Still nothing.
I stepped forward, furyfire sparking beneath my skin. “That’s a command,” I said, my voice sharper than steel.
The shadows froze mid-motion then recoiled like wounded things, ripping back into the dark around his boots.
The two Withered collapsed, gasping, coughing up black smoke. They were alive, barely.
The silence that followed was absolute.
Rydian turned away first, his face unreadable. The air still trembled with leftover magic.
I knelt beside the men. “You’re all right,” I said, though I wasn’t sure I believed it.
Brist looked up at me with eyes that burned—not with gratitude but resentment. “You order him around like a trained hound. Is that supposed to make us feel safer?”
“Safer than you deserve,” Rydian muttered.
“Rydian,” I said again, lower this time.
He said nothing, only stared into the dark, his shadows curling restlessly.
Eirnan helped the men to their feet, but his expression was tense. “Get to the back of the line, and stay there.”
They staggered off without another word, their glares lingering on me before they disappeared down the tunnel.
When they were gone, I exhaled slowly. Keres, Slade, Daegel, and Thorne stood nearby. Not a single one of them had moved to stop what had happened.
“What in the gods’ names was that?” I hissed.
“They threatened you,” Rydian said flatly.
“They spoke out of fear,” I said. “That’s not the same as drawing steel.”
“They would have. Eventually.”
I stared at him. “You don’t get to decide that.”
His jaw flexed. “I won’t stand by while someone plots against you.”
“I’m not asking you to stand by,” I said. “But Iamasking you to trust me to fight my own battles.”
His gaze met mine then, sharp and unyielding.
Finally, he turned away, muttering something to Daegel about scouting the next passage. Shadows trailed after him like the tail of a storm.
The rest of us stood there in uneasy quiet.
Keres sheathed her daggers with a faint metallic sigh. “He’s not wrong,” she said. “But he’s not right either.”
I lookedat her. “Meaning?”
“Meaning people like them will always look for someone to blame when they’re scared. If it isn’t you, it’ll be him. Or me. The trick is to make sure they stay more afraid of the enemy outside than the one beside them.”
I frowned. “That’s not exactly the kind of leadership I was going for.”
She shrugged. “It’s the kind that works.”
Eirnan cleared his throat. “We should move,” he said. “If my memory serves, we’re not far from the exit now.”
