I turned just in time to see her dart around the arc of an axe, the weapon too heavy to be quick but close enough to shear her hair as it passed. Rage went cold and precise in my veins. I carved a path toward her. Each kill was a step—throat, spine, knee—until the axeman dropped with my dagger buried between his shoulders. Her eyes met mine for a heartbeat. Bright. Defiant.
I almost told her to get below deck again.
She was already turning, already moving, wild and unyielding as she faced the next attacker.
The Marrow sighed beneath us as more Covenant poured over the rails, their numbers relentless. Garen’s roar cut through the din, barking orders as he drove his shoulder into a shield wall—but even he was being forced back, boots sliding in blood.
The deck was becoming a slaughterhouse. And the Covenant ships weren’t done coming.
Breaking through the dark—the largest Covenant warship, a pirate vessel built for both worship and war, it's figurehead a carved wolf glinting gold in the moonlight. Midnight blue sails snapped above it, marked with the Covenant’s sigil, and iron cannons lined her sides like bared teeth.
And standing at the bow was a man I hadn’t seen in years.
Veyrion.
He stood at the prow of the Covenant’s lead ship, the same way he’d always stood in a fight—like the outcome had already been decided, and he was just waiting for the rest of us to catch up. His hair, pale gold and bound in a tight warrior’s braid, was streaked with blood that didn’t look like his.
His eyes hadn’t changed—cold, ruthless, and the same shade of winter ice that could kill a man faster than steel. Black paint curled across his temple and down his cheek, cutting through the scars that mapped the rest of his face. His hands, calloused and scarred, gripped the haft of a bearded axe.
A wolf padded at his side, big as a damn pony, silver fur bristling, eyes locked on me.
Veyrion moved first. Always did.
Once, he had been my brother in all but blood. Now, he was the blade aimed at my throat.
He vaulted the rail, the bearded axe whistling past my ear in a blur of steel and wolf-hide. I caught his shoulder with mine, drove him back a step, but he twisted, slammed the haft into my ribs hard enough to rattle my bones.
"Still breathing, Dreyses?" His voice was colder than the steel between us, but his eyes—ice-blue and unblinking—searched my face like he was looking for the man he used to know.
"Disappointed?"
He shrugged, unbothered.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Nerina—too close, cutting down Covenant warriors with that dagger like she’d been born with it in her hand. My gut tightened.
A shadow loomed behind her—a Covenant shield-bearer swinging a war pick.
“Behind you!” I roared, but Veyrion was already pressing in on me, axe and sword in a deadly rhythm. The wolf circled low, teeth flashing in the chaos.
We clashed—steel on steel, the shock shuddering up my arms. Every strike was meant to break bone. I gave him the same. Blood slicked the deck between us, boot soles slipping, the air thick with the stench of sweat, salt, and spilled guts.
Veyrion’s axe came within a hair of splitting my skull, the weight of it rattling my bones even as I caught the haft with my blade.He was stronger—always had been—and the muscles in my arms screamed as I shoved back.
"Still slower than me," he taunted, leaning in. Veyrion’s gaze slid past me—just once.
Not with surprise. Not with hunger. With recognition.
I opened my mouth to spit back—then felt the air shift.
A flash of silver and violet streaked past my shoulder. Nerina. Barefoot, wild-eyed, moving faster than the chaos around her. Before I could stop her, she was on Veyrion’s back, arms hooking around his neck, nails raking for his eyes.
His snarl was more beast than man, the wolf at his side snapping in fury. He staggered under her weight, trying to tear her free.
"Get off him!" I roared—not for Veyrion’s sake, but hers. She never listened. Saints damn her, she never listened.
She bared her teeth, voice rising above the din. "You think I’m just going to watch him kill you?"
Veyrion’s hands finally found her, wrenching her from his back like she weighed nothing. Her head snapped forward as he flung her across the deck—she hit the planks with a cry that cut through every other sound.
