His hair is bronzed. His right arm is covered in fine, bronze scales the same burnished shade as his eyes. His clothing conceals the full extent of his scales now, but I’ve seen the way they extend across his right shoulder and up the side of his neck, as well as down his right side under his arm, stopping only above his waist.
The civilized tunic and pants the fae gave him to wear do nothing to diminish the raw brutality I sense in him. Rather, the tunic stretches tightly around his biceps and the expanse of his chest, sitting snuggly at the edges of his shoulders.
I expected him to focus entirely on Asha, but instead, his focus flickers to me, as if he can hear the hitch in my heartbeat and sense the fear in my blood.
His scaled hand feathers my arm, his forehead gently puckered, a look of concern on his face.
His touch would be comforting if I hadn’t seen through his lies.
Since he first arrived in the ashen wasteland outside the human city, he has masqueraded as a human who fell victim to Milena Ironmeld—Malak’s only sister.
Thaden told us that Milena killed a dragon and used its spirit to change him, giving him the scales, bronzed hair, and physical strength he now has.
He delivered the Vandawolf a message, supposedly from Milena, warning the Vandawolf that she was coming to claim her city.Shesupposedly calls the citySvikari Traidor: Home of Traitors.
But Thaden’s story was far from the truth—a truth I’ve been uncovering and piecing together, fitting the information I’ve gleaned from Thaden himself with what I already knew from the humans with whom I interacted within the city over the course of my life.
Tiny pieces that all come together to form one inescapable conclusion: Thaden Kane is a Blacksmith.
Worse, he’s Malak’s own son.
I don’t pull away from him.
Rather, I lean in to his touch.
I need him to trust me. By the bright saints, I can’t reveal that I know his secret.
Up ahead, Gallium pulls away from Asha. They’re standing only ten paces away from us, their interaction clearly visible to me.
Gallium’s features are tense again. “The Vandawolf also told me you plan on leaving us behind.”
I wasn’t part of Gallium’s conversation with the Vandawolf just before, so I’m not sure if by ‘us’ Gallium means just him and me or—hopefully—Thaden too.
“Yes.” Asha’s lips press together, a sign of her determination. “I’m even more certain about it now that I’m aware the humans have dragons.”
Gallium nods. “Gliss filled us in. Which is why I don’t agree with your decision. You’ll need all the help you can get.”
Gliss is one of the fae who brought Asha to the castle. Her sister, Elowynn, is the Queen’s Champion.
The fae are at war with the humans who live in the west, a conflict that I thought the fae should surely have won by now, given the strength of their elemental magic.
But the humans have powerful allies. They have dragons.
Over the last two days, I’ve heard the fae whisper fearfully about the might of the dragons, especially the fire dragons, and the devastation that they can cause.
Asha’s shoulders slump at Gallium’s assertion that she needs our help, but she lifts the tarnished strands of her hair, allowing them to rest across her left palm. “Humans did this to me, Gallium. They’re resourceful and cunning. They could do far worse with the help of dragons. Far, far worse with Milena’s assistance.”
She’s talking about the humans back in the Cursed Wasteland. Those humans are not part of the war in the north between the Fae Queen and the human Queen, whose name I’ve yet to hear.
In fact, the humans in the Cursed Wasteland are cut off from the rest of the world, living in their walled city in the south.
But if those humans, as isolated as they are, managed to inflict such harm on Asha, then I shudder to think what the humans in the west could do with the support of both the dragons and Milena Ironmeld.
Still, I hide my fear for Asha when her focus flickers to Thaden and me, ensuring that my features are stony because that’s how I need to appear.
I brace myself for the moment when I can strike…
“Judging by what Milena did to Thaden,” Asha continues, her focus pausing on him, “she’s a Blacksmith with a heart like Malak’s?—”
