“She’s not abandoning anything.” Rurik steps forward, putting himself between me and his brother. “She’s refusing to let an innocent woman die because asking for help makes her a target.”
“An innocent woman who’s already?—“
“Enough.” Drayke’s command cuts through the argument. His amber gaze sweeps the room, settles on me. “Aisling. If we do this—and I’m not saying we will—what’s your assessment of Valdris’s position?”
The question catches me off guard. He’s asking for my tactical input. Treating me like a strategist rather than a victim.
I force my mind to work. To think past the image of Niamh’s broken face.
“She’s not fully free yet. The vision showed the same chamber where she held me—volcanic rock, chains, the Relic energy pulsing through everything. She’s still bound to that mountain. Still limited in how far she can project her power.”
“So she needs you to come to her.” Auren’s tone has shifted. Less dismissive. More calculating. “She can’t hunt you across territories, so she’s creating incentive.”
“Which means she’s desperate.” I meet his gaze. “She lost Veylor. Lost most of her rogue forces. The Brotherhood is stronger than she anticipated, and the longer she stays trapped, the more time we have to prepare. She’s forcing our hand because waiting favors us, not her.”
Silence. Then Auren’s mouth curves into something that might be approval.
“Tactical assessment exceeds expectations.”
“High praise,” Rurik mutters. “Can we focus on the actual problem?”
“The problem is that she’s right.” Drayke studies the maps spread across the table. “Valdris is operating from weakness, not strength. If we hit her now—hard, fast, before she can rebuild—we might end this.”
“Or we might walk into a slaughter.” Zyphon’s shadows pulse with agitation. “She’s had weeks to prepare that mountain. Traps. Wards. Creatures we haven’t even seen yet.”
“Then we don’t walk in blind.” I step forward, past Rurik’s protective stance, until I’m standing at the table beside Drayke. “I’ve been inside that mountain. I know the layout—the blood channels, the prisoner cells, the path to her chamber. And she doesn’t know that I’ve been training. Doesn’t know what I can do now.”
“You’re suggesting we use that.” Drayke’s voice is neutral, but I catch the glint of interest in his eyes.
“I’m suggesting we stop letting her control the narrative. She expects me to come running, desperate and alone. She doesn’t expect the full Brotherhood at my back.” I tap the map where Valdris’s mountain rises. “Give me a team. Let me get Niamh out while you hit her defenses. By the time she realizes I’m not the broken prisoner she remembers, it’ll be too late.”
SEVENTEEN
RURIK
She’s magnificent when she’s planning war.
I watch her debate with my brothers—this woman who woke up screaming an hour ago, who still has ash in her hair from the fire she couldn’t control—and something fierce and proud swells in my chest.
Three weeks ago, she could barely light a candle without setting the room ablaze. Now she’s standing toe to toe with Auren, discussing approach vectors and ward-breaking sequences, and holding her own.
“The secondary tunnels connect to the main chamber through the blood channels.” Her finger traces a path on the map. “If Selene and I move through there while the main force draws Valdris’s attention?—“
“Absolutely not.” The words leave my mouth before I can stop them. “You’re not going anywhere near those tunnels.”
Her gaze cuts to me. Sharp. Dangerous. “Excuse me?”
“Those channels are designed to drain Fire-Bringers. Walking through them is suicide.”
“Walking through them is the only approach she won’t expect.” Aisling’s jaw sets in that stubborn line I’ve learned to dread. “She’ll have the main entrances covered. The landingplatforms. Every obvious approach. But the blood channels? She thinks I’m too traumatized to go near them.”
“Are you?”
The question hangs between us. Her eyes flicker—just for a second—with something that might be fear.
“Yes.” The admission costs her. I can see it in the way her shoulders tighten, the way her hands curl into fists at her sides. “But I’m going anyway. Because my cousin is in there. Because this is my fight. And because—“ She steps closer, voice dropping. “—I’m not the woman who got dragged out of those tunnels three weeks ago. And it’s time Valdris learned that.”
Fuck.My dragon roars approval even as my human mind catalogs every way this plan could go wrong. She’s ours. She’s fierce. She’s going to get herself killed.
