,” Gideon said calmly, “if she wanted you dead, you would be.”
A harsh truth. An effective one.
“She wants you angry,” he continued. “She wants you marching. She wants you to break the balance so she can step in and ‘restore’ it on her terms.”
The orc’s grip tightened on his weapon, but he didn’t raise it again.
“And you,” he said slowly. “What do you want, Shadow-walker?”
Gideon didn’t answer immediately. He glanced at me, then at Keegan, then at the Hollows themselves.
“I want her stopped,” he said. “And right now, that means you listening instead of charging.”
