His gaze slid to Amerei, the sternness softening with memory. She held still beneath it, but her hands had gone quiet in her lap.
“And a heart divided cannot stand in a place like this.”
He stayed with the memory a moment longer. Then he looked to the men. “So tell me—what, if anything, could tear you from this cause?”
Gabriel’s grin faded. He leaned forward, elbows braced on his knees.
“I’m not going back to Vykenra,” he said—no room for argument.
He dragged a hand to the back of his neck.
“My father believed in Queen Cassandra… and in you, Amerei.”
His eyes lifted to hers.
“So do I.”
She met his gaze, as though she felt the cost behind it.
Evander shifted on his rock, his voice rough.
“I don’t want to live in a tent forever.”
Storne studied him.
“Is that all? You stand too close to Amerei for half an answer. We must be able to trust you.”
Evander’s gaze fell, quieter now.
“You’re all the family I have, Commander.”
Storne laid a hand on Amerei’s. No words—just a glance, a quiet command. She rose without protest and crossed to the boulder, lowering herself beside Evander. His shoulders eased, only a fraction, as if her nearness steadied him.
The rush of the falls pressed in, loud in the silence that followed. Viktor stayed quiet, eyes fixed on the stone beneath his boots, the weight in his chest pressing heavier by the second.
Storne caught it.
“What is it, Viktor?”
He forced the words out.
“If my father’s condition worsens, I’d want to go home to Westport. He’s all I have left now… since my brother—my twin—died.”
Amerei’s whisper carried across the pool.
“I’m so sorry, Viktor.”
He only nodded.
“Good that you spoke it,” Storne said, tone clipped but not unkind. “Zeporah will sense what you hold back. She will press until it breaks. Better it surface here than in her grasp.”
His gaze moved around the circle.
“There’s little else I can do to prepare you.”
His expression hardened, as if reliving memories of everything he would warn.
“Tonight, you risk more than battle,” he said. “Zeporah will claw at your mind, twist your memories, feed you visions meant to undo you.”
