1
Nox
SIX WEEKS PREVIOUSLY
Iloved the color yellow. A golden yellow, like the kind that beamed over the Sea of Scarab in the sunrise, or freshly baked sourdough glistening on Mother’s hearthstone.
My third-in-command of our secret rebellion, Tessa, once bought me a pair of golden leathers. She swore it would make my tan skin positivelyglow—her words, not mine.
But I could never wear yellow. It showed blood far too easily. That was why I always wore black.
I wiped the blade on the side of my pants, clearing the viscous red away until the tip was gleaming again. The heavy body fell at my feet. It sent up a plume of dust from the rocky cliffside, and several pebbles went flying down the steep drop-off in the Guardian Range. Despite the sun hanging high in the sky, the cold winter wind still chilled my skin.
The scent of fear, sour and pungent to my Shifter senses, wafted around me. “What do you want?” the man before me asked, his voice shaking as he held an arm out to block another man and woman behind him. They all wore the telltale light blue of Emberfell, but their clothes were dirty and torn, with rusty daggers strapped on by cracked sheaths. “Why are you doing this?”
I sighed. Why was I doinganyof this?
The answer was always the same.
“You know why,” I responded. I barely recognized my own voice. “You made him angry.”
The man didn’t even look surprised, only resigned. “So he sent you.”
My jaw twitched. “I don’t want to do this, but you brought this on yourselves. You openly planned a siege against him. You know that kind of attack can’t go without consequences.”
His eyes flitted to the dead body at my feet, then met my stare. Sparks of light shone around his pupils, a sign of his type of magic—a Lightbender. “Is—is there nothing else we can do?”
I gripped the handle of my blade tighter. This was always the hardest part, no matter how many times I did it.
“No. There’s no other way.”
“Alright,Kieran. If I die, I hope you know it’s your fault.”
“Duly noted. However, I think it’s possible you’re being abitdramatic.”
“We’ll see who’s dramatic when you’re stuffing my dead body in the ground.”
“I believe that would still be you, Tessa.”
The sounds of my second and third-in-command bickering in the workshop tugged the edges of my tired lips upward.
“And why, do tell, are you dying today, Tessa?” I asked as I trudged into the dimly lit room. I unlatched my cloak and threw it across the back of a dark gray couch where Kieran, my second, sat with one leg propped on his knee.
“Because I agreed to take Kieran’s morning patrol shift for the next week,” my third said with a sigh. Tessa was perched on top of my desk to the right, twisting the end of one of her long black braids around a finger. “You know I’m more of a night person.”
“Well, we all know Kieran’s not an any-time-of-day person. You’ll be doing everyone in the Keep a favor.” I tapped her nosebefore nudging her off my desk. “Imagine how much more the refugees will appreciate waking up to your beautiful face.”
She shoved my elbow. “Your flattery doesn’t work on me, Noxy boy.”
Kieran piped up behind me, his deep, measured voice always threaded with calm authority. “And I find myself offended by your insinuation.”
I twisted to give my second a quick wink. “You have a beautiful face too, Kieran.”
“Thank you.” He rose from the couch and buttoned the middle button on his black suit jacket. The man wasalwaysin a suit. Even when it was just the three of us meeting in the private workshop of my seaside manor, the Keep.
But I couldn’t blame him—if I looked that good in a suit, I’d never take it off either.
Everything about Kieran Blackwell was put-together, from his slick dark brown hair, to his chiseled, tan jaw, to the perfectly tailored suit and shined shoes. Even his Shifter form, a white stag, spoke of elegance. The complete opposite to my third-in-command, Tessa Briar. Her long black locks reached down her back, often fashioned in thin braids like how she wore it today. Silver bracelets adorned her arms up to her elbows. Her deep brown eyes were full of mischief and mayhem, along with the ferocity of her jaguar Shifter form.
