Do you think they suspect us?I asked.
No,Zander responded.The major will ask his dragon before accusing a rider. Especially after what happened with us. But this investigation... it’ll involve everyone else. Every guild but ours.
I felt my stomach turn.
“The dragons have cleared all riders of wrongdoing,” Major Kaler continued, confirming Zander’s suspicion. “But we have three other guilds. And they are all under investigation.”
A silence settled over the hall, thicker than fog.
“Fuck,” Tae muttered at my side. “This could fracture the guilds worse than they already are. We barely work together now.”
And he was right. We were already walking the edge of something dangerous, teetering on a knife between trust and rebellion.
Now that knife was twisting.
Major Kaler’s heavy boots echoed through the suddenly quiet hall as he crossed the floor toward our table. Conversations halted, heads turned, and I felt every gaze shift to me before he even spoke.
“Cadet Rebec,” he said, his voice firm, “may I have a word?”
I nodded and rose from my seat. Behind me, I felt my squad shift like a pack sensing tension, but I offered them the barest shake of my head before following him a few paces from the others.
“How can I help you?” I asked.
“The assassin,” he said slowly, “is assumed to have been commissioned by your father.”
I didn’t flinch. “He wasn’t.”
Kaler’s eyes narrowed. “How can you be so sure?”
“Because my father told me himself. He won’t move against the crown right now, not with the Crimson Sigil and the Varnari forming some kind of truce. There’s too much instability. This wasn’t the Order.”
He blinked once, but it was the kind of blink people did when something hit harder than expected. His mouth opened slightly, then closed again. Finally, he asked, “The Sigil and the Varnari have a truce?”
“Yes,” I confirmed. “We learned that when we were… visiting my father.”
His jaw tightened, and his head turned slightly, like he’d just tasted something foul. The soft overhead light caught on his bald head, a glimmer of steel over pale skin.
“Thank you for your honesty,” he said after a long moment. “I hope we can call on you if we need… information from your father.”
I met his gaze, steady and unflinching. “I’ll tell you the same thing I told him. I won’t spy for either of you. But I am willing to relay messages.”
He gave a stiff nod, then turned on his heel without another word and strode from the dining hall, leaving a trail of speculation and silence in his wake.
Zander’s voice slipped into my mind like a whisper behind my thoughts.What did he want?
He thought the assassin was sent by my father,I answered, keeping my expression neutral for the sake of the eyes still watching.But Cyran won’t move against the crown right now. He made that pretty clear.
He looked mad when he left,Zander noted, and I could feel the edge of his irritation mirroring my own.
I told him the Varnari and Crimson Sigil have a truce. He didn’t seem to like that.
No, he didn’t.There was a pause, the kind of silence where thoughts spun too quickly to land.Have we considered that the Blood Fae created one of the sects to oppose the crown, and then created a truce with the other?
I tensed.Yes,I admitted.I just wish I knew which one they’re aligned with.
Yeah,he murmured,nothing like having three enemies instead of one.
A bitter laugh echoed between us. I glanced toward the far end of the dining hall, where Theron’s chosen loyalists whispered behind their cups like they weren’t standing on fractured ground.
