My breath hitched. Relief bloomed brightly through my heart.
I will rise again, Ashlyn,she said.And when I do, things will be different.
Then I’ll just fall in love with you all over again,I thought, smiling through the sting in my eyes.
Of course. I am magnificent.
And with her presence coiled around my soul like a lullaby, I drifted into sleep with a smile softening my lips.
* * *
We rose and got ready the next morning, heading for the dining hall immediately. We were all seated and inhaling our food before I glanced around, feeling a shift in the air.
Breakfast was louder now.
Our squad, once barely enough to fill a corner, now claimed an entire table. Plates clinked, laughter mingled with curses, and the scent of spiced eggs and roasted root filled the air. It was chaos, yes—but it wasours.
I liked it. The camaraderie. The way Tae elbowed Jax for more jam, or how Naia swatted Cordelle’s hand away when he tried to steal her last slice of honeybread. Even the Lowborn Squad had eased into the rhythm, Kaila’s legs swung casually off the bench as she taught Ferrula a new card game between bites, her red curls bobbing with every animated word. Riven and Camus traded dry commentary, as usual. It felt like a family. A sharp-edged, weapon-wielding, deeply sarcastic family.
But the moment Stormforge entered, the warmth thinned like smoke before a coming blaze.
They filed in like they owned the air—armor polished, expressions impassive. Their leader, Lirane Rowna, stood tall and broad at the head of her group, flanked by one of her lieutenants, a severe woman named Aylen who never blinked long enough to be trusted. They grabbed their food and took a seat at one of the open tables.
Iron Fang followed a beat later, just as shrewd but twice as loud.
“We’re eating now.” One of the Iron Fang riders sneered as he passed Stormforge’s table. “Didn’t realize treason worked up such an appetite.”
Stormforge rose from their bench almost in unison, chairs scraping across stone with a sharp screech. Aylen’s lips curled into a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “Coming from the squad that harbored Crimson Sigil loyalists in their ranks? That’s brave.”
“Better traitors than cowards,” growled Perin from Iron Fang’s end of the table. “At least we don’t play lapdog to Dorian.”
A loudthudcut through the growing clamor—Lirane, the Stormforge leader, slammed her hand down on the table. “Watch your tongue,” she warned, her voice raspy and dangerous. “I won’t be accused by someone who couldn’t protect their own from infiltration.”
Chairs scraped again.
Lowborn Squad had gone tense, eyes tracking every shift.
Cade stood from a nearby table, as if ready to step between the two factions. “That’s enough,” he said, voice like stone on steel. “We’re supposed to be on the same side.”
“Tell that to the ones who keep picking the wrong side,” Perin muttered darkly.
Tae leaned closer to me, whispering, “So... anyone else feel like we’re one spoiled egg away from a full-blown civil war at breakfast?”
I didn’t answer.
Because he wasn’t wrong.
Lines were being drawn, whether we liked it or not. Squads were choosing who to stand behind—Theron or Dorian, honor or ambition, truth or survival.
And the worst part?
The war hadn’t even started yet.
The rest of breakfast passed in strained silence.
Our squad kept to ourselves, low conversation threading through mouthfuls of eggs and charred meat, but the tension at the far end of the table was palpable—so thick it felt like it settled in the back of your throat. Stormforge and Iron Fang hadn’t said another word, but their glares did more damage than blades ever could. Aylen watched Perin like a predator cataloging weaknesses, and he didn’t bother hiding the disgust curling his lip every time he looked her way.
No one dared speak of it, but we all felt it, the crack forming beneath the guild’s foundation, splintering further with every breakfast, every mission, every lie unspoken.
