“She’s mad,” Viktor said again.
The words hit flat and final, hard as stone.
Gabriel’s fist slammed into his pillow, the muffled crack too loud for the small room. His jaw flexed, shoulders rigid. For a heartbeat it looked as if he might break something—or himself.
Then his voice snapped, clipped and commanding.
“Go to bed.”
“But Gabriel—”
“I’m the only officer here commissioned by Storne,” he cut in, each word a lash. “I order you—go to bed.”
Defiance burned in Viktor’s chest, but Gabriel had already rolled to his side, back turned. His silence was heavier than any reprimand.
Viktor lay rigid in the dark. Sleep wouldn’t come.
Not with her breath still burning on his lips.
Not with her men marching toward a queen gone mad.
Not with the truth of the dragons crawling through his head.
The night stretched long, filled with silence and dread.
Tomorrow loomed, sharp as the word Gabriel wouldn’t say.
Vykenraven.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Bound by Fire, Bound by Fate
A princess in hiding. Three Ruakites at her side.
The realm had no idea what was coming.
Light caught him after only a few hours’ sleep—dust and gold through the shutters, too bright for a man who’d closed his eyes just before dawn.
Gabriel was already up, boots laced, that familiar grin back on his face as if the night had left no mark at all.
“You missed it,” he said, dragging a hand through his sand-brown hair. “One of the best sunrises I’ve ever seen.”
Viktor rubbed at his brow, blinking. “Glad you enjoyed it.”
Gabriel leaned against the bedpost, arms folded.
“About last night.” His tone softened—serious for a breath. “I shouldn’t have pulled rank on you. But I needed you to stop before you broke yourself on it.”
Viktor studied him—the ease back in his voice, the quicksilver calm that always came after Gabriel’s storms. He gave a short nod.
Gabriel tossed something across the room.
“Here,” he said. “Best look sharp tonight.”
A razor flashed in the morning light.
“Zeporah will decide what costumes we wear, but no reason to look like you just fought a sandstorm.”
